"Lone Ranger > Zorro"

The Lone Ranger has come a long way since it first premiered on the radio. This game was released by Konami in 1991, and sadly, was never played by many. Which is too bad because this is probably the best Lone Ranger game ever.

You are, of course, the Lone Ranger, and you are teamed up with Silver and Tonto. You have to go through eight levels to ultimately defeat Butch Cavendish, who killed your father and the Texas Rangers. Along the way you will face obstacles (making friends with Native American Tribes, digging up buried treasure, finding your horse Silver, etc etc. It all adds up to a great game.

Graphics: 9

The Lone Ranger is very well drawn and you can easily tell who everybody is, plus even Tonto is recognizable through the NES graphics. the backgrounds are in range from ordinary to some of the boss levels look very nice. Plus there are the battles, such as the overhead gun battles, to the horse jousts, etc etc. Even the enemies are realistic. From the outlaws in El Paso, to the Indians shooting you with arrows, you can tell the difference between Lone Ranger and the enemies, which is always a good thing. Overall the graphics were probably consider phenomenal in the early 1990s.

Sound / Audio: 7

You have the catchy background music, but its not anything that will get stuck in your head though, but not only does it get the job done but it does not annoy you like some background music does. The sound effects include horses trotting, knives being throw at you (DUCK!), and little things like that. There is also a little talking from the Lone Ranger.

Gameplay: 8

In each of the eight regions in the game, there is one objective you have to do before you can advance to the next level, such as digging up buried treasure, rescuing Silver, making friends with the Native American tribes, and things like that. There are also people you have to find to give you vital information to get through the levels. My only complaint is that when you die, you have to start everything over. So if you died right when you are about the complete the level, boom, you have to start over.

Challenge: 9

There is a big challenge if you want to completely beat this game. You will have to talk to people in a certain order, and you may have to talk to people more than once, to get them to reveal vital information to beat the level. This can slow you down and have you banging your head. But at least you get a password so you can continue if you mess up and accidentally tear up your NES. The actual fights themselves are not hard once you get the gist of everything, at least until you get to the end anyway.

Replayability: 5

This is not one of those games that you will want to play over and over again. Once you beat it, there is not much else to do, but the game is still tons of fun to play every once in a while.

Buy or Rent?:

Since it is tough to find a NES game for rent, head onto eBay, and look for this game on there. You are bound to find a copy. This game is a definite buy, one of the excellent games that nobody plays. It is a shame...

Overall: 7.6 rounded up to 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/03, Updated 07/14/03