Overview
Gun.Smoke is a top-down, arcade-style shooter by Capcom, set in the Wild West. The player controls infamous bounty hunter Billy Bob, whose weapons of choice for taking down outlaws are his trusty revolvers. Tasked with hunting down the ten most dangerous outlaws in the West, Billy Bob sets forth to clear ten stages of enemies, with an outlaw serving as the boss of each stage. The game is seemingly inspired by the long-running TV show Gunsmoke, but is not an official adaptation.
Gun.Smoke was developed by Capcom, originally for arcades in 1985, and since playable in various Capcom collections as well as more direct ports for home platforms. The game was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who was previously a Konami employee. Gun.Smoke is well-known for its striking resemblance to Commando, another popular vertically-scrolling shooter by Capcom which has many similarities to Gun.Smoke, but is not formally related to it.
Although Gun.Smoke has been re-released in various Capcom collections yet to see a modern-day revival. The Red Dead franchise originated as a spiritual successor to Gun.Smoke, but was later purchased from Capcom and became a much different project under Rockstar.
Versions
The version released for the Nintendo Entertainment System has several unique differences from the original game. Among these: the game is shorter due to the removal of four bosses, several bosses are renamed and redesigned, new weapon types are available, and there is even some semblance of a storyline. None of these differences were carried forward into modern re-releases of the game.
The Famicom Disk System release was based on the NES version with a few minor differences, most notably to the soundtrack.
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