Billy the Kid Returns!

The Good
Graphically the game is decent with a good variety of enemies from episode to episode be it buffaloes, bandits, cavalry or mice. The levels are dotted with many objects to keep them interesting and to capture the look of the locations that are portrayed, especially the desert. Some of the music tracks are based on well-known American tunes such as "Do your ears hang low?" and the famous US army fanfare. The camera centres on the player character okay, so that the screen scrolls without been caught off guard by incoming enemies.

Gameplay kind of switches between platforming and top-down navigating from episode to episode. With a limited number of bullets, this gives the game a sort of survival element and the opportunities to shoot down enemies and collect all sorts of items for points implements an arcade-like feel. It's neat that you can use enemies like stagecoaches to take down enemies in its path to save bullets, though you sacrifice earned points. Some enemies have AI, demonstrated by dodging your bullets, making them tricky opponents. The jumping mechanic goes very easy on you since it kind of floats Billy in the air and also acts as temporary invincibility, allowing you to jump through almost any enemy without losing a life.

The Bad
The walls that break up the levels into pieces kind of spoil the atmosphere and make it look like you're boxed in. Don't get why they chose to structure the levels that way. After all the desert is a big wide open space. Just use a straight long stretch of space like games that came before. The music doesn't fare well in the full version of the game due to the strange choice of instrumentation that sounds like pops and taps. The adlib music tracks from the shareware version sounded a lot better, so what was the point of recomposing them?

While the gameplay mechanics work well for the most part, your double shot attack fires two bullets diagonally instead of straight, which makes for wasting bullets. The option to use no guns makes the game harder. Enemies can't use guns and neither can you, leaving you completely vulnerable to bombs and enemies with melee attacks. Disappointingly there are no proper bosses in the game, just regular enemies that require one or more hits.

The Bottom Line
This is an interesting adaptation of the Billy the Kid movie franchise but also alludes to some of the real life events of Henry McCarty. Gameplay is balanced in difficulty and mechanics but there's not enough to give this game replay value. Not the most solid Wild Western game, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. If you want something that gets your trigger fingers itching for action, I say go for Capcom's Gunsmoke instead. This title has its own little place in your DOS arcade collection. I do urge Billy the Kid fans and DOS gamers to play this one from start to finish.