Luckslinger

Luckslinger was reviewed on a PS4

You stare into the other cowboy’s eyes, hands locked tight on your trusty revolver’s holster, cold drops of sweat running down your neck, the music stops, you draw your gun and pull that trigger as fast as you can. The blood gushes from your challenger’s head like a fountain as he drops dead on the scorching hot floor.

Well this might be a dramatization of the duel minigame found in Luckslinger, but there’s no denying that this western themed retro nostalgic trip down memory lane is a lot of fun.

Drawing inspiration from spaghetti westerns, and a certain Tarantino film, Luckslinger offers both style and substance. The hip-hop inspired soundtrack, the eccentric boss characters, and the bizarre town of Clovercreek all give the game a western allure that’s hard to resist.

The quaint town of Clovercreek is your hub area; it has a few activities to do in between missions. After each bounty, the town will change and improve. The church that was once empty will be filled with more people. You’ll get a few fans that heard of your victories and you’ll interact with all manner of peculiar characters.

At the town’s saloon for example, you’ll be able to play poker, play a few notes on the piano, get to listen to the game’s soundtrack, and chug beer with another patron.

Get Lucky

What truly sets Luckslinger apart is its introduction of luck as a gameplay mechanic. Our titular protagonist carries with him a lucky bracelet. This lucky bracelet can be recharged by eliminating any enemies you encounter and collecting the luck they drop.

Aside from luck, the bastards that are unlucky to cross your path will also drop health and coins that you can use to buy upgrades back in Clovercreek.

When you’re at your luckiest, you’ll survive more jumps and bullets will literally swerve to avoid you. You’ll also win at gambling and at playing Russian roulette, making your life in the Wild West so much easier.

If you’ve already used up all of your luck though, the game will force you to consider your every next move as it’ll throw everything it got at you. There’ll be more enemies popping up, birds will literally drop snakes and armadillos on your path, windmills will unhinge themselves and try to fall on your head, and not to mention that the platforms you land on will collapse and drop you into the abyss.

The Fastest Gun In The West

The game is a balancing act in which you juggle between shooting and quickly reloading your revolver as you dodge your enemies’ bullets. Reloading is tricky since pressing the triangle button only chambers one bullet. You’ll dodge incoming shots by rolling, jumping and ducking out of their path.

Speaking of ducks, your flying companion, Duckbridge, will accompany you everywhere you go. Aside from occasionally stunning some of your enemies and collecting some items for you, it’ll also bring your throwing knife back to you moments after you throw it. The knife can be used in a pinch as a last minute resort, but it’s not as useful as I would have liked it to be.

Your job as Luckslinger is to hunt 6 different bounties, assigned to you by Clovercreek’s sheriff, who’s always drunk and stammering his words. Each bounty will take you through a journey through the typical Wild West locations — underground mines, coal trains and snowy mountains to name a few.

The Boss fights are the most entertaining parts of the game, but they’re also the most frustrating, you usually have to make do with the set of hearts you start with, and the bosses are ruthless. Dying a ton of times while fighting them is made worse by the unskippable cutscene that plays before every boss fight. Each time you lose and restart the fight, you’ll watch the same cutscene a thousand times before figuring out how to vanquish the boss.

There’s no better feeling though than finally defeating your targets, after countless retries. What might seem impossible at first is usually just a matter of patience and practice. And re-reading the same boss fight intro a hundred times. After you’re finally done, you have the option of bringing the body of your target back to Clovercreek, alive or dead.

Aside from the complexity of the boss’ attack patterns, the game’s difficulty lies as well in its sparse checkpoints. Luckslinger often requires you to cross a long distance of bandit-infested locations before reaching the next checkpoint.

Overall,

Luckslinger is a 2D side-scroller that tugs on your nostalgic heartstrings, but it can be off-putting for someone who’s not expecting this level of a challenge. This is an old-school game in every meaning of the word.

The rhythmic action of manually chambering each bullet while dueling with multiple foes is an absolute blast. Luckslinger is an original and innovative game that offers a great retro time if you don’t mind its difficulty.

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Special thanks go to 2Awesome Studio for providing us with a review code.

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You should play Luckslinger if you

• Enjoy the hip-hop inspired style
• Enjoy the black humor
• Don’t mind the challenging boss fights
• Love Stylish 2D Sidescrollers
• Don’t mind the sparse checkpoints
• Love a difficult experience that relies on your own skills

Luckslinger’ Score

8/10