‘Dillon’s Rolling Western’ sequel spins into the dirt
By ROBERT WORKMAN | GamerHub.tv (MCT)
DILLON’S ROLLING WESTERN
PLATFORM: Nintendo 3DS
GENRE: Action-adventure, tower defense
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
ESRB RATING: E 10+
Availability: Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo, nintendo 3ds xl, Nintendo eShop
Kudos to Nintendo for continuing to try new ideas with its games on its eShop. We’ve seen some cool stuff pumped out over the last few months, including the addictive “Pushmo” and the thoroughly entertaining “Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword,” a game that’s a fun all-ages alternative to the much bloodier Ninja Gaiden series. But perhaps the quirkiest thing we’ve seen is a tower defense-enabled action game called “Dillon’s Rolling Western,” where you control a silent yet deadly armadillo as he battles rock monsters while protecting the Scrogs, defenseless citizens who just want to live in peace.
The game has its fair amount of success, but also some control and pacing issues that we were hoping would be addressed down the road. And now that we have the sequel (yes, already) with “The Last Ranger,” we were eager to see what improvements came this time around. Well, there are some changes, but not enough to really differ from the first game’s experience.
Like before, Dillon, along with the help of his buddy Russ, find themselves once again strolling from town to town, keeping citizens safe by setting up defenses against rock monsters and eventually taking them down with his weapons and rolling techniques. From there, he can wander into the town and take on side missions, while also seeing how he fares in terms of general progress.
At first glance, “Dillon’s Rolling Western” looks more like a platformer, so it is rather cool to see it not take the usual “run around in 3D” route. On the other hand, though, the controls still don’t quite work the way we would’ve liked them to. Moving about can be a real pain at times (Dillon spends most of his time rolling), and the pacing is off. There are no real improvements over the first, it’s just the same old thing — rinse, repeat, and onto the next town.
That’s not to say the gameplay isn’t without merit, as setting up defenses has some ideal strategy to it, and some of the side missions do liven things up. But even as your weapons and tools power up, you never really feel like you’re moving forward enough. In fact, in some cases, you may feel as if you’re stumbling, especially with missions that feel like they take forever to complete. It’s like the game wants you to earn your accomplishments, but takes too long to get there. The mini-games that pop up don’t help either, as they fail to diversify “The Last Ranger” enough to hold any merit. (It doesn’t help that the game’s AI isn’t the sharpest either — even your allies that you recruit don’t hold a candle to your skills.)
Not much is changed in the presentation department either. While the music has a bit of Western charm behind it, it sounds very familiar to last year’s game. The sound effects are okay, but, again, come off as recycled. And the graphics? Well, the 3D terrain does look pretty at times, especially as you (literally) roll into town and engage with the in-game characters, who are actually quite great. But the visuals can be murky in places, and there are times when you’ll want to shoot the camera in the face, if it had a face. It works so far against you, you can’t help but think that it’s a part of the rock monster gang.
Had Nintendo taken the time to listen to its fan base and addressed the issues that held the first “Rolling Western” back — or at least added some control features to make him a greater character in terms of accessibility — then “The Last Ranger” could’ve really been something. Alas, that’s not the case, and this latest Western is likely to leave a few people feeling burned. Stick with the original, or, better yet, track down Wild Gunman on the NES. Now that’s how a Wild West game should be.
