Once we got controllers, Cowboyana was sweet!
Mark Essen’s [messhof.com] latest game, Cowboyana may draw you in for it’s sweet Wild West theme, but design-wise, it’s a co-op break through.
I first heard about messhof when a friend showed me flywrench on his PC. It was awesome, the game feels incredible and its minimalistic graphics and simple yet interesting controls make the game a stand-out amongst many Game Maker games. In fact, I didn’t even know Flywrench was a Game Maker game until I checked TigDB. Cowboyana is messhof’s first multiplayer game, and it really doesn’t shine until you play it as I think it was intended to be played. With controllers. So follow these directions, then we’ll talk.
- Download the game if you have a pc.
- If you don’t have a PC, maybe find a friend who has one, you’ll need someone else anyway.
- You should probably find some joysticks, you can play with the keyboard, but it’s pretty cramped
- Configure said joysticks with the enclosed application, “JoyToKey”
After playing for awhile we noticed more and more of the subtlety behind the design of Cowboyana. First off, the game is endless, and there are small victories within each “mini-game” but there is no end to their repetition. This may seem frusterating at first, but the endless gameplay is perfectly fine since the game has intrinsic value in its gameplay. For the most part there are three modes. 1 player against a slew of enemies in a variety of forms, included hay bails. Co-op train robbing with both cowboys, in an effort to get to the front of the train and mount a getaway horse. And finally, the richest part of the experience, the 1on1 duel. This is prefaced with a whisky pouring mini game that actually effects the ensuing duel [which is optional].
The duel is perhaps the most interesting element, because of the co-op/head-to-head mish mash of gameplay. To pour the whisky into two shot glass you have to cooperate with your partner. One player controls the horizontal position of the bottle, while another controls its rotation. Whisky pours out dynamically when the bottle is past horizontal. This seems kind of pointless at first, but when we started to realize that the more shots we poured for each other the worse our aim was, then things got more… strategic. Also, since duels are optional, it always catches someone off guard, so timing is an issue. Since the duels are no longer than 30 seconds, this trickles into other parts of the game such as the train-heist. Finally, there is the issue of the shotgun. There can only be one. So whoever has the shotgun, is “it,” and it’s up to them to defend it with offense, or be the gracious winner, etc.
Besides the sweet duels, the game itself does some interesting things with reloading. Instead of just clicking a button to reload the 8-shooter pistol [or shotgun] you hold the button while rotating the analog stick. This works really well and corresponds to the gun twirling animation on the character. Awesome idea, and it feels great on the controller. All-in-all the game is pretty awesome, and while it does get a bit old after awhile, that’s to be expected with a game like this. I really appreciate this game for its humor, no-nonsense fun, and great co-op innovations.
Play it.