Wild Gunman

The game from 1974 was formerly known as Gun Fight.

• Title — Wild Gunman • Developer — Nintendo R&D1 Intelligent Systems • Publisher — Nintendo Sega (Arcade) • Director — Shigeru Miyamoto • Designer — Shigeru Miyamoto Makoto Kanoh • Producer — Hiroshi Imanishi Shigeru Miyamoto Gunpei Yokoi • Composer — Hirokazu Tanaka • Platforms — NES Arcade • Genre — Light gun shooter • Modes — Single-player • Arcade System — PlayChoice-10

Wild Gunman is one of Nintendo's electro-mechanical (EM) arcade games created by Gunpei Yokoi and released in 1974. It consists of a light gun connected to a 16 mm projection screen. Full-motion video footage of an American Wild West gunslinger is projected onto the screen. When this enemy character's eyes flash, the player draws and fires the gun. If the player is fast enough, the projection changes to that of the shot gunman falling down; otherwise it shows the gunman drawing and firing his gun. Regardless of their success, the player continues to face off against other gunslinger opponents, of which there are five in total. Should the player draw their gun prematurely, a "foul" light turns on and the player's input is ignored until the next duel begins, rendering the current duel unwinnable. Wild Gunman was released in North America by Sega in 1976. The game's footage was filmed with local, uncredited extras on location around Kyoto and at the Nara Dreamland amusement park. A recreation of the arcade game was made by Canadian arcade repairman and Youtuber Callan Brown, who plans to showcase it to the public at the 2026 Ontario PinFest convention from May 30 to May 31 with other Wild Gunman-based merchandise from Nintendo.

Nintendo adapted the electro-mechanical game into a video game, replacing filmed footage with cartoon-style sprites. In 1984 in Japan, the Famicom version was released for use with the original version of the Zapper gun peripheral, known as the Beam Gun. This was a plastic, western-style revolver accessory (modeled after the Colt Single Action Army) that came packaged with a plastic holster belt. In 1985 in the United States, it was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo re-released the game to the Wii U Virtual Console on October 21, 2015, to coincide with Back to the Future Day, honoring the game's appearance in the film. One example of the Beam Gun was reportedly on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Japan.

• Illustration — Screenshot showing typical gameplay of Wild Gunman for the NES The player waits for the opponent's eyes to flash (accompanied by a speech bubble reading "FIRE!!") before shooting. Firing the gun prematurely makes the duel unwinnable, and the next duel is shown.

The game consists of four film scenes, called Film-A, Film-B, Film-C and Film-D. Each scene was shot on two 16 mm film reels, for displaying alternate outcomes, making up a total of eight film reels. Two of the original reels were discovered by collector Benjamin Solovey in 2021.

It consists of three game modes, which are GAME A, GAME B and GAME C. GAME A has the player face off against one outlaw; GAME B has the player face off against two outlaws; GAME C has the player face off against an entire outlaw gang.

The game's design was taken from Nintendo's Laser Clay Shooting System. The NES version was published on the PlayChoice-10 arcade system. On the Wii U Virtual Console, the Wii Remote pointer is used instead of the Zapper.

In the Super Smash Bros. series, the Duck Hunt duo can summon Wild Gunman characters to attack their opponents. Their "Final Smash" attack causes opponents to get caught in the middle of a shootout between the gunmen and the enemy characters from Hogan's Alley.