Billy The Kid Returns

When I fire up something interesting from 1993 these days, I expect at least something with soul. Billy The Kid Returns? That's exactly the kind of game that presents itself humbly and then either surprises you — or disappoints you just as uninterestingly.

It's an action game set in the Wild West, where you follow in the footsteps of a legendary gunslinger. Think of it as a shooter with western theme — red sand scenery, monsters and bandits to settle with a bullet. The goal is straightforward: get through the levels, collect health and ammo, empty magazines into anything that moves. Nothing particularly original, but in the nineties almost every other arcade-action on the circuit was built on this formula.

It plays exactly how you'd expect from a DOS game of that era. Graphics are pixelated, colors are simple, and you move across individual screens, shooting and hoping the bad guy doesn't hit you too often. Controls are functional, not elegant, more mechanical — move left-right and hold the button. The game doesn't go out of its way with animations or storytelling. It's exactly what it promises: the return of someone probably nobody wanted back anyway.

The strength of Billy The Kid Returns lies elsewhere — in that rawness, in the fact that the game doesn't play tricks on you. There's no soft difficulty, no excuses. You've either got it or you don't. For fans of old arcades who played Commando or Ikari Warriors, it's familiar, alluring. To today's player spoiled by graphics and cinematic spectacle, it'll seem archaic — and they'd be right.

The question remains whether to play it. You'll find it in your browser, no trouble firing it up. The real question is whether you want to spend time letting old pixels hit your brain when you've got hundreds of better things to do. If you were born in the eighties and crave pure mechanics without talk, you'll serve yourself at least one run. After that, you probably won't remember anything special — and that's completely fine.