Game Review: The Legend of Cyber Cowboy

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

I've been a casual fan of twin-stick shooters for most of my life. Though I'm not old enough to have played it in its heyday, I got my start with Robotron 2084 in my youth, and have played several more, across several platforms, since then. With this in mind, it's no surprise that I was excited to learn about the impending release of The Legend of Cyber Cowboy. It's not only a twin-stick shooter, but it's one that featured a cyberpunk-like Wild West setting, and had a very neat visual style to boot. It's out now on just about every major platform by way of EastAsiaSoft, and we're going to be taking a look at it today on the Nintendo Switch. There's really no need for further intro, so let's dive in!

I don't think that The Legend of Cyber Cowboy has any sort of story to it, and I can say confidently that you won't find one in-game. The main character, the enemies, and the bosses all go unnamed, and that's a shame since the setting is part of what drew me to it in the first place. I know one can say that story is secondary to a game like this, but it really couldn't have been all that hard to include something. Since there's no story, all that matters in this game is the action. You're the titular Cyber Cowboy, and you have to take out waves of robotic enemies in a series of rooms that will eventually culminate in a fight with a giant robotic boss. Each run of the game will be slightly different than the one before too, since the room layouts will be randomized. The Cyber Cowboy has a life bar, a base gun with unlimited ammo, and a dodge that gets its energy from a separate meter on the side of the screen. You only have one life to complete a stage, and dying means you have to go back to the beginning of the stage you're currently on. Each stage is made up of several rooms containing random groupings of enemies, a shop where you can buy more powerful guns, and a boss room. There are no powerups beyond coins that enemies drop, and these are what you spend in the shop to get the aforementioned more powerful weapons. It's not a bad setup all things considered, but there are some parts of the game that I felt kept it from being the great game I imagined before its release.

There's no easy way to say it, The Legend of Cyber Cowboy is a very difficult game. It's not very casual friendly, as that difficulty seems to mainly stem from uneven balance and game design. First off, it's very hard to not constantly take damage in-game. Dodging seems iffy at best, stage elements like tables and chairs do provide some cover but are limited and also block your attacks, and enemy bullets often feel too fast to be able to properly dodge even if the dodging worked. Toss in the fact that I never once found ammo or life pickups during my time with the game, and that the extra purchasable weapons barely seem to even up the odds, and you have a game that I can't say I had very much fun playing. I've played tough twin-stick shooters before, but this one just feels unfair. I really can't put it into words since it's something that has to be experienced to be understood, but I bet that most players will feel that their deaths came far too cheaply. Still, most players will be able to get through the basic waves of enemies easily enough despite the game's many issues, but things somehow manage to go even more off the rails during boss fights.

Each boss fight comes with the realization that the game is suddenly a bullet hell shooter, but one in where you can never accurately dodge what's being thrown at you. Bullets will come in never-ending patterns, and getting to a safe zone will often prove to be an impossible task. The slow start to your dodge, and the general giant hitbox the Cyber Cowboy has, means that there's pretty much no way to avoid all damage. There's also no cover to be had in boss stages, and you have to solely rely on the dodge mechanic that I've complained about several times already. Making matters worse, bosses all have insanely large life bars. I'm not ashamed to admit that it took me probably a dozen tries just to beat the first one, and it made me not want to do go through the same effort for the second. As I said earlier, dying means an instant game over, so you can't even get back into the boss battle quickly if you feel you just barely lost the first time around. It makes for a very frustrating experience, and one that kept me from liking the game as much as I hoped I would.

It may seem that much of my criticism for The Legend of Cyber Cowboy comes from feelings of disappointment, and that's due to how much I liked the game before I played it. That might sound like an odd sentiment to have, but it just looks and sounds so good. The graphics are simple and limited, but they also emulate a 16-bit console look to perfection. The character and enemy designs are all great too, and the game looks as amazing in action as it does in screenshots. The music isn't bad either. It's not the easy home run the graphics are, but there isn't a bad track in the bunch. As a matter of fact, some of the music is pretty memorable, and feels almost wasted on a game with gameplay as bad as this one has. If it sounds like this review is just one long list of disappoints, that's because it is. I had such high hopes for this game before it came out, and it ended up being mediocre at best.

There really isn't a lot more to say about The Legend of Cyber Cowboy. It's a short game, it's not very good, and I don't see myself picking it up ever again once I'm done with this review. It's not even that it's purely bad, it's just very forgettable, and not actually good in any way beyond its audio and visuals. If you really must play every twin-stick shooter out there, then you might have fun with this one; it's only $4.99 after all. If you're not that hardcore twin-stick shooter fan, then you're better off simply skipping this one. On that note, I'll see you in the next one.

Check Out The Legend of Cyber Cowboy on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-legend-of-cyber-cowboy-switch/

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Story: N/A (Shocking!)
Gameplay: C
Graphics: A
Music/Sound: B+
Value: B

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A fun twin-stick shooter that has features randomized elements.
+ Graphics and art style are both amazing, the 16-bit aesthetic is alive and well here.
+ Has an awesome soundtrack that's full of catchy tunes.
+ The premise of a cyberpunk-esque Wild West is still a really cool concept.
+ At just $4.99, picking this one up won't break the bank.

Cons:
- This is a very difficult game, with death leading to a complete restart of the current stage. Pretty much for the hardcore twin-stick shooter fans only.
- Feels very unbalanced at times. Player weapons are underpowered, enemy bullets are too fast, and the dodge mechanic rarely seems to function correctly.
- There is no story to be found here at all. The main character has no name, nor do any of the enemies or bosses.
- While not a totally bad game, it's not a good one either.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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