Wild Guns
Wild Guns is a 1995 rail-shooter/run-and-gun for SNES developed by Natsume, blending a Wild West setting with sci-fi elements. The story follows Annie, a young woman seeking revenge against the Kid family for abducting and killing her family; she recruits Clint, a space bounty hunter, despite his initial reluctance.
Availability: Nintendo Switch Online — Super Nintendo Entertainment System app (Nintendo Classics)
This guide documents the game's main progression and structure; some specific details are still being verified and are noted where relevant.
Controls
The D-pad moves the character side-to-side and performs a jump/dive/roll when the gun is holstered. Holding the fire (Y) button locks character movement and instead lets the D-pad move the aiming reticle — shooting and moving the character simultaneously is not possible. B jumps, X uses a bomb. Tapping the attack button throws a lasso that temporarily freezes enemies in place, including bosses. Players can dodge enemy fire (while holstered) by pressing jump while holding left or right.
Weapons
The default weapon is a basic gun. Weapon power-ups obtained by shooting stage elements or enemies include shotguns, machine guns/Gatling guns, and grenade launchers, which increase firing speed or damage. Dynamite (max 5 held) can be thrown by enemies at the player but caught and thrown back. Bombs (max 5 held) clear the screen of enemies. A meter at the bottom of the screen fills over time and through bullet-to-bullet collisions (player bullets hitting enemy bullets); once full, the player can unleash a powerful Vulcan cannon, which also grants brief invincibility.
Levels / Structure
The game has six levels. Each level has multiple areas to shoot through, each with its own time limit and enemy quota, eventually leading to a boss encounter. Each level is structured as two stages, each ending in a mini-boss, followed by a third stage culminating in the main boss for that level.
Playable Characters
Two playable characters in the original SNES release: Annie and Clint. (Later remakes, e.g. Wild Guns Reloaded, add Doris and Bullet the dog — not part of the original SNES release and out of scope here.)
Scoring / Survival Strategy
Defeated enemies can reveal item boxes containing precious metals (gold, silver) worth extra points. Because the Vulcan-cannon meter fills specifically from player-bullet-vs-enemy-bullet collisions (not just from firing generally), deliberately shooting incoming enemy bullets — rather than only dodging them — is likely a core scoring/survival technique, consistent with how the meter is described as charging; this is a reasonable inference from the confirmed mechanic rather than an independently sourced strategy tip.
Still confirming
- Names of all six levels/settings.
- Boss and mini-boss names for each level.
- Exact scoring values for gold/silver pickups or any end-of-level ranking system.