The Last Cowboy

The Last Cowboy is a new first-person arena shooter where you fight wave after wave of mutants, dinosaurs and monsters. It's the debut game from Frosted Wings Studio and follows the predictable formula you've come to expect from other arena-style shooters. It's not always easy reviewing a game as shallow as this, so I have a new idea. Instead of spending five minutes trying to describe everything I like and, well, mostly hate, I am going to try out a different type of review. I've asked my buddy Lorne Riseley to sit in and watch me play The Last Cowboy as we talk about the game, the genre and even that one time I went to a Jack Johnson concert. It's a fun conversation that I think you're going to dig. So saddle up, partner, because this is The Last Cowboy.

There isn't a whole lot to The Last Cowboy. You run around a medium-sized Wild West setting and shoot at bad guys. This is the kind of game where the enemies will politely get into a single-file line and run after you, but you're always faster, so there's never any danger. That is, unless you get caught on the background. The environment is rough and occasionally hard to navigate, so getting stuck on a rock or against a fence is inevitable. About the only thing you can do when that happens is let the horde kill you and try the level all over again.

There are nine stages in all, including three boss fights. These boss characters look different, but the battles all play out the same way. We run from side-to-side and shoot at the red gas canisters to make them explode. The goal is to save up enough money to buy a new, stronger weapon, but that usually means you'll spend five minutes running for your life and waiting for a clean shot.

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I like the idea of earning money for each enemy you kill, but there isn't much you can use it on. The money drops back down to zero at the start of each stage, so the idea is to buy new weapons halfway through the fight. The problem is that you can't do that most of the time. There's usually a huge pack of enemies following you, so the idea of going into a cramped church to buy new weapons is a suicide mission. You'll be swarmed the moment you go in there. This means that you spend most of the time using the same two weapons and waiting for the friendly griffin to drop more ammo.

The best thing I can say about The Last Cowboy is that the world is a lot more interesting than most arena shooters. The Wild West town is rundown and full of fun little details. The mutants, monsters and dinosaurs are also good looking, as is the gore. The problem is that the game is far too repetitive and there's not enough variety to the stages. It's also hard to buy new weapons, the enemy AI is atrocious and the boss fights are no fun. It may be better than Blood Waves, but there's no way I can recommend The Last Cowboy.