The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is certainly an ambitious game. It combines simple role-playing with two different kinds of arcade-style action. It has eight stages, and in each one you ride from town to town, questioning the locals about outlaws in the area.

The most vicious outlaw of them all is Butch Cavendish, whose latest and most daring crime was kidnapping the president of the United States. Years ago, it was Cavendish who also ambushed and wiped out the Texas Rangers. So as the Lone Ranger, you have a personal score to settle. By following all the clues, you'll eventually find the outlaw gang's hideout, leading to a final showdown with Cavendish.

Along the way, of course, you'll have shootouts with thousands of lesser bad guys, even in the "friendly" towns. Most of these stages play like a scrolling shooter in the style of Ikari Warriors, but every so often there's a first-person, shooting gallery sequence as well. The shooting gallery scenes are meant to be played with Konami's Laserscope Optical Command Headset (see Game Player's, January 1991), but you can also use a Nintendo Zapper or a standard controller.

Actually, the shooting gallery scenes are the game's only flaw. Shooting is rather awkward with a regular controller, and our testers found it equally difficult even with a Laserscope. Since you have to play a stage over from the beginning when you die, this can mean a lot of frustration.

Other than that, The Lone Ranger is a fine game, although the action gets pretty weird at times. The Old West setting is unusual for a Nintendo game, but Konami apparently didn't think the story could stand on its own. As a result, the Lone Ranger finds himself fighting ninjas, of all things, and the final stages in Butch's hideout are filled with high-tech equipment. None of this was ever seen in the Lone Ranger TV shows and movies. We can only assume that Butch Cavendish was the uncredited inventor of the steam-driven computer.

Despite this lunacy, however, The Lone Ranger has excellent graphics, exciting action, and combines enough different kinds of game play to hold the interest of even the most jaded gamer.

Oh, oh. The president is missing and rumors have it that the evil Cavendish gang are behind the kidnapping. The efforts of the Secret Service have unveiled nothing, so it's time for the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion Tonto. Besides, the LR has a personal score to settle with Butch Cavendish. Ride through eight areas of the West exploring towns, caves and reservations looking for the needed clues.

Hi ho Silver and away! The Lone Ranger is back with his faithful companion Tanto. Featuring over-head role-playing and shooting scenes that let you relive the cowboys and indians era on your NES. A good blend of action and strategy brings whole new theme to the NES line up.

My name is John Reid. I am the last of the Texas Rangers. Butch Cavendish and his gang murdered all the others, but I survived. I won't rest until Butch and his cohorts are ten feet under. They call me "The Lone Ranger."

Have Zapper, Will Travel

That's right, fellow gunslingers, thanks to Konami the Lone Ranger rides again on an NES near you. In this episode, Butch has kidnapped the President!

For authentic Old West action use the Zapper or go high-tech with Konami's own LaserScope, but an ordinary control pad is an acceptable substitute.

A Radical Roundup

Like another famous Konami shoot-to-thrill game, Bayou Billy, The Lone Ranger features several different viewpoints. The bulk of the game takes place in an angled overhead perspective similar to Snake's Revenge. Inside caves, hideouts, and other important areas, the screen mimics Rolling Thunder side-view, horizontally-scrolling display. Finally, you get 3-D Zapper mazes like Operation Wolf. Individually none of these scenes stands out, but together they form a fairly entertaining contest.

A Good Deed a Day....

Your journey takes you through eight areas, each with a deed to be done or a mystery to be solved. Other than your sidekick, Tonto, who just offers advice and passwords, and of course Silver, you're on your own against a relentless force of villains. You combat these renegades with a standard six-shooter, TNT, and of course your bare knuckles. Rifles and extra ammo (including silver bullets) are on sale at gun shops. Fortunately, Tonto imparts a password after every area.

The Mild, Wild West

Taken for what it is, an adventure game with some nifty diversions and options, The Lone Ranger offers up enough run 'n gun action to keep Cowboy-wannabees satisfied. However, there's nothing overwhelming about the game's visuals, and while the occasional "Hi Yo Silver" voice-over accompanied by the theme song (the "William Tell Overture", of course) are enough to make anyone's pulse pound, some of the tunes are downright cheesy. Still, maybe you're just the 'Pro to bring law and order to the video frontier. Saddle up, Masked Man!

Hi ho, Nintendo-ites, away. The Lone Ranger rides again in Konami's new Laser Scope compatible game of the same name. This cowboy adventure takes the Masked Man and his faithful companion, Tonto, through eight trailblazing stages that include 15 Towns, four Camps, and a variety of Forts. Three dimensional landscapes make you feel as if you're really ridin' along those dusty trails of the Old West. Collect money to purchase more powerful weapons and ammo, and you'll have no problem defending yourself against enemy ambushes. Polish up those silver bullets, folks, and win the West, one more time.

THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN!

Hi ho Silver, and away! Saddle up for the cowboys and indians adventure of a lifetime. Travel back to a time when the good guys wore white and the justice was served throughout the land. The Lone Ranger features adventure role playing themes, overhead and first person shooting scenes, and overhead and side-scolling action scenes. Go from town to town to collect info and chase down the bad guys. In town be sure to purchase supplies, you wouldn't want to meet Butch Cavendish without any silver bullets. You and your trusty indian companion Tonto must rescue the kidnapped president from Butch Cavendish and restore law and order in the land of the wild west.

If you're like me, you'd rather nail your eyelids to a tree than rescue another princess. I mean, look, I'm crazy about role-playing games, I really am. But can't the game designers create a scenario or two that isn't inhabited by dragons, princesses, lost kings and a dungeonful of other fantasy cliches?

Hope has arrived in the form of The Lone Ranger. Although technically it isn't a role-playing game, it's close enough for me. But you won't find a sword, princess, dragon or castle anywhere. This is the wild and woolly West, folks. Good guys and bad guys. Cowboys and Indians. Sheriffs and bandits.

The story: It seems that the Lone Ranger's arch enemy, Butch Cavendish, has kidnapped the President of the United States. Considering that Cavendish was the guy who killed the Lone Ranger's father back in the days of the Texas Rangers, our masked hero needs no coaxing to take on the hunt. Now he can kill two birds with one bullet: rescue the President and gun down the man he hates most in the world.

The Lone Ranger begins much like a role-playing game, with you, as the Lone Ranger, traveling from town to town, quizzing townspeople, buying equipment ip stores and shooting down occasional gunslingers for cash rewards. After talking with the townspeople, you'll soon discover your first task. However, in the best role-playing tradition, each task leads to other smaller tasks, each of which must be completed in the right order. For example, at the start of the game, you need to find your horse, Silver, but in order to do that, you must get a note from the sheriff. The sheriff agrees to write the note--as long as you first do something for him.

When it's fightin' time, you can choose from three weapons: fists, pistol or TNT. Your pistol handles both regular and silver bullets; the latter chews through your target and keeps on going to the next. For tougher opponents, better pistols can be bought in weapons shops, provided you can pay the asking price.

Naturally, the bad guys don't care for your meddling in their business. At every opportunity, they attack with fists, knives and guns. Luckily, most towns have doctors who are glad to restore your strength--for a fee, of course. Other services you may find in a town include shooting galleries, where your pistol prowess can earn extra cash, and train stations, which provide ticket holders with transportation between some towns.

As you try to track down Cavendish, you'll shoot it out in several types of scenes, including top-down, horizontally scrolling and simulated 3-D. From one scene to the next, you'll have plenty of opportunities to exercise your arcade-action and role-playing problem-solving skills. The Lone Ranger's graphics vary in quality from scene to scene, but are generally well done. There isn't a great variety of villains, but a bandit is a bandit, you know? The sound effects and music are adequate, though not especially arresting.

If you'd like to pace the dust-ridden streets of an old West town and feel your hand wrapped around the blue heat of a blazing six-gun, The Lone Ranger is your ticket to outlaw-ousting fun. Although it hasn't the depth of a full role-playing game, its scenario is engaging enough to keep you at the controls for many hours. Anyway, it sure beats sitting on the porch chewing hay and watching the tumbleweeds roll by.