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  1. Games
  2. Action

Secret Poncho tosses you into a frantic Wild West shootout

Features
By Hollander Cooper published 13 June 2013

This town ain't big enough for the both of us

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Feeling lucky, punk?

Feeling lucky, punk?

As we tumbled towards our enemies--a slob with a chaingun and a slender man with a whip--we wondered, "what are we fighting for?"

Nah, not really, we just whipped out our dual revolvers and kept shooting, blasting our foes and forcing them to hide behind cover, which we then rendered useless with the toss of a stick of dynamite. That's just the way of the west in Secret Ponchos, a top-down shooter with a focus on player-versus-player combat. Our time with the game was brief, but long enough to give us a good idea of the basic gameplay, which feels more akin to a third-person shooter than any other top-down game we've played.

Players will battle across five maps in a number of different game modes, choosing between a number of different interesting characters. Each has a weapon with two functions (like our revolver, which could be altered to shoot powerful close-range shots and fast long-range blasts) as well as a secondary item (like our dynamite), adding plenty of variety to the brawls. Visually it was nice, but didn't really feel like it needed the power of the PlayStation 4 to function--something the developers plan to address by adding cloth physics and ambient lighting inclusion for the next-gen version. There's also talk of adding new modes and characters post-launch, including a capture-point map with AI-controlled opponents, turning Secret Ponchos into League of Legends. Will it win the west? We don't know, but we're gunning to find out when it releases early next year.

Check out the following slides for additional images and more information.

Page 1 of 7
Page 1 of 7
There's a cover system and it works fairly well.

There's a cover system and it works fairly well.

Page 2 of 7
Page 2 of 7
Old west style shoot-outs are too infrequent in modern gaming, if you ask us.

Old west style shoot-outs are too infrequent in modern gaming, if you ask us.

Page 3 of 7
Page 3 of 7
One of the first images released for the game shows off a bunch of fun characters.

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Page 4 of 7
Page 4 of 7
This is the character we played as--he was super fun.

This is the character we played as--he was super fun.

Page 5 of 7
Page 5 of 7
...and here's what he looks like in-game.

...and here's what he looks like in-game.

Page 6 of 7
Page 6 of 7
This is "The Killer" and he, apparently, kills people.

This is "The Killer" and he, apparently, kills people.

Page 7 of 7
Page 7 of 7
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Hollander Cooper
Hollander Cooper
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Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade. 

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