 Sunset Riders is one of those games that's been called a hidden gem so often that we can now officially say there's nothing hidden about this game whatsoever. It's just plain good and it desperately needs to be on the virtual console. Sunset Riders is an arcade port from Konami that first found its way to the Sega Genesis in 1992, and then finally to the Super Nintendo in 1993, and really this game is everything you could expect based on its pedigree. If you were to describe this game as kind of a cross between Contra 3 and Turtles and Time, you wouldn't be that far off. I don't think this game is quite as good as those two, because unfortunately it's pretty short, and because of a couple other reasons I'll get into later. I will say however that the Super Nintendo version is better than what the Sega Genesis got. That only has two playable characters instead of four, and only four original bosses from the arcade and no voices at all. C'mon, the voices are what put this game totally over the top and hilarious. So yeah, the Super Nintendo port made the fewest changes from the arcade. Both the SNES and Genesis versions got the gameplay right, but the Super Nintendo version has all the window dressing, and that really makes the game awesome. Although I should say that both ports were censored and had dialogue changed, the original arcade was pretty racy and downright offensive at times, so that's not surprising, but it doesn't take away much from the game itself. To expand on the gameplay, Sunset Riders is kind of like Contra 3, but taken in another direction. For example, everyone loves the spread gun, right? Well, Sunset Riders figures, why not just have the default gun, a spread gun? You can't argue with that. This game looks easy on the surface, but believe me, it is hard as hell. Yeah, it's typical running gun action, but check out the slow motion bullets. What the hell? It's kind of goofy at first, but it really presents a challenge, especially on boss fights. There's almost a shoot-em-up quality to the gameplay here, meaning that if you want to get far in this game, you have to kinda unfocus your eyes, don't even look where you're shooting, and just concentrate on dodging everything coming your way. This is both good and bad. It's good because it's definitely something different, but it's flawed because you're such a huge target. In shoot-em-ups, you're usually a tiny little ship that can sleekly move past stuff. In Sunset Riders, you're this big cowboy dude, and the hitbox is huge. This is really problematic on boss fights. If you happen to hit the boss using the shoot-em-up dodging technique, great, but be prepared for these battles to go on a long time. If you go in guns blazing, pun intended, against a boss, you're gonna have a bad time. But that's just my experience with it. If you get good at this game, and if you somehow beat it on the hard setting, you can unlock a very hard mode, kind of like an Actraiser. So that's available if you're into a challenge. If you're not, there's also codes for extra lives and stage select, so you can experience the entire game that way. So while the gameplay of Sunset Riders is both familiar and unique, the real reason to check it out is that it's just goofy and funny. Every boss has bits of dialogue, they say, and each one had me cracking up. How do you not love that? The game has all sorts of little touches, and though they're not as funny as a dude taking a swig of whiskey like in the arcade version, the game is still really amusing. Oh, and have I mentioned this game is multiplayer? Not to mention one of the best multiplayer games for the Super Nintendo? Cause there's that, too. Anyway, I'm sad to say that Sunset Riders is another example of a game getting super inflated in value as time goes by. It's up to an average of $66 on eBay, which is why this review is a thinly veiled request to bring this game to the virtual console so everyone can check it out. The Genesis port is about half the cost of the Super Nintendo version, but you'd be missing out on quite a bit if you got that game. So either way, the gameplay here is uncomplicated, but still a bit different than your usual run and gun fare. If you have a chance to check out Sunset Riders, don't pass it out.