The "Mad Dog" himself.
Howdy stranger! We need your help! Mad Dog McCree's gang have taken over the town. The Mayor and his daughter have been taken hostage up at Mad Dog's hideout and the Sheriff's been locked up in jail, we're gonna have to get him out to help with the gang! Can you handle it? Good...
Mad Dog McCree is a Light Gun Game that was produced by the company American Laser Games as an arcade game in the year 1990. It has a sequel, Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold; and spiritual sequel, The Last Bounty Hunter. The game is notable for its Live-Action cutscenes, a novel concept in the early 90s. The game was ported to multiple systems, such as the Sega CD, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Philips CD-i. It would later be ported to the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo 3DS as downloadable extras.
The plot of the game takes place in an unnamed town as well as the suburbs on the outskirts of this town. Mad Dog McCree and his gang of outlaws have taken over the town. The Mayor and his daughter have been taken hostage at Mad Dog's hideout and the Sheriff has been imprisoned in his own Jail. To save the day, you must take the Jail keys from the bandits at the saloon, set the Sheriff free (he doesn't last long in a gun fight), stop a Bank Robbery in progress, clear out a corral of gangsters, and finally leave town to learn the location of Mad Dog's hideout. All of this takes place in gunfight scenes where the player must kill members of Mad Dog's gang before they kill you.
Despite the name, the game has nothing to do with the other one also featuring a Western outlaw (formerly) called McCree.
This game provides examples of:
- Antagonist Title: Of course.
- Bank Robbery: One of these is in progress if you pay a visit.
- Bar Brawl: One of these spills out of the saloon before you enter it.
- Big Bad: Mad Dog, of course.
- Bloodless Carnage: No blood is shed whenever anyone is shot.
- Booby Trap: The Old Prospector booby trapped the mine to protect it from claim jumpers; you must disarm it to get inside. Luckily, he tells you what you have to shoot.
- Bulletproof Vest: Mad Dog wears one of these.
- Cigar-Fuse Lighting: Mad Dog straps the Prospector to a barrel of TNT and uses his cigar to light the fuse. The player must shoot the fuse to save the Prospector.
- Combat Pragmatist: Mad Dog Mccree wears a bullet-proof vest in the final Quick Draw event. You must first shoot the pistol out of his hand.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Zig-zagged, if you encounter a group of mooks all visible at once, then there are times when they will only draw their guns one after the other as you down them, but at other times, if you don't figure out what environmental object you need to shoot or wander off aimlessly, the mooks will be all too happy to use you as target practice without Mook Chivalry.
- Cut the Fuse: Mad Dog covers the Prospector in dynamite, and you must do this to save him.
- Cutscene Incompetence:
- If you approach Mad Dog's hideout from the wrong direction, there's no choice but to get shot by the single Mook who jumps out of hiding. You can know exactly where they're hiding and even shoot first but you'll always lose.
- Justified if you wander in the wrong direction while on the way to Mad Dog's cabin. You'll be clearly out numbered and even if you were allowed to hit one mook, the rest will open fire almost in unison giving you a heavy dose of lead poisoning.
- Damsel in Distress: The mayor's daughter.
- Eyepatch of Power: Worn by One-Eyed Jack.
- Good Is Not Soft: We don't get any background on The Stranger (the player character), but the game rewards players for mercilessly taking down all of the outlaws who stand against you. The townsfolk find you pleasant enough and don't seem to find you suspicious or an Anti-Hero. You're hailed as a hero at the end of the game, implying that the outlaws were very unpleasant for the townsfolk.
- The Gunslinger: The game has you playing as one, challenging you to take on all of Mad Dog's gangsters singlehandedly. Some of the fights are traps that are Unwinnable by Design, especially making a wrong turn when locating Mad Dog's hideout.
- Have a Nice Death: Whenever you lose a life, the undertaker comments on your actions and occasionally reminds you how many lives you have left. Lose them all, and he seals your coffin.
- Hollywood Tactics:
- While the outlaws hide in cover like a sane gun fighter would do, the simplistic game-play has the player unable to also utilize cover and perform tactics such as blind-fire or pop-up-aim-fire, then take cover again.
- The player character walks straight towards a building with a rifle-man camping on the roof. Granted, the rifle-man is comically amateur, and does not bother remaining crouched to shoot at you accurately. However, this is a town taken over with outlaws, and it is quite risky to just go walking out in the open, especially after the amateur rifle-man spots you and open fires like a stormtrooper.
- In the "winnable" scenes of the game, the outlaws usually don't consider it beneficial to leave cover all at once and take advantage of your exposure. One exception is a scene where a trio of bandits ambush you, while exiting a building and directly shooting them does not work.
- In the Saloon, the outlaws perform Mook Chivalry, letting you pick them all off one-by-one as they aim their pistols at you one after the other. Defeats the whole point of having a gang of outlaws really.
- The Sheriff should really know better and also stands out in the open when he joins the gun fight with you. The Sheriff only downs one before being greased by the next mook who pops up.
- Hostage Spirit-Link: Shooting a hostage or civilian depletes one life.
- Human Shield: One of the robbers in the bank protects himself with a Bound and Gagged hostage. He'll eventually pop up without one and you can shoot him.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Largely Averted as letting an enemy get the first shot off normally results in you losing a life. However, on the way to the Saloon, you encounter a rifleman who misses their first shot when The Stranger is walking along at a gentle stroll.
- Instant Death Bullet: Averted (See Not Quite Dead below), some enemies don't die in one shot. Otherwise, Played Straight.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: Go wandering off aimlessly during the "locate Mad Dog's hideout" segment and a whole gang of outlaws pop up from behind the rocks
on a hill and enjoy a moment of overkill, and send enough bullets into your invisible body to kill you many times over. A glass-screen in from of the video camera shows you how dead you are by becoming filled with penetrating bullet shots. - Live-Action Cutscene: The game's primary selling point was the novelty of having a live-action Western movie play out as a video game.
- Major Injury Underreaction: As a result of death sounds being reused for basic mooks, combined with some of the acting, some mook reactions to being shot can be low key. The hostage taker in the bank robbery stage merely reacts like they hit their head hard and the generic "Guuuh!" sound plays as they return to cover like they're just taking a time out.
- Mook Chivalry: Played Straight with the Saloon Shootout for example; you likely wouldn't stand a chance if all the outlaws in the Saloon simply aimed their gun at you all at once after you whack the first bandit with your pistol. Averted in one scene where three bandits ambush you and the only solution is to shoot down the sign above them. Also averted if you take a wrong turn on the trail to Mad Dog's hideout and wander into an ambush.
- No Fair Cheating: In-Universe example: If you cheat on the Quick Draw minigame and draw too early, you lose a life.
- Not Quite Dead: Some mooks may not be truly dead after the first shot, so don't let your guard down too soon.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: In the sequel, if you take the Buckskin Bonnie path, you first come across Bonnie bathing in the river.
- Outlaw: The villains.
- Police Are Useless: The Sheriff only manages to kill one person without being fatally shot. After this, you're on your own with no partner to help you eliminate the Mooks.
- Prospector: An old prospector acts as your guide and gives you advice throughout the game.
- Quick Draw: Occurs as a random encounter challenge if you end up eating a bullet from one of Mad Dog's gangsters and still have at least one life left, or through normal gameplay.
- Railing Kill: The last outlaw in the saloon falls over the staircase railing when shot.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Mad Dog is aiming for the players on the cover art.
- Shout-Out:
- Mad Dog wears a bullet-proof vest, which is likely a nod to A Fistful of Dollars.
- In the sequel, a mook challenges the stranger to "make his day". This is a nod to Dirty Harry: Sudden Impact.
- Slow-Motion Fall: Anyone falling off a rooftop or over a railing gets this treatment.
- Taking Over the Town: Mad Dog and his gang take over the town and lock the sheriff up in his own jail.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: You will not know where the third enemy at the corral is until he shoots you.
- Violence is the Only Option: There is no peaceful means of handling a standoff with an outlaw, so all you can do is shoot them before they shoot you.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: In the scene where you meet a missionary, there are two thing that will happen: The Missionary is actually a disguised outlaw who shoots you. Or the Missionary is the real one you're supposed to meet (and NOT supposed to shoot).
