Writings of Mass Deduction

You might think that “Super Amazing Wagon Adventure” is an upgraded rendition of “Oregon Trail” at best, or a clone of it at worst. But you’d be wrong. Dead wrong.

This is a satirical take on Oregon trail, with element as diverse as 2D side-scrolling shmup, RPGs, and dual-stick shooter. There is humour around every turn, with obvious references to the original Oregon Trail. Presentation has tried hard to mimic 8-bit computers of the era and, though I’ve heard the graphics compared to the Apple II, the colour palette more closely matches what the Commodore 64 could have done.

So how does it actually play? You roll up a character or three, then pick a wagon; one wagon is unlocked at the start, others unlockable as you play. You then pilot your wagon as the game scrolls left to right, dodging obstacles and shooting as varied as wildlife and other wagons with mounted gattling guns. Some things have to be dealt with the hard way, though, and you’ll find yourself disembarking and playing the game as a twin-stick shooter. You’ll explore caves and find power-ups that upgrade your trusty pistol to a wide variety of death-dealing weapons from shot-guns, to bazookas, to ray guns, and much more; other times you’ll find rooms full of enemies that have to be dispatched. And did I mention there are vertically scrolling obstacle course levels reminiscent of Toobin’? This is a game that not only doesn’t take itself too seriously, it doesn’t take itself even remotely seriously at all. And that’s part of what makes it worth 80 Microsoft Points.

Here’s what the developer (sparsevector) has to say about the game:

“Super Amazing Wagon Adventure is a fast-paced 2D action game with a random story! You control a group of three migrating west on a wagon trail. The game consists of short scenes that are sequenced together in a semi-random way to tell a crazy adventure story. Face buffalo, wolves, bandits, bears, giant spiders, aliens, and much more!”