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Gunfight At O.K. Corral

Gunfight at O.K. Corral is a board game in which a pair of dueling children pit their monstrous sized personal Cowboys against one another in a fight to the death.

Okay, not really, but that would be so much better than what it actually is, wouldn't it? Kaiju Cowboys? Maybe it's just me who find that amusing. Either way, Gunfight is similar to the previous game featured here, "Crossfire", in that it almost boils down to essentially the same overall concept of just shooting things at whoever is on the other side of the board. Published by Ideal in 1973, I can find no information on either the designer or the artist, which kind of leaves us in a tough spot, because now I don't have anyones career to pick through for amusement, so let's talk about the game itself, shall we? Frankly, I think if you're having a gunfight, then not everything is okay at this corral. The description of this game is as follows:

This is a children's dexterity game where players have a real-time shootout. The board is a long plastic tray flanked with colorful western town inserts. At each end of the tray is a plastic six-shooter (one for each player) that are attached so that they can move freely across the width of the board. The guns are loaded with ball bearings on the top. A slide comes out the bottom and ends flush with the playing surface where a plastic cowboy is attached. When you pull the trigger, a ball rolls down the slide, goes through the legs of the cowboy and shoots across the tray toward your opponent's side. Each plastic cowboy has a tab by its feet that acts as a target. Hit it with a "bullet" and the cowboy gets knock down "dead". The fist player to shoot the other player's cowboy wins. Each player has a rock and a cactus to use as cover. The trick is that you have to be out in the open (and taking careful aim) to shoot, but also dodging left and right to avoid your opponent's fire.

All sounds pretty basic, honestly. But it's definitely a unique title, if not in the gameplay sense at least in the setting. Much like a few other titles featured on this blog, this game gets credit for simply having a unique and unusual setting. I mean, you name me one other board game featuring a western themed shoot out, and I'll eat my hat. Not any of the big hats, mind you. Something small. Like a fez. And sure, it's pretty bland to look at, and sure the kids on the box are having way more fun than any child who's ever actually played this probably had, but it's still definitely an original one, and that always gets extra credits in my book. Let's check out the tokens!

The cowboy tokens are, as to be expected from something in the 70s, extremely basic and uninspired design wise. Think army man molds, yet somehow even less interesting, and also they live in Flatland. So the board itself is boring, the tokens are boring, but the real neat thing here is the guns.

Now I am by no means a gun nut, and in fact am fairly indifferent to weaponry on the whole, but I also don't think that children playing with pretend guns, especially in a situation like this, is a bad thing. The guns here are actually pretty cool looking, and it's cool that they're functional other than just decorative. I mean, these bad boys are basically BB Guns attached to a plastic mold. Okay sure, the marble or pellet or whatever doesn't come out of the gun itself, but it's still neat. And while your cowboy is in essence pooping marbles at high velocity towards his opponent, the design overall is pretty good.

Obviously games like "Crossfire" built and improved on this concept in a more exciting way, but it's nice to see where the idea perhaps originated, and it's cool that it came from a western themed board game nonetheless. While I wish I could track down any information in regards to the artist or designer, perhaps it makes sense that I can't, because this is one of those games that's barely designed and barely has art. This is the gumball machine equivalent of a board game, where everything that comes with it looks like leftover stock from something else. In fact, the only real nice part of this is the box itself. The artwork on the box proper is pretty great, your standard painting type cover, and as usual, the box really holds the whole thing together.

"Gunfight At O.K. Corral" isn't a crappy board game on the whole. It's got a neat setting, an original idea that only got co-opted for better use later and a solid box art to it. It's not something that's going to be fondly remembered exactly, but it's definitely a more unusual title in the field, especially for something from the early 70s, which is a decade that I think everyone has tried hard to forget. I mean just look at that mustard ass colored set piece. That just screams 70s to me. I do think that the western setting is one that should be utilized more in board games, and perhaps it is in more modern niche titles that I just don't pay attention to since this is a more retro themed blog, and if that's the case then kudos, because it's a great setting. Then again I've been watching a lot of "Gunsmoke" lately so perhaps I'm just biased.

Either way, it's cool to have a little shooting gallery as a board game, and while it took "Crossfire" to perfect the idea, we perhaps have "Gunfight At O.K. Corral" to thank for it.

Though I still will always lament Kaiju Cowboys and what could've been.

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