(Hogan's Alley, October 1985, Nintendo)
Herein lies the zany little life moments that I live for. Going into this review, I pondered how much backstory a simple little light gun Black Box title could possibly have and wound up walking away from my research happily stunned with an information overload. Today, we take a far look back at a game with more links to the past than your favorite little ambigiously aged elf, Hogan's Alley.
Nice touch with the bullet in the logo.
Let's scarf the history right on down because it's always so damned captivating to me. The original Hogan's Alley was presented back in the 1890's and starred one of the very first American comic strip stars, The Yellow Kid. The strip was written and drawn by the famed Richard F. Oucault and featured in the pages of New York World, owned by publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who is presently more well known for the Pultizer Prize, an award for journalistic excellence. The run-down neighborhood where Yellow Kid and the gang did their hooligan/shenanigans thing was named Hogan's Alley and in time was popular enough to be featured on billboards and a ton of merchandise for the era. As with all hot properties, legal wrangling and hilarity ensued between Pulitzer and another famous publisher, William Randolph Hearst over who properly owned the rights, causing the Kid to quietly fade away.
An early strip featuring the original Hogan's Alley. How many video games do you know with roots dating back to the 1890s?
Fast forward to 1920, two years removed from the World War I, and the FBI learned through a survey conducted throughout all major police departments of the country at the time that marksmanship was fast becoming a lost art. Out of the all cities surveyed with over 25,000 residents, only THIRTEEN had credible marksmanship programs. Obviously, surveys that teach us that blind Stormtroopers could out-shoot our asses are bad, therefore, Hogan's Alley was established at Ohio's Camp Perry by the Army and the NRA. So, the beginning of our association with Hogan's Alley and "let's shoot shit" began over 90 years ago.
Have a nice day indeed!
Beginning in 1924, there were national contests held at the camp for sharpshooters and the like. There was no blank ammunition laying around, so what the hell, they opted to use real, live ammo(!) on cardboard cutouts set up around their virtual city, hence why the game's targets are presented as they are. World War II brought an end to the contest due to ammo shortages, but in 1954, the camp re-opened and in 1987, they took it a step further and went absolutely batshit with the idea, creating an actual, living, breathing, working small town for simulated combat.
No. Fucking. Way.
But, ah yes, there IS a game to discuss isn't there? Fair enough! Hogan's Alley was one of the first Light Gun games (or "Zapper" if you will) to be released and like most Black Boxers, was released to the arcades prior to the NES launch date. There are 3 modes you can get your Eliot Ness on with, which seemed to be par for the course for the Zapper series, but who's going to bitch when they could've easily put out one mode and called it good? I'm looking dead at you, Urban Champion.
Trenchcoat flasher gangsters on what appears to be the surface of Mars. MISS!
Game A is your standard, run of the mill 3 target shooter. This would be one of the rare times I rather enjoyed the lack of a musical track because when you're an FBI agent on the creep trying to concentrate, the last thing you need are bouncy chip-tunes screwing up the ambiance. There are 3 types of townsfolk in the sim you can shoot and 3 you can't or else it registers as a MISS! and your game is over at ten of those. The tricky part is that the professor is colored just like a baddie and the grunt with the shotgun is colored like the stand-alone 'stache sporting policeman, so it does take a bit of skill not to accidentally send Professor Minutes-From-Suicide-Any-Damned-Way to hell.
Seriously, look at the sour puss on that professor. Should we shoot out of mercy or not?
My favorite was always Game B. It takes you right into the mythical Hogan's Alley where the gameplay appears trickier and better paced. Still a lack of music except for a groovy little head nodder in between rounds which is fine by me. If you've ever played this mode, my old faithful standbys "fuuuuuck!" and "shiiiiit!" will enter even the cleanest vernacular after you just accidentally pumped poor Miss Nobody full of lead. Second verse, same as the first, 10 misses and it's c'est la vie!
Game B FTW
The third option is a trick shot skill game where your goal is to shoot flying tin cans at certain angles, bouncing them into a side wall containing point values. Not too easy, but not impossible either. When compared to the other 2 modes, this is the one voted most likely to collect virtual dust. Not that it's bad or anything, just rather ho-hum when compared to the first two modes.
About as fun as it looks. A solid 15 seconds of entertainment.
THE FINAL VERDICT
7/10 A truly great launch title that I've always personally enjoyed more than Duck Hunt. Not the popular opinion I know, but three very distinct modes when DH only throws you an extra duck and some clay pigeons makes Hogan's Alley rise above. The controls seem a bit sharper here as well as there aren't as many cases of the ol' "OH BULLSHIT, I SHOT THAT FOR SURE!" going on. Pile those onto one of the deeper, more fascinating histories you'll ever find, and Hogan's Alley is a title that shouldn't ever be looked over.
Nintendo and FBI mash-up!
For more information about the Yellow Kid and the origins of Hogan's Alley, check out Brian Cronin's INCREDIBLE blog at CBR here:
Comic Book Legends Revealed
And hey, Mr. Cronin returned my original shout-out here!
Comic Book Legends - Hogan's Alley
And for the most surreal site I've seen in awhile here is an actual link to the FBI's real life Hogan's Alley. It exists to this day as a training facility and I'd sell my soul to Zarathos to walk through here one good time:
FBI - Hogan's Alley
This one is dedicated to a like-minded, uber-creative, unorthodox hell of an entertaining dude at a crossroads right now. Joe Martin, the world is yours my man. Now shut up, roll up your sleeves, put your head down, and go get the motherfucker. I'll be watching! #positivitylife
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