When one thinks of run and gun platforming set in the wild west, one might think of the fantastic arcade title Sunset Riders. Now western games are rare in themselves but there is a market for them, and with western platformers being ever rarer, it's nice to see a game like Gunman Clive emerge. The girl has been captured by the villain and it's up to Clive to rescue her while enacting some old western justice on all who stand in his way, be they outlaw, predator or waterfowl.

One of the first things noticeable about the game is the sketchy watercolor presentation. The world looks like a scrapbook art project, with characters filled out in blocks of pastel color against backdrops of almost xerox looking buildings and platforms. The whole effect gives the game a fantastical yet nostalgic-aly familiar feel.

Clive is controlled through each level by an on screen joystick and two buttons, one for jumping, one for shooting. He can duck and climb ladders, but most of your time will be spent moving to the right, avoiding fire and shooting everything that moves. If you're lucky you might even get a weapon upgrade  which will give you such benefits as spread fire or homing bullets. The controls are average. While jumping and shooting is not a concern, the joystick would often mistake directional inputs and really in any platformer, you want the controls to be working with you. This seems to be a problem with most games on the iphone that rely on touch buttons. There have been titles that have used the strengths of the platform to solve this issue, and it would be nice to see more games experiment in this realm.

Mini-rant aside, Gunman Clive is a classic run and gun platformer with great visuals and some interesting level and boss design as you continue your way along. The controls really aren't that bad, but the weaknesses of the control scheme in this genre has long been addressed. If you're a platformer fan, Gunman Clive gets a recommend.