Cowboy Guns by C2 Estudio and Chillingo is for all intents and purposes yet another attempt at trying to spin gold out of straw; insert one popular genre (Twin-stick Shooter), add a dash of a popular theme (Wild West) and see what happens. See now, that's the cynic in me talking - in reality what happened was far more interesting.

Instead of the usual bland and lifeless endless gameplay, Cowboy Guns focuses heavily on a level-by-level action adventure story. It's an old tale - one of redemption from past evils - so fans of Westerns certainly won't miss a beat as you progress through each stage, saving hostages and protecting towns while hunting down members of your former gang.

While there's not much variety in the weaponry (Pistol, Shotgun, Gatling Gun and Bombs), an upgrade system allows you to spend cash earned via missions or pick-ups to increase the effectiveness of these items. This results in a visual as well as a practical change such as the shotgun switching from one barrel to two with an increased 'spread' shot. Armor and speed bonuses also add to your survivability, though outside of tackling bosses either in the main game mode or the alternative 'Quickplay' Bounties, you'll have little to worry about as health drops are plentiful.

The visual style is also something to note carefully as its simplicity may put some off, but the squat, blocky character designs go a long way towards giving off a rough and tough atmosphere while still remaining friendly to all ages. It's almost LEGO-meets-Minigore in its appeal. If anything has to be criticized it's the poor waypoint arrow that only gives 'vague' directions unless you stand still and try to interpret where it's pointing.

Once you're finished with the main storyline you can backtrack through earlier levels to upgrade your character even further or tackle the 'Quickplay' modes including endless versions of each mission from the campaign, which is quite a lot of replay value.

If you love a cheesy Western or you're after a simple action shooter to kill some time, Cowboy Guns fits the bill perfectly.