Peacekeepers

Peacekeepers is a 2D side-scrolling run-and-gun action platformer developed and published by ACS. Released in 1998 for Arcade (ACS Supra³² System), PlayStation and Dreamcast.

Peacekeepers takes place in an anachronistic version of the Wild West, where bounty hunters Billy and Jesse must rescue damsel in distress Sally Hawkins from the clutches of the notorious outlaw E. Ville. The game is named after the Peacekeeper, the strongest weapon in the entire game.

Gameplay
In Peacekeepers, the player must traverse through six levels, refferred to in-game as “scenes”, shooting constantly at a continual stream of enemies in order to reach the end of each scene, where they would then face off against a “boss” character: an outlaw, each with different ways to attack and methods to defeat. At the beginning of each stage, the players are shown a wanted poster for the outlaw they will face at the end of the scene.

The game features three buttons: one for shooting, one for jumping, and one for throwing sticks of dynamite, which clears off swarms of weaker enemies and deals a signifcant amount of damage to stronger enemies and bosses. Each character starts off the stage with 10 sticks of dynamite, which they can refill by picking up dynamite crates. Dying would revert their number of dynamites back to 10. The game also features the ability to shoot in all 8 directions, bearing more resemblance to the shooting in games like Contra and Sunset Riders.

Unlike most run-and-gun shooters, where most enemies will kill the player just by touching them, most of the enemy characters in Peacekeepers do not kill the player by way of contact, and the player can even take these enemies out with a melee attack. Correspondingly, many of the enemies also have melee attacks of their own. However, one hit is all it takes for players to lose a life. By default, each player starts off with three lives per credit.

Along the way, players come across various items which add up to a player’s score, with each item granting a value between 10 and 100,000 points, as well as weapons that increase the player’s firepower in various ways, but have a limited amount of bullets before running out. The player can also ride on horses in certain areas, which allows players to move around the level faster.

Throughout the course of the game, the player also encounters hostages, who, if freed, would grant the player bonuses in the form of random items or weapons. At the end of each scene, players receive a scoring bonus based on the number of hostages they freed. If the player dies before the scene ends, the tally of freed hostages reverts to zero.

A good chunk of the game's scenery is destructible, and occasionally reveals extra items, weapons and sometimes, even hostages, although, most of the time, it simply results in collateral damage. The bulk of the games’ secrets revolves around finding the locations of these hidden items and hostages.

Weapons

 * Dual Revolvers

Gives the player a second revolver, increasing their power and firing rate.

Bullets: 150


 * Scattershot Rifle

A rifle that fires bullets that spread out in three directions.

Bullets: 50


 * Shotgun

A shotgun that fires short-ranged blasts that blow enemies away.

Bullets: 30


 * Mini Gatling

A miniaturized Gatling Gun that shoots rapid fire bullets.

Bullets: 150


 * Hand Cannon

A literal hand cannon that fires small, exploding cannonballs at enemies.

Bullets: 30


 * Peacekeeper

A custom Magnum revolver that possesses extreme firepower.

Bullets: 15

The Heroes

 * Billy McCormick

The player 1 character. A notorious bounty hunter who fears no outlaw, Billy is currently in a romantic relationship with a saloon girl named Sally Hawkins. When he heard that Sally was kidnapped by the outlaw E. Ville, he and Jesse set out on a quest to take E. Ville down, even if it kills them.


 * Jesse Hawkins

The player 2 character. Billy’s partner-in-crime and Sally’s older brother, Jesse will stop at nothing to protect his sister from everyone that would harm her. When he heard that Sally was kidnapped by the outlaw E. Ville, he and Jesse set out on a quest to take E. Ville down, even if it kills them.

The Outlaws

 * Sheriff Burns

The corrupt sherriff of Goon Town. He serves as the boss of Scene 1.


 * Tommy Longshot

A hitman armed with a bolt-action rifle. He serves as the boss of Scene 2.


 * Chief Tatanka

The chief of the Indian village. He serves as the boss of Scene 3.


 * Petey Fortune

A greedy prospector. He serves as the boss of Scene 4.


 * Los Diablos, Rojo y Azul

A pair of Mexican bandido twins. They serve as the boss of Scene 5.


 * Edward Ville

The most feared outlaw in all of the Wild West. He serves as the boss of Scene 6.

Others

 * Sally Hawkins

Billy’s love interest, and Jesse’s sister,who works as a saloon girl. She was kidnapped by the notorious outlaw E. Ville as part of his plans.


 * Tiago Mendes

A Mexican bandido who initially works for Los Diablos. He was about to be punished by the twins for his failures near the end of Scene 5 before Billy and Jesse step in.


 * The Hostages

Along the way, Billy and Jesse encounter various hostages which would help them out on their quest once freed.These hostages range from captured townspeople, to saloon girls, to village women, to gold mine workers.

Scenes
Boss: Sheriff Burns
 * Scene 1: Goon Town

Boss: Tommy Longshot
 * Scene 2: Runaway Train

Boss: Chief Tatanka
 * Scene 3: Indian Village

Boss: Petey Fortune
 * Scene 4: Gold Mine

Boss: Los Diablos
 * Scene 5: Saloon Showdown

Boss: E. Ville
 * Scene 6: Kingpin’s Palace

Trivia

 * The game was developed by ex-Konami employees who worked on the 1991 run-and-gun shooter Sunset Riders, and was originally developed as a spiritual successor of the game, before later branching out and taking various influences from other run-and-gun titles, and in particular, SNK’s Metal Slug series.


 * The Dreamcast version of Peacekeepers was praised by critics as an arcade-perfect port of the original. By comparison, the PlayStation version suffers from cut animation frames due to the console’s RAM limitations, but includes several exclusive content missing from the Dreamcast version.


 * A Game Boy Color version of Peacekeepers was announced around the year 2000, but was cancelled shortly thereafter. The port was to be developed by WayForward Technologies, instead of ACS themselves, and a prototype version can be found in several ROM sites.