The Wild West is kind of like a vertically scrolling shooter set in the Old West, except — not quite. You are out to stop the evil Terano gang and collect the $500,000 bounty and their leader's head. You can play as Wolfy, a professional bounty hunter seeking revenge (and a bounty) or Catty, a young girl searching for revenge. Terano destroyed a whole town of people that had been kind to him. In Catty's case, Terano killed her parents and brother, and she wants him to pay the price.

The first thing you'll notice is that none of the characters, at least so far, are human. Wolfy is well, a wolf — but dressed nicely as a gunslinger — bandana, cowboy hat, low-riding gun belt and all. Catty is a cute little cat-like girl. You'll find that Terano is some generic kind of lizard dude. His henchman are all manner of creatures — but usually, the action is happening a little too fast for me to get a good look at them.

With each level of the game, you get to choose if you want to play as Catty or Wolfy. It's definitely worth playing both because they start in different places, and each has their own challenges to overcome (though the controls are the same for both). I chose Catty for my first leap into The Wild West. In retrospect, it probably would be better to begin with Wolfy. He is a stronger fighter, and it might be easier to get an initial feel for the game with him.

In any case, I'm heading into adventure with Catty. She starts with a revolver of infinite ammo (I know this because there is a little infinity sign on the ammo count for the revolver) and a couple of sticks of dynamite. There are sometimes other weapons you can grab in battle or earn through mini-games, but the ones I've seen so far all have a limited number of shots. What I want to know is how the lizardy henchmen of Terano are shooting me with some sort of ray gun. How fair is that?

Since the theme of The Wild West is revenge, you would presume that there's a fair amount of combat — and you'd be right. I've seen two different forms of combat with both characters (and the game chooses which one at any given time — not you).

In the 3D mode, you're kind of looking over the shoulder of your character. You shoot at the bad guys by tapping them with the stylus. Sometimes they drop sticks of dynamite or other weapons, and you can tap those things with the stylus to pick them up. Basically, you fight, fight, fight and try not to die in a given spot (you can move side to side to an extent, but not forwards or backwards), and as soon as the spot is cleared, the game runs you to the next encounter. I like that in this mode I can shoot up objects, such as barrels in the street or bottles off of tables. No, it doesn't accomplish anything, but I like generating that breaking glass sound. You will see a little crosshair on the screen showing where the enemy is aiming. It turns color from blue to yellow to red to show how close the shot is.

The 2D mode is kind of a top-down view. Again, you're running forward with the game controlling your speed, but you can move side to side a bit. A white circle on the screen shows your radius of fire. You tap the screen within the circle to fire in that direction. I find that I'm running forward much faster than I'm comfortable with. Not only am I trying to shoot the bad guys and dodge their bullets, but I also need to dodge such obstacles as boulders and cacti. At one stage with Wolfy, I'm even trying to destroy another stagecoach as I race along.

Along with shooting the bad guys (and trying to avoid getting shot, ray-gunned, crushed by boulders or impaled on cactuses), you will try and collect objects to help you with the game. You can collect badges, silver coins, money bags, food and an eagle-eye buff.

If you get 10 badges, it opens up a bonus level. There are five different mini-games associated with the bonus level. You'll get a random selection each time you get to this point. From the booklet, I know these are all touch screen games. There's a round up game in which you herd cattle, a dart throwing game, a quick draw target shoot, a rodeo (stay on the bucking bronco) game and a bartending game. I have to go from the book on these because I haven't lived long enough to earn enough badges to actually try them for myself.

The coin rewards increase your game score. In 2D mode, you'll have to pick them up. In 3D mode, you apparently loot your enemies automatically.

The food items are used to increase health. There's a chicken drumstick, a ham bone, a whole chicken and a whole ham. The bigger the piece of meat, the more health you get back. While I've seen a lot of food playing Wolfy, poor Catty hasn't seen so much as a chocolate-covered mouse yet, much less anything more substantial.

The eagle-eye buff can be pretty handy. It can either increase your line of sight or make that 2D firing circle bigger.

When you start each game, you have an option for Story mode, Mini-Game Transmission to another DS (up to 16 at a time), or you can set your game options — like sound effects and turning off or on the rumble pack. I like that there's an option to share the mini-games with friends without them having to have their own cartridges.

I like the game idea and the out of left-field cast of characters, and that I can switch between Wolfy and Catty when I start my game and have a different game experience with each. The graphics are definitely Old West.. The sound effects are definitely "Old Western shoot-out" appropriate. The game loads quickly enough, and you are immediately dropped into the action. It is a different twist on an Old Western, that's for sure.

My real problem with The Wild West, unfortunately, is I'm finding that my fine motor skills aren't lending themselves well to my success. I keep repeating the same beginning areas because I just can't get past them to the next stage. This is important, because your game isn't saved until you complete an entire section. (No, you don't have any control on save games. You either make it to a save point or just turn it off and start over from whatever previous save point you reached.)

This is a quirky game that looks like a lot of fun — and I think those with better reflexes than my own would have a good time with the challenge in The Wild West. If you are a Zen master of the stylus and want to play something just a bit different, give The Wild West a try. Catty and Wolfy need your help. Sadly, my poor fingers just aren't up to the job.