PAX Hands-on: The Gunstringer (XBLA)

Marionette skeleton cowboys fans have reason to rejoice, I had the opportunity to play The Gunstringer on the show floor at PAX and it promises to be fill a void for core gamers in the Kinect game lineup.

While the motion tracking of the player’s hands controlling the Gunstringer isn’t one-to-one on the screen, after a few minutes of playing the controls feel really responsive. Your left hand controls the left and right movement as well as jumping, while the right tags enemies on the screen and the gunfire is triggered by flick of the arm.

Twisted Pixel CEO Michel Wilford told that while the early people doesn’t have support for left-handed controls, the final build with have the option to swap the hand controls.

I found myself able to pickup the control system pretty quickly and I didn’t see any of the attendees having any trouble jumping right into the demo and firing away.

The art style of the game is interest mix of animation and live action. Human hands appear in the background pushing boulders at the pistol-wielding marionette. The voiceover narration of the story adds a nice touch of western nostalgia.

Hopefully the release of The Gunslinger later this year will mark the beginning of new style of Kinect games targeted at core players in the Xbox audience.