Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger

Dillon's Rolling Western is among the most low-key Nintendo franchises to date. In fact, you may not have heard of it.

That's because, while this tower-defence-cum-action game might have some neat tricks up its sleeve, it's a little rough around the edges. It doesn't have the quality we've come to expect from Nintendo-published games.

The Last Ranger throws some nice new additions into the pot, but the overall recipe remains the same: intriguing yet ultimately repetitive.

'Cause some damn fool accused you of being the best

Once again the Grocks are attacking, and you must shoot out onto the battlefield as an armoured armadillo and stop the oncoming hordes before they reach the gates.

Dillon's Rolling Western is part tower-defence, part battler. You use money to erect towers and weaponise them, which helps you to hold the Grocks back a little - however, most of your time will be spend zipping around and attacking the enemy face-to-face.

It's an extremely polished experience that gives a real sense of urgency and tension as you flick your stylus across the touchscreen to make Dillon roll around the expansive levels.

There's also a fair amount to do, with mines to excavate, secrets to uncover, and side-missions to attend to. You're given several minutes before each wave to bomb around the place, collect resources, and set the battlefield up, and it's always a huge rush - in both senses of the word - to get yourself properly prepared.

Rolling Western is a brutal game in terms of difficulty, and you'll need to be constantly on your toes to keep the hordes at bay.

Roll on

But, much like its predecessor, The Last Ranger doesn't really offer enough variety in the long-term, and instead pummels you with the same scenario over and over and over again.

Each level comes as a three-day cycle, with set-up and enemy waves on each - but the only real variety is that you get new enemies every hour or so. It all becomes samey and dull very quickly.

The Last Ranger attempts to quell this with some new additions. There's now a train that you also need to watch over, while new allies are thrown in for good measure. But none of this really does much to address the repetitiveness of the core gameplay.

Some StreetPass functionality is also included, although we doubt we'll ever get the chance to use it. Overall, the sequel doesn't improve enough over the original, leaving us rather disappointed.

If you enjoyed Dillon's Rolling Western, then The Last Ranger will be right up your street. Otherwise, it's once again a neat concept in need of an overhaul before it can truly shine.

Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger

The Last Ranger is more of the same, with none of the original's main flaws really attended to at all
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.