''Gumshoe'' is a

light gun shooter Light-gun shooter, also called light-gun game or simply gun game, is a Shooter game, shooter video game video game genres, genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery (carnival game), shooting gallery by having ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

for the VS. System arcade hardware and the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

console. It was released in 1986 in North America and in 1988 in Europe. It was not released in Japan, which is unusual for a Nintendo game. It was designed by

Yoshio Sakamoto (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the ''Metroid'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Resear ...

Plot

Mr. Stevenson is an ex-

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent turned

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

. He receives a ransom note from a mafia boss, King Dom, who has kidnapped Stevenson's daughter, Jennifer. Stevenson must collect five "Black Panther

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

" within 24 hours in order to see his daughter again.

Gameplay

Mr. Stevenson walks automatically to the right, into a world of deadly pits, traps, and enemies. The player makes him jump by shooting him with the Zapper, and shoots enemies as they appear on screen. Shooting anything else subtracts one bullet, and grabbing red balloons adds bullets. ''Gumshoe'' contains four levels, each with a secret bonus area that can be accessed by first attaining at least twenty balloons.

Release

The release date changed several times. It was first scheduled for June 1986, and was later changed to August 1986.

Reception

In a 2015 article for ''

Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...

'', Nathan Birch ranked ''Gumshoe'' as the worst of the NES black box releases, criticizing its game mechanics and its "instant-kill pits", while calling it "one of those lousy Zapper games where you have to protect a dumbass character who trudges forward constantly, oblivious to the dangers around them". In 2023, Garrett Martin of ''

Paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

'' ranked ''Gumshoe'' fourth on a list of the NES's eighteen Zapper games. Martin called ''Gumshoe'' the "weirdest" and "most fascinating" game on the list but also the most difficult because "it's so hard that most will probably lose interest before finishing the first stage." In 2013, Simon Parkin of

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

included ''Gumshoe'' on a list of the ten "best, most important, most interesting or most unusual lesser-known" games by famous developers. Parkin noted that ''Gumshoe'' represented

's interest in exploring "murky, foreboding scenarios" that contrasted with other Nintendo games. Calling it "one of the most curious genre mash-ups of the era", he wrote that the game's combination of the Zapper with platforming gameplay "demonstrates Sakamoto’s restless creativity" and considered the game notable as "an early precursor to the so-called

Endless Runner Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. Th ...

that has found huge popularity on iOS in recent years".

References

External links

*
Gumshoe
' a
NinDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gumshoe (Video Game) 1986 video games Detective video games Light gun games Nintendo arcade games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo games Nintendo Research & Development 1 games Nintendo VS. System games Organized crime video games Platformers Single-player video games Video games designed by Yoshio Sakamoto Video games developed in Japan Video games directed by Satoru Okada Video games scored by Hirokazu Tanaka