Dillon's Rolling Western

Dillon's Rolling Western
Dillon is rolling in the Wild West for the first time!
Protagonist(s): Dillon Genre(s): Action Adventure Tower Defense Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS Release Date: February 22, 2012 Developer(s): Vanpool Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Dillon's Rolling Western Successor: Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger

Dillon's Rolling Western is a Tower Defense Action game developed by Vanpool and was released on the E-Shop on February 22, 2012.

It is the first game in the Dillon's Rolling Western franchise.

A sequel called Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger would release a year later.

Why The Red Flash Is Rolling

1. The game's idea of mixing Tower Defense game elements with action adventure elements was unique and a good idea for the time.
2. Great graphics for a E-Shop game, especially the character designs of Dillon and the other characters.
3. Decent soundtrack.
4. Unlike many E-Shop games, the game's price was pretty cheap at the time. Only costing $10.
5. Upon exploring other villages, you get to meet new characters along the way, many of them having unique dialogue.
6. The game has a 3 day system for the villages, each day you gather ores and extra money needed for the gunners amd watcher towers, overtime you can upgrade them to be stronger in the material or have more powerful guns.
7. Dillon's gear can be upgraded as soon you unlock the next upgrade, the upgraded gear will allow Dillon to be stronger and defeat the grocks easily. Although enough uses will destroy the gear.
8. Dillon can find treasure chests in hidden areas, where he can find gems, or heart pieces for extra health.
9. There are mines located throughout the game, where Dillon can mine ores for extra money.
10. Finishing the game will reward you a model viewer, in which allows you to view all of the models of the Grocks you encounter in the game.
11. Additionally finishing the last mission "The Old Mission" will give you more backstory for Dillon and Russ and will show you a small sneak peak of the sequel.

Bad Qualities

1. While the graphics were good for the time, the only parts of the game that are 3D is the in-game areas while you are defending the villages, Dillon, Russ, and the Grocks. Most of the areas outside of the village defense missions are mostly 2D, and all of the mayors and NPCs do not get any 3D appearences. Making the game feel more like a early iOS and Android mobile game than a 3DS game. This would later be improved in the second entry.
2. The touch-screen controls are not suited for an action-based tower-defense game, especially if you need to defend the village from the Grocks.
   • Additionally the control scheme is only designed for right-handed players, meaning left-handed players will have issues with the controls.
3. You need to have a certain number of stars in order to unlock the levels, which requires you to replay the missions constantly or buy stars from Otis.
   • On top of that, in order to play the last mission called "The Old Mission" you need over $100,000 saved in Russ's savings, which requires you to grind in the missions.
4. Very long prep times, even if you gathered mostly everything in the area.
5. Because of the game being exclusive to the E-Shop, as of 2023 when Nintendo shutdown the E-Shop, the game can no longer be obtained legally.

Trivia

1. The game originally was pitched by Vanpool as a Zelda spinoff game, but it was later rejected as Nintendo wanted them to use their idea for a original franchise.