Showdown

Showdown was one of many groundbreaking online features of Big Buck HD when it was released. It allowed players to connect with up to 3 other people around the country, and they would shoot a randomly selected site independently. After each site, their scores would be compared, and the winner of the Site would have his or her replay shown on all participating units. Whoever came in first place at the end of each match would win that match.

## Changes

### 2012-2015

Each match would last 2 Treks (default cost is $2). If the machine allowed it, players would have an option to participate in a Showdown Tourney for an extra dollar. Showdown Tourney prize pools would have a maximum prize of $4, and the winner would take all of it. Many active players would be irrationally annoyed if someone entered their match who wasn't participating in a Showdown Tourney. People like this were jokingly referred to as "Timmy's," and they would usually play at places not really considered bars. These would include places such as arcades, family fun centers, or other family-friendly venues.

If a player starts a match and nobody is found right away, they would be put into a "Practice Mode" until the machine picked up a signal that somebody else has chosen Showdown. It would then send the player into the lobby, where it would find players and display their name, icon, and where they were playing at. Originally, the "Let's Get Started" button would tell the machine to stop looking for additional players and start the match immediately. In 2013, however, this was changed and all current players had to shoot the button to begin the match.

Showdown and Showdown Tourneys were shut down on March 18, 2015 to free up server traffic for the WILD update to Big Buck HD.

### 2015-2018

On April 1, 2015, Showdown returned, but with changes that annoyed many dedicated players. With the new Ranked Play option, Showdown was moved to Arcade mode to get more people to play it. Since Arcade mode is supposed to be a very quick experience for novice players, several features had to be removed. Showdown Tourneys would no longer exist, and you would not be able to log in either. Showdown's price was also shortened from $2 to $1, which reflected the cost of a standard Trek in Arcade mode (4 Sites and 1 Bonus instead of 2 Treks).

In August 2015, a new user interface was created for Showdown. Players would no longer have to participate in Practice Mode and would immediately be dropped into the new lobby, which allowed people to enter their name and choose an icon, or swipe their card if they already have an account. If no players were found within the time limit, players would have to play by themselves for the entirety of the match, or be matched up with ghost players, who would have previously recorded gameplay that would reflect which sites were chosen. Many dedicated players were still upset over the loss of Showdown Tourneys.

When v8.37 was released on April 29, 2018, Showdown was shut down on all game units due to the lack of support for the new Buckzilla sites and Bonuses. It is currently unknown whether or not it will come back, but if it shows up in the game, it will crash when selected. v8.50 defaulted Showdown to off in the game software and the database when it was released in January 2019.

### 2020

On June 19, 2020, some patch notes for v9.19 of Big Buck Hunter Reloaded were leaked onto the private Buck Hunters Facebook group, and the notes talked about updating Showdown for Reloaded, as well as bringing back Team Play, which hasn't appeared since Big Buck World. On August 12, 2020, Play Mechanix president George Petro and graphic design leader Mike Colesworthy discussed these 2 modes during a live stream on the official Big Buck Hunter page.

Big Buck Hunter Reloaded v9.23 was released on August 17, 2020. Games didn't start patching until later that night, and Showdown was disabled until the next day as more machines would get the new software. Head 2 Head, Team Play, & Showdown were all streamlined into one option within the Big Buck Hunter option called "Versus." The background image of the graphic for the Showdown button did not change. However, the intro and outro videos were removed.

Showdown's UI had a face-lift when it made the transition from HD to Reloaded. The site progression map was shown on the top left corner of the screen, while the player's scores were shown on the bottom. To account for the new "vertical" site thumbnails instead of the square ones, the randomized choosing of sites and bonuses had the visual look changed as well. There is now an arrow showing which site is selected. Buckzilla & Zombie Deer sites are surprisingly not available in Showdown, but the Buckzilla bonuses are. Other than these changes, the functionality of Showdown has remained largely unchanged for Reloaded.