Sheriff (video game)
Gameplay. The game's concept is Nintendo's first damsel in distress theme, predating " Donkey Kong" (1981). The player controls Mr. Jack, a sheriff, against a gang of attacking bandits, to defend the town and rescue Betty, the captured woman. "Sheriff" distinctly features two separate controls: a joystick for movement, and a dial control for aiming and firing, a configuration unusual for arcade games and nonexistent in consoles at the time. The joystick moves the character and the dial aims and fires, each in eight separate directions, allowing Mr. Jack to walk in one direction while shooting  in another. The movement joystick is set with a considerable time delay before moving. 16 bandits (also referred to as 'gangs') surround the outer rim, marked by a dotted "fence". Bullets from either Mr. Jack or the bandits can destroy the fenceposts, and they can function as defensive walls or aiming obstacles for the player. Larger barriers also exist on the midpoint of each side of the screen, and bullets from either Mr. Jack or the bandits will slowly erode these. The top and bottom barriers display the current level number. The basic action taken by the enemy bandits is  to walk around the outer rim while firing bullets at Mr. Jack, but they will sometimes enter into the central area, along with a change in game music. Mr. Jack must avoid touching the bandits, dodge bullets, and shoot all 16 bandits to complete each level. Occasionally, a condor flies along the top of the screen in much the same way as the UFO in Taito's "Space Invaders". Shooting the condor awards the player a random amount of bonus points. During certain rounds, the game will suddenly change to night-time, wherein all the graphics are colored dark blue , and a brief looping melody replaces most of the game's sound effects. The game stays like this until the player wins the round or is killed by a bandit. At the end of every second round, a brief cutscene is shown. Depending on many rounds the player has completed, this cutscene either shows Betty being chased by the bandits or reuniting with Mr. Jack. Development. The game was developed by Nintendo R&D1 in 1979, designed by Genyo Takeda with art by Shigeru Miyamoto. Some sources assert that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on "Sheriff". Release. The game was  originally released in two formats: an upright cabinet and a cocktail (tabletop) version. These versions were imported to Europe, Asia, and America. In America, the game was distributed by Far East Video. In the UK, "Sheriff" was licensed for production and distribution by Bell-Fruit Manufacturing in an upright cabinet. Bell-Fruit's core product range at the time was fruit/slot machines. "Sheriff" (and later "Puckman") marked the company's first, and short lived, diversification into the market of video games as licensee, so the cabinet design for this territory differs considerably from that of the Japanese version. Although  it features the same marquee and bezel design, it shares many properties more commonly associated with slot machines, such as a lack of side art or cabinet decals. However, the game's title in this region remains unchanged as "Sheriff". In North America, the game was distributed by Exidy as "Bandido". As was common practice for arcade games at the time, the game was sold as if it were Exidy's own creation, with all mentions of Nintendo being edited or removed. Reception. The game was a commercial success in Japan, where "Sheriff" was among the top ten highest-grossing  arcade games of 1979. In 2012, 1up wrote, ""Sheriff" put Nintendo on the right track as a game developer." Legacy. More than two decades after the two arcade releases, it was re-released as part of "", released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. In "WarioWare", "Sheriff" was included as both a microgame and as a minigame ("Wario's Sheriff") in which Wario takes the role of the sheriff. Standard controls apply to the microgame version, but in the minigame version, the L/R buttons can make the sheriff face in the opposite direction without moving. The time delay for  moving the sheriff was removed, and the sheriff's walking speed is greatly increased from the original. When the player's points double after completing a certain number of levels, the sheriff also gains extra lives, reducing the game's difficulty considerably. The Sheriff character has appeared in the "Super Smash Bros." series starting with "Super Smash Bros. Melee", in which he appears as one of the many collectible Trophies in the game. Sheriff later returned in "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U" as an assist trophy where he fires a succession of eight bullets in a  random order on the battlefield when summoned. He appears again as an Assist Trophy and Spirit in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate".