West Bank is an arcade game clone written by Alvaro Mateos for ZX Spectrum and published by Dinamic Software in 1985. Originally, game was named Bank Panic and developed by Sanritsu and published by Sega in 1984. Bank Panic was very popular on arcade devices.

West Bank puts you in the role of a bank client in the time of the Wild West, the time when the filled-up gun was a more efficient than a pen.

At each level, you have to serve a total of 12 doors, with a maximum of three doors on one screen. Cowboys, ladies and other well-intentioned citizens appear on them to invest money in the bank. When you collect a stake from all the doors, you can go to the next screen.

But, sometimes behind the doors will appear bandits which will try to rob you. When a bandit appears at the door, you must react quickly and shoot it before a bandit tries to kill you. You need to be careful when opening a fire, because if you shoot an innocent civilian, you lose one life. Usually robbers are pretty cunning, so sometimes they simply push the investor off the door and shoot. Often, you will also see bonus characters like a humpback with a hat under which is a sack of money hiding or an exploding bomb if you hit it.

Between the levels, you will have a duel with the three bandits. You can shoot them only if they pull their pistols first. As you progress through the game, doors will opens up more quickly and you will have less time to kill the bandits. Unfortunately, the game is very repetitive and will quickly bother you. But the good news is that West Bank is a great way to make a little bit of reflexes.

P. Penski

Video file by: Retro Games Blog