Gumshoe is a side-scrolling/Light Gun Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
R.L. Stevenson is an FBI agent-turned-private eye whose daughter Jennifer has been kidnapped by the gangster King Dom, who demands you bring him the five Black Panther Diamonds in exchange for her life. You must navigate Stevenson through each stage of the game by using your Zapper light gun to shoot Stevenson, which makes him jump, and shoot down any obstacles and enemies in his way, from wild animals to glass bottles.
No connection to the tabletop roleplaying game of the same name.
This game provides examples of:
- A Winner Is You: Beating the game gives this message to the player: "Thanks a million! Without your help, we might have never seen Jennifer again. You were great!"
- Bottomless Pits: They're found all over in all levels but the Ocean. Falling into one costs Stevenson one life.
- Continuing Is Painful: Dying removes any power-ups you have accumulated. This is especially true if Stevenson falls into a Bottomless Pit, because anything is gone.
- Cyclops: The final boss of the game is Zulie, a one-eyed monster that guards King Dom's hide-out.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: By picking up less balloons, you take the shorter route. This is useful because the longer routes tend to be trickier, but at the same reward rare items.
- Endless Running Game: Mr. Stevenson is always moving, and the player has to use the light gun to either make him jump over obstacles or kill enemies.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: You'll face all kinds of unlikely enemies and obstacles, from out-of-control mob cars to birds, fish and, thrown bottles.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: One of the obstacles in the game you have to shoot down are glass bottles thrown by an unseen assailant.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: King Dom has kidnapped Stevenson's daughter Jennifer in order to get him to collect the Black Panther Diamonds.
- I Have Your Daughter: Dom has Jennifer captive to get Mr. Stevenson to do what he demands.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Several enemies cannot be defeated at all. For example, a rhinoceros is impervious to any of Stevenson's bullets.
- Light Gun Game: Combined with Endless Running Game, the light gun is used to make Mr. Stevenson jump or kill enemies before they kill him.
- Made of Iron: Alligators take a whopping ten shots to defeat, the most of any enemy in the game.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The objective of the game is to collect the five Black Panther Diamonds as a ransom for Mr. Stevenson's daughter.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Alligators are enemies in the Jungle level. They'll lunge out of the swamp water to try to bite Stevenson.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Stevenson will die if he hits any obstacle, unless you collect the Power Drink power-up that lets him take an extra hit.
- Railroading: You cannot skip any of the diamonds. By doing so, it will continue scrolling endlessly until you pick up the diamond.
- Shout-Out: The Black Panther diamonds would seem to be a reference to another comical detective story.
- Single-Use Shield: Power Drink helps Stevenson to take an extra hit. Picking up another stacks the hits you can take, up to a certain limit.
- Solid Clouds: Clouds are a type of platform Stevenson can walk on. They're only found in the Skyscraper level.
- Stripped to the Bone: After being shot once, sharks will remain alive with their bones remaining.
- Threatening Shark: One of the enemies in the ocean are sharks. They require two shots to be defeated.
- Timed Mission: All of the levels have a six minute timer to complete.
- Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: The Black Panther Diamonds are as big as Stevenson's head.
- Wicked Wasps: Wasps are a common enemy in the Jungle level. Shooting at them will dispatch them.