Sundown Duel

The sun is already going down. You have five cylinders, thirty bullets, and a man at the other end of the street who wants exactly what you want.

Sundown Duel is a retro indie Western game: a duel of nerve, position and patience. You move up and down your side of the street; your gun fires straight across it. So where you stand IS your aim — be level with him at the right moment, and be anywhere else the rest of the time.

WORLD TOURNAMENT: UP TO 128 GUNSLINGERS Open to everyone on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. The first sign-up opens registration, and ten minutes later the bracket is drawn with everyone who joined, from 4 to 128. Every player earns points for where they finish, and those points count toward the world ranking in the Hall of Fame; the top three also take gold, silver and bronze. Tap any match on the bracket to watch it live. On iPhone, the countdown sits in the Dynamic Island.

THREE MORE TOURNAMENTS • Friendly Tournament: share a four-letter code, or let Game Center friends join with a tap, and start when everyone's in: 4 to 32 players. • Gunslinger Tournament: you and 31 computer gunslingers, each at a random level from 1 to 100. • Local Tournament: 4 to 8 players on one device, passing it around between matches. All four are knockouts: best of three, then best of five from the semi-finals on. Online tournaments have their own chat.

THIRTY BULLETS, AND NOT ONE MORE Five six-shot cylinders per round. No auto-reload: an empty gun stays empty until you feed it another one, and choosing that moment is half the fight. Spray a line and you will be standing there defenceless while he walks up to it.

COVER THAT REALLY BREAKS The saguaros and the covered wagon between you break band by band, and a hole you shoot is a hole you can shoot through. Clip the tender top off a cactus for one bullet, or spend five on the woody base and drop the whole thing on its face.

THE EAGLE AND THE SNAKE Partway through the round an eagle crosses the middle of the street, and whoever hits it first wins a heart back. Later a rattlesnake comes down the same lane — and whoever hits that one LOSES a heart. Both ask you the same question: is it worth taking your aim off the man in front of you?

NINETY SECONDS OF DAYLIGHT The sun drops as the round runs, and when it touches the horizon, the round is over. Most hearts wins. Five hits put a cowboy in the dust.

A HUNDRED LEVELS, AND NO SECOND TRY Climb the career one round per level, against gunslingers who read the street instead of copying you: they wait off your line, shoot when you cross it, and move before you get there. From level 20 they carry more ammunition than you do. Lose once and the run is over, and the level you reached goes to the worldwide Hall of Fame — by level, then by time.

DUEL: ONE BULLET A clean street, one bullet, one heart, nobody moves. Wait for the drop — which never comes when you expect it — and draw. Its own hundred-level ladder, its own leaderboard.

EVERYONE IN THE SAME ROOM Two players on one iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. Three or four on an iPad or Apple TV: two on two, or two against one, best of five. On Apple TV, two sticks unlock Free Aim, your arm free of your body.

ONLINE, ACROSS EVERY DEVICE iPhone, iPad and Apple TV all play each other in one pool. See who's online right now and challenge anyone with a tap — or just search and take on whoever turns up, one on one or two on two. Bring your friends to a private room with a code. If a four-player table is short, everyone at it can agree to let computer cowboys take the empty seats. Every online win counts on its own leaderboard.

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