Back in the early 80's, Exidy had some success in making some of the first arcade light-gun games. Cheyenne and Crossbow were two such games, both with the same formula - protect an on-screen player from harm by shooting down enemies/attacks coming their way (although you have to wonder why these dumbasses just walk around blankly without having much concern for their life). So it's not much of a surprise that they reused that formula for Who Dunit?, a light-gun game that's supposed to have a murder mystery theme. A theme that when done right, could end up being a fairly original idea for a video game.

Instead, it ends up as one hilariously fucking retarded game, thanks in part to the wimpiest player character ever. EVER. Prepare for the most idiotic video game logic you've ever seen.

I'm assuming that the plot of Who Dunit focuses around a murder mystery. Although the game doesn't tell you who was murdered, or who the suspects even are. The only thing I could gather from the attract mode was this oh-so-useful hint:

Now, as mentioned before, the gameplay involves using your gun to protect some random guy from various "enemies" that want to keep the guy from finding out who dunit. You can also shoot the guy to make him alter his route and take different exits. The goal is to find a key hidden in one of the many rooms of the mansion, which unlocks a door to the attic, where you can ultimately learn.... WHO DUNIT. Even though I still don't know what exactly was dun.

Oh, and there are powerups located in some rooms that let the character take extra hits before dying. The first powerup makes him grow in size (?), and the second gives him a life jacket (?!?). Without any powerups active, one hit from anything is death.

And what a death sequence it is! Making contact with any enemy/obstacle leads to the dude being instantly skeletonized, with his soul/ghost escaping from his body. Wow. That's just... a bit overdone, don't you think?

Now getting shot or getting hit with a knife, okay, I'll buy that. I can see that being fatal, although not exactly.... skeleton-inducing. But it only gets stupider when you see the other kind of "enemies" that can kill this dumbass. I seriously couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Among the deadly enemies out to skeletonize your ass are...

a dog
a little cat
a... goat?
a flowerpot
a hat thrown by some wannabe pimp
a book

and then there's the best of all.

A BEACH BALL.

....

Geezus fucking crap on a crutch.

I can't even go on with this review any more.

This is quite possibly the most retarded gun game ever made. Don't play it, ever. If you must play an Exidy gun game, play Cheyenne, Crossbow, or even Chiller. Now that I think about it, the characters in Crossbow go up in flames after getting hit by a coconut thrown by a monkey.... BUT THAT'S STILL NOT AS FUCKING RETARDED AS GETTING KILLED BY A BEACH BALL. I don't know who dunit and I don't fucking care. Considering everything in that house is trying to kill poor Max, they should all be guilty. Especially that fucking beach ball.

UPDATE! In the time since I originally posted this "review", I figured out how to win the game! Although you don't really "win" it, you just get a meager 5000 point bonus and then start the game over again until you get bored or until you get hit by too many beach balls. So, the question that's no doubt on everyone's minds.... *WHO* dunit?!?!

It was the MAID! I KNEW IT! It was so obvious it was the maid all along!... wait, no it wasn't. In fact, I don't even know who the maid killed. I guess I sorta forgot how retarded this game was. Oops. What's even better is that it's ALWAYS the maid, too. I was sort of hoping that finishing it a second time would reveal it to be someone else... you know, maybe even add some replay value to the game. Silly me.