Boot Hill Heroes is a 2014 Wild West-themed Role-Playing Game for the PC, developed and published by Experimental Gamer Studios
. It was inspired by classic SNES role-playing games, most notably the Mother series, and crowd-funded through Kickstarter.
A sequel, Boot Hill Bounties, was released in 2017. Both games were ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2020.
Boot Hill Heroes contains examples of the following tropes:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Throughout the game, the player will acquire hats that not only alter the appearance of their character but also enable them to use new skills.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The game supports four-player local co-op.
- Disney Villain Death: In the PS Mobile-only bonus dungeon, the boss is killed off by being pushed off the top of the mountain by Moon Dancer's brother, in an attempt to regain his honor through killing off the prisoner he'd accidentally set free.
- False Flag Operation: The Saints-Little Gang disguise themselves as Chepakwik natives while attacking the town of Ashwood in order to stir up a war between the Chepakwik and the U.S. Army.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The heroes:
- Kid is the Choleric: Takes the lead, is a hard worker, and once he's set himself on a task he doesn't give up.
- Rosy is the Sanguine: Extroverted, optimistic and sociable.
- Doc is the Melancholic: Jaded and pessimistic, but his cynical attitude is a coping mechanism for his inner pain.
- Moon Dancer is the Phlegmatic: Soft-spoken, compassionate and supportive.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Early versions of the game are nearly unplayable due to crashes and bugs that prevent progress. Most of these are ironed out by version 1.04, but the PS Mobile version still has a tendency to crash in areas with a lot of sprites on the map, such as the plains, circus, and mountain bonus dungeon (running away from battles here instead of fighting can help though).
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The heroic foursome have the male Kid and Doc, and the female Rosy and Moon Dancer.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The screen fades to black just before Monty meets his end, being caught in an arena with angry lions after a spectacularly unlucky turn.
- Heroic Mime: The Kid, who has no dialogue text in the first game. He starts suddenly speaking in Boot Hill Bounties.
- Honor Before Reason: In the PS Mobile-only bonus dungeon, Moon Dancer's brother, who kills himself along with the prisoner he'd accidentally set free earlier to atone for the deaths this had caused.
- Player Party: With each player assuming control of a character each in cooperative play.
- Posthumous Character: Templeton Howl dies in the opening scene of the game, but a series of flashbacks near the end of part 1 allow you to play as him in the events that eventually led up to his death.
- Smug Snake: Monty Spaids, who keeps escaping even after you defeat him in battle and taunting you about how good his luck is. When his luck finally turns south, it's in such a bad way to go that you might just end up feeling sorry for him, however.
