Secret Ponchos is an online Spaghetti Western top-down shooter developed by Switchblade Monkeys. The game takes place in Lonetree; A lawless town crawling with bandits, murderers and bounty hunters. You begin your journey as a wanted petty criminal and begin building your reputation and bounty with every battle you partake in. Players who perform well receive a bounty on their heads, receiving reputation points that allow players to increase their stats. Every character has a dual-function weapon (e.g., a revolver that fires strong shots up close and rapid shots at a distance) and a secondary weapon.
The game was released in July 2014 in Steam Early Access for Microsoft Windows and on December 2, 2014 for PlayStation 4. In October 13 the game has been officially released on PC, with more maps and characters than the PS4 release. It is planned that those maps and characters will come to PS4.
No relation to Puzzle Platformer named Poncho.
The game provides examples of:
- Blood Knight: The Killer, with emphasis on the blood part. He enjoys comitting high profile crimes to increase his bounty, which he takes great pride of. Rumor which says he is doing it in order to lure bounty hunters and lawmen so that he can murder them and pin his wanted poster to thier corpses with his knives.
- Combos: Many. Examples Include:
- Killer using the first hit of Steel Slash Combo to easily confirm it into a Flying Death
- Matador can land her execute much easier if she uses Morillo Pounce on her enemy first.
- Kid Red's main damage output is through using twin blasts and then switching to rapid shots to finish the opponent off.
- The most common way to deal damage with Phantom Poncho is by using your whip and then hitting your enemy with the shotgun while they are stunned.
- Difficult, but Awesome:
- The Phantom Poncho Relies on hit and run strategies through use of his whip and shotgun. Bad phantoms are pests that die incredibly fast. Good phantoms are untouchable monsters that can kill an enemy before the stun of the whip wears off.
- The Matador has a difficult to land projectile. She is also easily outranged by any other character in the game. However, she can stun and eventually execute players. Bad matadors are completely useless and easy to keep at bay. Good matadors can single out enemies and use a Pounce-Execute combo to kill even Deserter in seconds.
- Fat Bastard: Gordo is a vile bandit leader who revels in the misfortune of others.
- Gatling Good: Gordo wields a minigun as his main weapon.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: You can tell Killer (if the name didn't tip you off) is a scary sorta guy with his brow, nose and eyes being covered in thin scars.
- Guns Akimbo: Kid Red dual wields two revolvers.
- Lethal Joke Character: Originally created as the 'Dan' of the game, the Gunman has short range, average speed and stamina, relatively poor damage and has only 3 different attacks to choose from (including his basic attack), but his ability to mark enemies and cause them to take critical damage is one of the most powerful in the game. This, combined with his Rapid Shots, he is able to deal massive amounts of burst damage while knocking enemies away to aid his escape.
- Lightning Bruiser: Warmonger hits hard, has high health, and can move at breakneck speeds when he isn't holding his war club.
- Monochromatic Eyes: All male characters have these, a deliberate art choice.
- The Musketeer: The Killer wields a Revolver and a Hunting knife, which can be used for melee strikes and throwing.
- Mountain Man: Mad Trapper is a hunter who wears a coonskin cap and animal skins, carries a large hunting blunderbuss, and collects human skulls.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Killer and Gunman, with Kid Red going akimbo with them.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Phantom wields a Double-Barrel shotgun, which is incredibly lethal on close range.
- Skill Gate Characters: Mad Trapper. He has a simplistic kit, traps that have the longest stuns in the game, and ridiculous firing range. However, when an opponent actually makes his way past those, there's not much he can do, because of his subpar mobility and the lowest health in the game
- Take Cover!: Players can take cover in the environment, this also makes the player invisible to the enemy team.
- Wolverine Publicity: The Phantom Poncho has been featured in the majority of promotional art, and has become popular among fans due to his character design.
- Wretched Hive: Lonetree is a lawless town perfect for criminals to do whatever they want as long as they are not taken down by bounty hunters.
