Cactus McCoy

Cactus McCoy is a free browser action platformer from Flipline Studios where a cursed treasure hunter brawls through the Wild West to return a stolen emerald. You run, jump, punch, and swing whatever weapon you can grab across twelve areas, all playable instantly in your browser with no download.

A Cursed Outlaw With a Bounty on His Head

The story starts with a bad job. A treasure hunter named McCoy gets hired by a shady character called Hex Hatfield to find the Thorned Emerald. He grabs the jewel, the ancient curse kicks in, and suddenly he is a walking, talking cactus with a bounty on his back. The only way to undo it is to carry the emerald home before the curse turns him to stone. That premise sounds dramatic, but the game treats it like a goofy western and the writing has fun with it.

Flipline Studios released Cactus McCoy on March 10, 2011, and it plays like a platformer first and a brawler second. There is no multiplayer and no branching story. It is just you, a desert full of outlaws, and a long walk back to where the whole mess started.

How a Run Through the Wild West Works

Each area sends you from one end of a map to the other, and everything in between wants you knocked out. Hex Hatfield’s Enemigos come at you with fists, whips, knives, and worse, so you grab weapons off the ground and hit back. Twelve areas cover prairie, mountains, mines, and trains, and each one is packed with platforms to climb, ropes to shimmy across, and ladders to hook onto.

The best part is the juggling. Knock an enemy flying and you can smack him again in midair, then again, chaining hits for extra points and a better chance to shake his weapon loose. It looks ridiculous and it feels great to keep a guy bouncing through a whole combo. Crates and boulders can be picked up and thrown, and if you find a chicken you can grab it and glide through the air. Coins drop from fights and chests, and between areas you spend them on stat upgrades.

Weapons, Treasures, and Upgrades

There are 59 weapons in total, which is a lot for a game where the hero can lose his weapon in the middle of a fight. Melee tools like machetes and whips, firearms, thrown objects, and even explosives show up, and each one hits differently. Weapons break or run dry, so you are always swapping. Hidden around each area are chests holding 60 treasures overall, plus map pieces that point toward the source of the curse. Challenges and badges add another layer for completionists, with 60 area challenges and 80 badges in all. The money you earn unlocks upgrades to your fighting stats, which makes the later areas a bit less brutal.

Cactus McCoy Controls for Keyboard Players

Arrow keys move McCoy left and right.
A jumps. Hold down arrow and press A together to drop through a platform.
S attacks with your current weapon, or with fists when your hands are empty.
Down arrow picks up weapons, crates, and other objects lying on the ground.
D drops your weapon.
With guns and throwing weapons, hold up arrow plus left or right to aim a diagonal shot, and attack while ducking for a low hit.
Jump into ropes and ladders to grab them, then use the arrow keys to climb. Holding down arrow lets go.
Some keyboards struggle with the arrow keys and S at the same time. The menu has an alternate layout that moves those actions to Z and X.