The game introduced dual-stick controls, with one eight-way joystick for movement and the other for changing the shooting direction, and was the first known video game to feature game characters and fragments of story through its visual presentation. The player characters used in the game represented avatars for the players, and would yell "Got me!" when one of them is shot. Other features of the game included obstacles such as a cactus, and in later levels, pine trees and moving wagons, that can provide cover for the players and are destructible. The guns have limited ammunition, with each player limited to six bullets, and shots can ricochet off the top or bottom edges of the playfield, allowing for indirect hits to be used as a strategy.