I love Bang! and all the expansions. We play it over lunch nearly every day at work, and have for the last 2 1/2 years or so. The cards from our original deck have held up quite well, but have acquired an added brown tinge around the edges from such frequent use. We have all the expansions, including High Noon in German, as we couldn't find an English copy.

And so, when the new release was announced, we were excited, and I picked up a copy in addition to some Christmas shopping I was doing. My review will focus on the differences between the editions, and whether or not I think the new version is worth it or not.

1) THE PRICE

For me, at my FLGS, the Bullet retails for $35, while Bang! retails for $10, Dodge City for $10, (German) High Noon for $10, and Fistful of Cards for $5, so the total package price for both is $35, although the bullet gives you 5 cards not available in the other set, and a sheriff's badge. I think they could have gone with a box that is double the size of the original box, and brought the price down some, but if I was starting fresh, the Bullet is fair price for the set.

2) THE PACKAGING

The new package is a bullet shaped container that stands just over a foot tall, and is four inches wide. It looks very cool, but is quite impractical. Considering that Bang! + Dodge City + High Noon + Fistful of Cards all fit inside the two boxes for a total size of 4" x 5" x 2", this new package is going to take up way more space in the games cupboard. The slots inside the bullet don't seem to hold the cards very nicely, and we couldn't remove the sheriff's badge from it's indent. We will be moving the cards to the old boxes. It gets one star for looking very cool, and a half star for putting a flat edge on the bullet, so it'll stand up or lay flat without rolling, but the impracticality of it all costs it more than those gain it.

3) THE NEW CARDS (OR LACK THEREOF)

The Bullet adds 3 new characters, and two new cards for the High Noon/Fistful round modifiers. The two added round modifiers are both welcome additions. The three new characters are Claus the Saint, Johnny Kisch, and Uncle Will. The latter two seem to be average 4 bullet powers; nothing game breaking. Claus the Saint's power seems quite powerful, as he gets to draw N+1 cards (where N is number of players), choose 2 for himself, and give everybody else whatever he wants from the remainder. Besides the obvious advantage of keeping the best two cards for himself, it gives him the chance to really help allies, at the expense of having to give cards to his enemies. Time will tell if he's overpowered or not.

These are the only new cards available, and won't drastically change the game. I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see new cards added to the main deck.

4) THE CHANGES

I'm torn on this point. The biggest change is that they removed the book symbol from the cards, and added explanatory text directly on the cards for things like Jail!, Dynamite, Indians! etc. This is a big improvement for helping new players, and as the old symbol told you nothing, this is a straight up improvement. They also changed the +1/-1 symbols to a written explanation, which I don't mind, but there is still room underneath for the old symbols, which were easier to spot at a distance. My other small beef is that they removed all the Italian labels for the cards, and made the English subtitles the only text on them. We liked the flavour it added, and we'll probably still call a Stagecoach a Diligenza, but it seems to have lost a bit of that spaghetti western feel.

5) OTHER THINGS

Two minor points that deserve mentioning.

The first is that they included both the 7 role cards from Bang! and the 8 role cards from Dodge City. This means that you can still play any home cooked scenarios with 9+ players. I was worried that they might have only included the 8 from Dodge City which were given as a replacement so that the one new renegade wouldn't stand out.

The second is that the Bang/Dodge City cards have the same exact colour in the printing, whereas the when I bought them separately, the Dodge City cards were slightly brighter, so players could make better than random selections during "Panic"s and "Cat Balou"s.

6) OVERALL

If somebody was interested in buying the whole set, I'd recommend the Bullet. The new explanatory text is a great improvement to teaching new players the game. The only beef I have with it is the packaging. I'd take the cards out, and stick them in a smaller box. If you have Bang! already, and your cards are in decent shape, there isn't anything new in this edition that would compel me to buy it, but if your cards are grungy from years of use, the price is right to replace your set.