Wanted would have been better off as a NES-game
The once peaceful town of Dodge has been overrun by the James gang. Banks have been robbed and anyone getting in the way has been shot. You must use all your cunning, courage and sharp shooting skills to rid the town of these dangerous outlaws. That's the main story of Wanted, and the only way you'll find that out is after a quick look at the back of the box. Nowhere in the actual game is there a cut-scene, text scroll or any bit of storytelling about whom you are or who the James gang is.
After just a few minutes of playing Wanted, you'll wonder if you're really playing a Playstation game. The whole game consists of shooting the same cardboard cutout looking enemies popping up in window spots over and over before they shoot you. When you've killed enough of them, you get to move on to the next stage where you repeat the same thing you did during the first level until you've beaten the twelfth and final level. Don't bother looking for variety, because there's none whatsoever.
Since you can only move sideways, the only buttons you'll need to remember aside from the d-pad is the fire button and a side roll which is used by hitting L1 and L2 to roll left and R1 and R2 to roll right. While this roll is highly useful, there's a bit of a problem that you can move while shooting. If you're moving to a spot where and enemy's bullet is heading and start shooting back at him, your character will stop dead in his track,
and most likely turn stone dead a few seconds later.
For a game released on the Playstation as late as 2004, the graphics aren't very well done. It looks as if the game was originally set for release several years earlier, but was cancelled and finally released in 2004 as an afterthought. Music isn't much better either, mainly because there's no music playing in either the main menu or the actual game. This is really a big minus, because it gets unbearable listening to the sound of gunfire and death screams fairly quickly.
If you're looking for a challenging game, you'll certainly find Wanted appealing. However, you might find that it's a bit too challenging. During the later levels, you'll have several enemies shooting at you like crazy while another one keeps throwing dynamite at you. In a situation like this, it's really hard not to get hit. Combine this level of hardness with the fact that there's no save feature and the fact that the game doesn't even save high score data and you've got one of the most unforgiving games you'll ever play.
There's no real reason to play through every one of the 12 levels in Wanted. The gameplay never changes, and the only thing you get for all your hard work is a text screen that says "Congratulations, Thanks for playing!" Things like these strongly indicate that Wanted would have been better off as a NES-game.