Adventure Force Desperado Review

Somehow, this review slipped through the cracks…and I couldn’t find the blaster I bought earlier in the summer. Buying another one wasn’t a concern, though. Given what $9 gets you in this blaster (a fast, semi-auto spring-powered pistol), it’s hard to not buy two and dual-wield them.

The Desperado may be tiny, but it’s mighty, and it’s ergonomic enough to be used by players of all ages.

It’s…NOT…Uncomfortable???

It’s an unfortunate sticking point for semiauto, dual-action pistols across the years – trying to accomplish everything with the trigger pull while being comfortable is hard. The Nerf Zombiestrike Nailbiter was decently fun (thanks in no small part to the aesthetic), though range was lacking. The Adventure Force Triggerfire was fairly effective, though the operating hand got tired after cycling through an entire drum of darts. It also, due to the trigger shape, depended far more on your index finger than the rest.

The Adventure Force Desperado manages to reach a happy medium. There’s plenty of power, but you only have six shots before reloading. As such, your hands HAVE to take a break before firing more. In addition, the extra-wide trigger/priming surface means you can use all the fingers that fit. The result is a blaster that feels like you’re using a light hand grip exercise tool – you can feel it, but it’s quite manageable, and pulling the trigger won’t throw off your aim nearly as much as you’d think.

The blaster comes with twelve Adventure Force wafflehead darts. Loading it is easy, as there are two slots for putting darts in the cylinder (one on each side), and you can easily rotate the cylinder by hand. There are basic iron sights on top of the blaster if you really want to aim.

Me, I just aim by muscle memory when it comes to pistols. Or in the case of playing with my dog, fire down the hallway and watch as she plays fetch with the darts. GOOD GIRL!

Gameplay and Performance

The Desperado is a ton of fun to use in combat, especially in pistol rounds. It’s easy to aim, you can fire rapidly (three darts per second is quite easy to achieve), and the darts fly farther than the advertised 60′ ranges.

The new Desperado I have on hand is averaging 72fps, which is an amazing velocity to get out of a blaster like this.

Even if you’re using higher-powered blasters, having a sidearm you can fire this rapidly isn’t a bad idea.

Internals and Modification

The Desperado has a unique mechanism inside, with a large lever attached to the middle of the priming handle/trigger. As you pull the trigger, one end of the lever slides down a channel in the grip, rotating the lever as the whole assembly moves back. The other end of the lever pulls back directly on the plunger, but there’s a spring-loaded piece where they meet. As the lever moves back and rotates rearward, that spring-loaded piece eventually gives way, releasing the plunger and firing the dart.

Somewhere in the middle of that motion, the rotation mechanism is engaged, switching to the next barrel.

There are plenty of 3d printed parts and files already available online for the Desperado – the link I placed is for some parts from Radioactive Designs, as an example. Spring spacers provide better performance (at the cost of priming strength needed), alternate cylinders provide better performance or even compatibility with other dart types, and there are other mods you can search online. For such a unique blaster, it’s turned out to be highly customizable.

Final Opinion

The Adventure Force Desperado is as good as a semiauto spring-powered pistol can get. It’s got great performance and ergonomics, and players can literally squeeze out better performance as they get older, be it through fast rate of fire or using mods for high performance. At $9, perhaps it’s worth throwing in a Christmas stocking this year?