A rainy day surprise!
Living in the UK, I am very familiar with umbrellas. Having a brolly is essential if you want to spend any length of time in the British weather and not feel like a drowned rat 80% of the time. It’s not particularly common to have a gun though, even less so built into your umbrella, unless you go to the same retailer as The Penguin.
In Gunbrella, you do get to wield a weapon which will also keep you dry, although it’s more likely to be blood and gore rather than rain which you’ll want to keep off your hair. Gunbrella has a lot of pixel violence, with a crunchy aggressiveness that reminds me of Carrion.
For a platformer with lots of shooting, Gunbrella has a surprising amount of plot. There’s a mystery around your character, the titular Gunbrella itself, ongoing conflicts with a cult and some monstrosities who’ll face the business end of your deadly umbrella.
It’s not all shooting though, my favourite part of Gunbrella is the movement of your character. You can use the Gunbrella to dash or spring up a little in the air, float down gently like you’re a grimy Princess Peach or use it to grind along convenient wires to zip line your way across the level.
However, the fun of movement is mired a little with some fiddly controls. I found it quite difficult to switch between ammo types or use healing items when in busy confrontations. More often than not I’d simply lean on the default ammo type which you get an infinite amount of, because switching to anything else usually resulted in my untimely death. Perhaps a weapon wheel with a brief pause or slow down of gameplay during selection would have helped with this issue.
Gunbrella is a lot more linear than I first thought. It feels like a Metroidvania – you explore towns, pick up resources and upgrade your stuff, but it’s actually funneling you through the game quite frequently and you rarely get any backtracking. I think I may have enjoyed the game a little more if I’d realised this earlier on, as it would have avoided feeling frustration of not being able to return to where I’d been previously.
Verdict
I mostly enjoyed Gunbrella, but I would have prefer a less grimy colour palette, slightly more forgiving controls and an option to return to previous parts of the game. Controlling your character and the Gunbrella can be exhilarating and there is plenty of joy to be had with whizzing across the levels, I just wish the world I was navigating was a little more fun.
Where to Buy
The Doinksoft Collection – Contains Gunbrella, Gato Roboto & Demon Throttle on one Cartridge:
- Amazon UK
- Price: £29.99
- Link: https://amzn.to/3XF0i3r
- Hit.co.uk
- Price: £24.56
- Link: https://tidd.ly/47mdLjT
Gunbrella – Digital Version:
- Nintendo eShop
#AffiliateLinks – Prices correct at time of publishing.
Credits
Written by John Edwards
Edited by Mark McAllister and Jen Griffiths
Graphic Template by Paul L. Russell
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for this review.