My Friend Pedro

Genre: Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1

.

Review:

My Friend Pedro is an Action-Platformer with Two-Stick Shooter controls that combines the intense, thrilling gunplay of a John Woo film or a Matrix movie with an odd sense of humor to create an action-packed experience that is simply a joy to play through.

Players take the role of an unnamed protagonist who guns his way through hordes of enemies at the behest of a floating, talking banana. It’s silly and absurd, but it fits well with this game’s ridiculous action, and having your hyper-violent gunfight being commanded by a talking banana seems like a surefire way to let you know that you’re not supposed to be taking this too seriously.

The controls in this game are really nice and fluid, and give players plentiful options to approach situations, with a bullet-time slowdown meter, wall-jumping acrobatics, the ability to dodge while spinning and dispensing bullets, and the ability to “lock on” to an enemy on one side while you fire a second weapon in the opposite direction.

All of that might seem like a lot to take in, but it’s all fairly intuitive, and the game’s generally-forgiving nature and its generous amount of bullet-time use means that pulling off a complicated maneuver of kicking an enemy and jumping off a wall into a flip, shooting a second enemy in front of you while you hit a third behind you, all in a span of a few seconds, is both intuitive and damn satisfying.

This game keeps finding new ways to mix things up, too, adding in new elements thoughout and even new set pieces that shake up how the game plays, such as a fast-paced motorcycle chase after the first major section of the game.

I do have one complaint about this game, though – namely, that enemies often act like bullet sponges, and often don’t even seem to react while you’re pumping them full of bullets, at least not until you’ve finally downed them.

Also, as far as how the presentation goes, this game is… fine. The graphics are decent but not especially noteworthy, and while your character’s animations are full of personality (as is the aforementioned banana), a lot of the enemies and locales are a bit bland and repetitive.

While I do have a few minor complaints about the details in My Cousin Pedro, on the whole this game is an absolute delight to play, like playing through one of the most ridiculous action movies ever made. Fans of action games should absolutely give this game a try.

tl;dr – My Friend Pedro is an Action-Platformer with Two-Stick Shooter controls that has players involved in acrobatic gunfights at the command of a talking banana. This game’s intense, ridiculous action is a blast to play, and while there’s a bit of repetition here and there, for the most part this game does an amazing job keeping things fresh and entertaining. A must-have for action game fans.

Grade: A-

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Action Game – There are quite a few great action games on this list, but out of all of them, My Friend Pedro is the one I had the most fun playing. It’s an absurd ballet of death, with bullets flying everywhere, crazy acrobatics, and yet despite the absurdity the entire thing plays like being in one of the best action films you’ve ever seen. With a talking banana.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}