Gunslugs

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

.

Review:

Gunslugs is an Action-Platformer released on mobile devices in 2013 and gradually ported to multiple other platforms, coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

The presentation in this game is decent but not especially noteworthy, using a very simple pixel art style and combining that with an energetic but forgettable chiptune soundtrack.

As simple as the visuals are, so too is the gameplay, which is pretty standard fare for the genre, but not much more than that. There’s little nuance to the action beyond the ability to use crates as cover and fire through them by pressing against them. Beyond that, it’s just swarms of dumb enemies, with occasionally dumb bigger enemies, and then every few levels a dumb boss. I say “dumb” because the AI for these enemies follows simple patterns and doesn’t really require much thought to take out.

It also bears mention that players are both encouraged and discouraged to send volleys of bullets at both enemies and crates in ways that make it hard to fully invest in the gameplay. On the one hand, the swarms of enemies and the rewards that pop out of broken crates would seem to call for you to blast away, and the fast speed that pickups disappear would further seem to encourage a run-and-gun attitude… but limited supplies of ammo do act as a restraint against doing this, resulting in players feeling like they have some reason to hold back from fully partaking in the fast-paced action this game could deliver. The same goes for the cover system, which seems intended for a game whose enemies aren’t all idiots blindly charging into your bullets.

In the end, Gunslugs is a somewhat mediocre Action-Platformer, and while it’s not outright terrible, it does very little that isn’t done better in other games. Even for fans of the genre, you have plenty of better options on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Gunslugs is an Action-Platformer with simple gameplay and a simple 8-bit-style presentation, but it does little to set itself apart, has dumb enemy AI, and its basic design frustratingly both encourages and discourages fast-paced action. There are plenty of better options for this type of game on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C-

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