My Friend Pedro has finally brought its zany 2D shooting gallery to PlayStation 4, and it's a strange beast. Ignoring the fact you play a character devout to a sentient and bloodthirsty banana, the game feels at odds with itself on quite a fundamental level. It's aiming to make the player feel like a John Wick, gun-fu master at all times, but the action is too often broken up by awkward platform or puzzle sequences.
There's a flow that the game is desperate to find. It wants you chaining together stylish kills using a variety of weapons that unlock through the story, as well as environmental cues and a generous slow-motion meter. If you can successfully keep your combo going throughout a stage, you'll rack up big points and feel amazing. Doing so is easier said than done, though. Controls take some time to get used to; slow-mo is practically required in order for you to dodge bullets, split the character's fire in two directions, and aim at enemies. It is possible to find a rhythm, but don't expect to ace it first time -- it's fiddly.
As we mentioned, level design is also in the way of the flow at times. For every room built for pulling off a series of impressive stunts, there's another that has you wall jumping, button pressing, and otherwise manoeuvring through tricky sections. It can easily kill your combo if you mess something up. This is a game made to be played many times, with you building your skill with the controls and your knowledge of the stages, but both these things feel slightly clumsy. Still, there's absolutely fun to be had here, with some sequences that truly do feel great to play, and collectable gameplay modifiers that let you go totally bananas.
Comments 7
Have it on Switch and i keep going back to see if something clicks. As a big fan of Hotline Miami, Ruiner, Hong Kong Massacre, Messenger and many other twitchy 2D or isometric murder jams i just cannot find this interesting for more than 20 minutes at a time at best. Glad and disappointed Im not alone.
Tried it on PC Game Pass. Uninstalled after a few days.
Same as you kind of @Agramonte
I installed on Xbox, didn't like it at all. Felt very slow and stiff compared to the likes of Hotline Miami. I haven't touched it since.
Yea got this last week on ps4 and the controls do take a bit to get used to, I only can play for about 30 min or so and get bored. It's not bad it's just missing something, still haven't finished it all but will be popping back at some point, it defo has replay value, for the price it's ok I guess, would recommend it once it hits the sales though.
Completed the game, been trying to get all the tprphies and S rank on the levels, hard game on bananas difficulty but non the less I have enjoyed it and even my son has it on his ps4, we try to beat each others scores.
Disagree with this, I played this game on pc gamepass and I think the game is great, the soundtrack is good, and the story is interesting. The control is not as simple as I like though, overall it's a solid 8 for me
@Kalvort Yep... did not hold my attention at all - no reason to keep it on my hard drive.
Gad I did not pay $30 for it on Switch. It was worth a try for $5.
Tons of Indies on PC Game Pass. Good way to screen them and see what is good or just hype.
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