REVIEW - Gunbrella is a well executed side scroller with a killer central mechanic
Blam blam umbrella time.
By Jonathan Garrett
15/10/23
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.
Review copy provided by Devolver Digital.
Gunbrella is a deceptively simple indie side scroller that provides a well paced and smartly restrained experience. You’re encouraged to poke around, dig in with the details, and blast freakos with your umbrella shotgun. There’s a beauty to its straightforward premise, and as a result of this undeniable clarity, it has ended up becoming one of our absolute favourite games of the year. It runs exceptionally well on Switch, there’s value in returning to previous areas, and did I mention the umbrella shotgun?
Traversal is by far one of Gunbrella’s signature attributes. You can wall jump, glide upwards, dash, zipline, and hop around to your hearts content. It’s snappy and any restrictions are pitched as being entirely logical. Combined with your ability to reflect enemy fire when timing your counter move, and button mapping which definitely lends itself to a Pro controller, and you’ve got an immediately arresting title which feels great either in your hands or on the big screen.
The stylistic choice to focus on text based dialogue as opposed to full voice acting creates an appropriately retro feel to a game that excels in executing its vision. Throughout the entire runtime, there’s a fair bit of backtracking, but it’s all in service of your present objective. It’s not quite a Metroidvania, but there’s definitely a benefit to poking around. In terms of pacing, don’t expect combat to be a relentless onslaught; Gunbrella lets those moments breathe so you’re not constantly overwhelmed.
In fact, despite the even rhythm, you’ll feel a pleasing sense of momentum that drives you forward. There’s a few alternate paths that offer rewards and supplies for those willing to meander, but for the most part, the path ahead is clearly evident and you’ll tend to stick to it. You get out what you put in, and thankfully, Gunbrella’s hooks will be well and truly planted.
We can’t recommend Gunbrella enough; it’s simply one of Devolver’s best games, and at that price point, it’s a steal.
One of gaming’s all time great weapons.
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
YEAH!
Gunbrella is bang on target, with fantastic traversal and a central combat mechanic that clicks right from the start.
AND
There’s plenty of depth to the world if you’re willing to explore off the mainline path.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
