Ah, Twisted Pixel. One of our favorite developers here at jggh Games. So from the day that The Gunstringer was announced, I’ve done my best to be excited for it, and even when the game was announced to be Twisted Pixel’s first retail game, I was excited for TP, but still couldn’t get excited for the game. I got to say I’m glad that I had the opportunity to review this game, because it may have just changed my opinion on where Kinect is heading.
The Gunstringer is pretty much an on rails game that takes you through the story of The Gunstringer and his quest for revenge against his posse who have betrayed and murdered him. The whole story is put together like a play. There are live action segments of ‘stage hands’ setting up the props and and audience that is there to enjoy the show. You control The Gunstringer like a marionette with your left hand and when engaging in battle you use your right hand from everything from punching to of course firing your trusty pistol. I won’t say that after the first night of playing my arm wasn’t absolutely killing me. Between lifting your right arm all the time, your right elbow will be hurting from having to lift your arm over your shoulder to fire. After you play the game for a few minutes you pretty much get used to the controls and it really works.
One of the great things about this Kinect title is that you can play this game sitting down. This actually works to. I played the majority of the game sitting. The Kinect was just as accurate as when I stood. Oddly enough the navigation of the menus, like most Kinect titles is pretty much a hassle. Throughout the game you’ll play several different ways all while using the basic controls you’re introduced to at the first of the game. The unique thing about the games tempo and how it moves, is that you find out very quickly that it moves fast. Most on rail games are truly on rail. This game allows you to jump and move side to side. That being said a lot of the combat in the game happens while you are running and jumping. It requires quick thinking and even quicker reflexes.
There are parts were you may need to take cover, but even while doing this you will have to be quick on the fly. While firing from cover you have to move The Gunstringer out from behind cover to fire. This is hard to do while dodging bullets or dynamite and trying to shoot all the enemies at the same time. Take into consideration that you can shoot everything that comes at you. It may be bullets, dynamite, beer can cattle or oil slinging stand ups. There are also parts where The Gunstringer may be firing both his pistols at the same time. This incredibly difficult as you fire one pistol per hand. It sounds easier than it is, but can be frustrating. There are even straight up platforming parts on the game. You shoot know gun, you only jump and with Kinect you can punch enemies. Of course once again the standard controls still work. You control with the left hand and punch with your right.
The narrative in the game is one of the greatest narratives in this type of game that I have seen on a long time. As you play the game the narrator (think Sam Elliot) is always saying things. When you get hit he’ll say “The Gunstringer feels the bullets strike deep within him.” Things like thins along with the great music and over exaggerated lines from the villains make this a game to play with the volume turned up.
This game has Twisted Pixel written all over it. From the quirky dialog to villians like Wavy Tubeman. As it has become customary for Twisted Pixel to have their in game stores that you can buy everything from themes to avatar awards with in game currency. The Gunstringer is no exception. The store is loaded with all sorts of exclusive content that makes for all kinds of reasons to keep playing the game to get all the content packed within. Another interesting thing about Twisted Pixel is that most of their games are platformers. Twisted Pixel may have just created the first platforming game for Kinect and it works better than most any other Kinect game I’ve played. It has all the difficulty you could expect from one as well as the challenging portions of the game that just make you want to go crazy. It may not be considered one, but The Gunstringer is a platformer at heart.
This game shows that core games can be a success on the Kinect and where developers need to be going with games. On top of a solid Kinect tile in a group that were that is a rare thing The Gunstringer also comes packed with Fruit Ninja Kinect. At a $39.99 price this is more than a solid Kiect game, it’s a solid Xbox 360 game.
