It’s a good time to be a Kinect owner. While Microsoft’s motion control peripheral launched with plenty of casual games (a few of which I quite enjoyed), we didn’t see a ‘core’ release until Q Entertainment’s Child of Eden. That game, a beautifully Japanese on-rails shooter, finally got many gamers to notice the Kinect. But it’s not quite a killer app as it also plays perfectly well with a controller. Now along comes The Gunstringer from Twisted Pixel Games, also a rails shooter. Not only is The Gunstringer built from the ground up for Kinect (with no controller support in sight), but it actually eclipses all previous Kinect games, even little Eden Jr.
The Gunstringer differs from just about every other game in that its story is a fiction within a fiction. The entire game is presented as a performance of a puppet show in a live theater. We immediately become acquainted with this theater during the live-action introduction as the Twisted Pixel staff prepares for the show while an expectant audience looks on. The stagehands pour dirt on the real puppet Gunstringer prop, and then the story begins.
At the outset, the Gunstringer (who is never named otherwise) has been having a rough time of things. Namely he is dead and buried, having been murdered by his former posse. Pull up with your left hand and he rises from the gwave, ready to start shooting cans and buzzards and learn how the new-fangled motion controls work. Once that’s out of the way, he sets off on the path of revenge, his previous confederates now his targets.
Those controls are part of what makes The Gunstringer so special. The player’s right hand moves a cursor, locking onto up to six targets at once. Pulling your arm up fires the protagonist puppet’s revolver – an intuitive and satisfying feeling. The game recommends you point your finger in a game shape as you do so, which is probably a better idea than firing a real gun at your TV like I did. Several hours and one new screen later, I resumed gameplay and learned the game’s movement controls.
Therein lies the key difference between The Gunstringer and Child of Eden. While the game is still ‘on rails,’ propelling the ‘Stringer along automatically, players actually do get to move the lead character around with their left hand. Move your hand left or right and so moves the Gunstringer, while pulling the hand up makes him jump. The dreaded Kinect input lag is still present, but the developers wisely built the game around it by making the hero a marionette. It’s only natural that he moves at a slightly different pace than our hands. Of course, players may miss a few jumps now and then when they forget to move a little early, but on the whole it works incredibly well.
While shooting, dodging, or jumping over enemy bullets is usually an option, sometimes The Gunstringer finds it necessary to take cover behind objects. During these sequences, he can’t fire at enemies until players pull him out of cover on the left or right. Here I sometimes struggled with the controls, as the motions for peeking out on either side required much larger, less subtle movements than running. Plus, if I peeked out to the right and then needed to fire toward the middle or left side of the screen, my hands got all crossed up, making aiming difficult. On the whole, I’m not crazy about the cover segments, but they make up only a small portion of the gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, Twisted Pixel's latest effort brings an astounding variety of styles to the table. Sometimes the camera swings around as the main marionette runs away from oncoming snakes and other obstacles ala Crash Bandicoot. Then there are the Donkey Kong-like tower climbing/platforming sequences. The ‘Stringer gets to ride a stick horse, a stage coach, and even crazier stuff too. My favorite parts are when he grabs two pistols and sets them to autofire, giving the player a targeting reticule for each hand with which to defeat baddies, buzzards, and even hapless mallards ala Duck Hunt. There’s never a dull moment in The Gunstringer.
The game is made up of four plays with five acts each, plus a prologue and epilogue. The boss fights that cap these off are almost as creative as the stages themselves. The Prologue’s Wavy Tube Man is the only one you’ll fight in the regular gameplay style – most of the others switch to a single screen, 2D viewpoint. Here the antihero puppet must fly all over the screen, avoiding his former gang members’ attacks and firing when they expose their weak points ala a classic shoot-em-up. Did I mention the Space Harrier-like flying battle against a giant Asian dragon? It’s another highlight, though the hitbox on the ‘Stringer is way too big, making it harder to dodge the boss’s attacks than it should be.
Completing The Gunstringer for the first time should take five hours or so, plus a sore elbow from all the shootin’ thangs. But you’ll likely spend much more time with the game than that. Money earned from beating acts can be spent in the game’s Bonus Store. Here you’ll find tons of unlockables, from production photos, level commentaries from Rooster Teeth Productions and others, cover art concepts (so many different designs), videos, the game’s stellar soundtrack, and more. It’ll take quite a few replays to get the money to buy the shop out. Replaying levels and taking little or no damage also earns Gold medals, which of course leads to a couple of Achievements. Speaking of which, the game even hands out an Achievement for enabling Lefty Mode, but only after ruthlessly teasing people who suffer from left-handedness.
Other bonus content includes a free download code for Fruit Ninja Kinect included with every copy of the game and the downloadable side game, “The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles.” True, every self-respecting Kinect owner has Fruit Ninja already, but surely you can gift, trade, or sell your extra code to someone in need.
“The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles,” on the other hand, is a free download that I wouldn’t trade for all the Whiskey in Texas (my home state). Inspired by 1990 arcade game Mad Dog McCree, the bonus game is a tongue-in-cheek, bizarre live-action shooter. The production design and acting are horribly cheesy, which is perfectly in fitting with the source material. Still, I’d like to smack Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman around for like 15 minutes if I ever had the chance. He’s like a poor man’s Mel Brooks only without all the class, and that’s saying something. Putting aside my enmity for the dirty old sleezebag, it actually feels great to play an FMV game again after all these years. I doubt “Wavy Tube Man” will see much replay after completion, but it’s a fun 30 minute experience on top of The Gunstringer itself.
Speaking of live-action content, let’s touch on The Gunstringer’s theater sequences. They are mostly awesome, especially when the camera pans around and the audience becomes the background to the gameplay. We also see them in numerous reaction shots throughout the game’s story. I may be alone on this, but the reactions shots got old really quickly. They often show people laughing uproariously at things that are only kind of funny, and sometimes when there hasn’t been a joke at all.
The worst reaction shot is also tied to the game’s single worst joke: the lumberjack/alligator mating sequence that was featured in the game’s demo. The in-game sequence goes on foolishly long; making what should be a two-second joke last for what feels like two excruciatingly unfunny minutes. Perhaps the bit was tacked on to firmly demonstrate the game’s Teen rating, but it simply does not work. Thankfully that is the story’s only real misstep.
The Maw established Twisted Pixel as a creative indie developer, and their games have only become more imaginative since then. Unfortunately, they also became annoyingly difficult. For every beautiful piece of art and clever joke in the ‘Splosion Man games, there are dozens of annoying deaths. Some people love sadistically tough games, but I always wished they were more accessible. Thankfully The Gunstringer is Twisted Pixel’s most unpunishing game in years. Anybody should be able to just play it and have fun without experiencing repeated failures.
The only exception to the difficulty rule is the much-loathed “Strings of Steel” Achievement. Instead of just tasking players with beating the game on Hardcore difficulty (which would actually be fun), it requires beating the entire game on Hardcore in only one session, without dying. That kind of Achievement may be funny to read as a news item, but people who actually like Achievements like me don’t see the humor. Just beating levels on Hardcore can be perfectly fun and challenging. But trying to beat a multi-hour, physically-strenuous game only to lose a life near the end and have to start over would be horribly frustrating. Honestly, Twisted Pixel should assign their difficulty-loving designer who came up with the Achievement to other tasks, because his idea of fun is simply wrong.
Then again, “Strings of Steel” can be alleviated with some co-op action. The Gunstringer supports local co-op for two players. Literally at any time, a partner can join in by stepping up and holding his or her hand up for several seconds. The game doesn’t explain this very well, as we tried quickly raising our hands, waving them, etc. for several minutes before we finally held one up long enough for it to register. I find the best time to join is while the game is paused, by the way. The second player controls a targeting reticule but not movement, so it’s more of a co-pilot position. At any rate, having a second player along makes many of the game’s challenges and Achievements much easier.
While co-op mode is worthwhile for that reason alone, it unfortunately feels like an afterthought more than a proper inclusion. The worst problem is that the second player earns no Achievements. It’s surprising because the ‘Splosion Man games didn’t make that mistake, nor do other Kinect games like Kinect Adventures and Dance Central. As a result, many of us will have a tough time getting a partner to come along for the entire campaign since they won’t get credit for it. Finally, we also experienced an issue in which the second player could aim the reticule but not fire, though that seems to have been an isolated case. Regardless of these issues, playing in twos could still go over well in party settings where silliness takes precedence over individual progress.
The Gunstringer may squander its co-op potential, but it’s still the best Kinect game yet. The revenge story with its twist ending (that you shouldn’t let anybody spoil for you) and gameplay are incredibly fresh and clever, and the art design is Twisted Pixel’s best ever. With so much stuff to do in the main game and two bonus games on top of that, The Gunstringer’s low $40 retail price is a stone-cold killer deal. Everything just comes together incredibly well, creating the most engaging and original game I’ve played all year. Don’t let the flood of ‘big’ fall sequels keep you from climbing on this multi-trick stick pony.