The action-adventure genre with puzzles and exploration — often referred to as Metroidvania — has seen a massive resurgence in the past two years. Doinksoft and Devolver Digital have teamed up to bring fans of this particular genre, Gunbrella. A Metroidvania title steeped in revenge and beautiful pixel artwork that delivers rewarding gameplay that drives fans through the narrative like an umbrella-wielding Marvel’s Punisher.
Gunbrella kicks off simply enough with a tale of our unnamed woodsman protagonist lamenting the loss of his wife and child at the hands of the bastard child of a Gun and Umbrella, which our Woodsman takes up to enact a quest for revenge. With your handy Batman Penguin cosplay weapon in tow, the objective of your mission is to find who killed your family. Surprisingly, the story of Gunbrella is very deep and filled with political intrigue and a plot that involves many working pieces. Without spoilers, the plot takes many twists with helpful homeless people, shady merchants, and even a police force of officers who wield their own Gunbrellas.
“Doinksoft does an excellent job with level design, so the weapon of choice is used in every way fans could conceivably think of using an umbrella for platforming.”
For those here for a parasol-laden stroll through platforming, Gunbrella is the game for you. Doinksoft does an excellent job with level design, so the weapon of choice is used in every way fans could conceivably think of using an umbrella for platforming. The Woodsman will have to contend with blocking lasers and bullets with the shade side of the umbrella, zipline through urban areas, boost forward, upwards, and downwards and even ride currents with the trusty shotgun hybrid.
Boosting can only be done once while jumping, leading to interesting platforming sequences meticulously designed with this mechanic in thought. Think of Celeste’s two-jump system, but with one longer jump that has a glide function. Also like Celeste, in the later stages, Gunbrella tests the player’s mettle and it gets progressively harder as the game wears on. Fans will have to use every trick up their sleeve for some of the tighter platforming sequences, and it feels great when you overcome a hard segment littered with environmental hazards, even if the only reward is a brief respite from platforming.
The Woodsman is also agile enough to perform wall jumps, and by pointing the Gunbrella downward, he even pogo-sticks off the weapon like DuckTales’ Scrooge McDuck or Shovel Knight before him. The point is, that there are many useful ways to use the Gunbrella to proceed, and fans will have to think outside of the box to solve some puzzles. The same goes for boss fights, certain mechanics will need to be deployed to make short work of demonic adversaries.
There are also different ammo types to utilize with your shaded boom stick. Grenades can be purchased or crafted to make explosions destroy adversaries, and rifle rounds are more accurate and farther travelling than the traditional three-round spread of the shotgun. Environmental hazards like hanging chandeliers and explosive barrels also litter the landscape, so an unsuspecting Woodsman with a Gunbrella can accurately use the environment to get one over on enemy encounters. Getting through an encounter with two shots, killing six enemies by dropping an explosive barrel and chandelier on enemies is an economical and efficient slaughter.
“There are many useful ways to use the Gunbrella to proceed, and fans will have to think outside of the box to solve some puzzles.”
It’s worth noting that although Gunbrella is portrayed with pixel artwork, character portraits display a huge amount of character. The Fisherman met on the journey has a weathered, lived-in feel to him, and while he speaks, steam appears from his mouth while on the lake. The pomposity of the Mayor of Allendale is equally represented, as when he speaks, his cheeks puff up all the way as if his words are exploding out of his mouth with a sense of regency and importance.
The attention to detail, especially the way the landscape is littered with small knick-knacks to portray even more personality of the setting, is a job well done. The writing in Gunbrella also tries to not take itself too seriously while telling a compelling story. The shop ‘Bill’s Pills’ is constantly seen throughout the game, and upon visiting the second location, Bill remarks to the character that it is a different store than the first one, he is indeed Bill, and they have nothing to do with one another although they look remarkably similar. Game self-awareness jokes are the greatest.
Gunbrella is a tightly designed Metroidvania that tells a reasonably good — albeit short — story. The player’s time spent playing as the Woodsman is memorable with all the personality-filled characters encountered along the way. While Gunbrella makes an immediate impression with solid sound choices, excellent level design, and just being a fun game to play, it’s not much of a lasting one after its short narrative, moments where it is unclear where to go next and lack of weapon variety. Gunbrella is a great distraction for a long car or plane ride or for those just looking to scratch that Metroidvania itch without having to dive into a 100-hour-long undertaking.
