[Review] GUNPIG: Firepower For Hire - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: LaPointe Joints
Published By: Flynn's Arcade
Categories: Twinstick Shooter
Release Date: 12.03.20

Gunpig was a pleasant surprise to me. I was put off when I first saw a screenshot of the titular character in it’s ship. The game gave an aura of cheap and I didn’t much like the artstyle. That changed incredibly fast when I started playing the game. A classic case of don’t just a book by it’s cover.

What we have here is a smooth, if not a little slippery of a twin stick shooter. You’re in a gunship and you’re gonna shoot the results of a rogue science experiment, with each stage after the first having their own boss fight, a bigger, more threatening case of these purple monstrosities. You’re gonna feel weak at first with the default gun, but you’ll soon find different ways to shoot. The default gun is a cherry, all of the guns are either fruit or nuts, each having their own attributes, a standard spread, a scatter shot, one that shoots discs, fast spears, or my favorite, an energy sword. Any of the alternate guns feel like a step up from the default, and if you’re patient, the stations where you can grab these other guns cycle through to the one you prefer. Each gun also has a secondard weapon. Most having mines, some a set of vines, and even a large screen clearing bomb, these are mostly useful for being in tight spots. While not every level does, most have secret areas to be found by shooting at specific walls, these holding point boosts, temporary stat boosts, and even collectable art cards, which can be viewed on at the main menu at any time.

As Gunpig is a point based game, it’s relatively short length doesn’t feel like a huge flaw. You can always replay the game to get more points, find more of the cards you missed, or even just try and play the game with different weapons. It has an arcade feel to it and immediately after my first run, I replayed the game. The short length also keeps the game from dragging on for too long or getting stale. However, the game’s environments aren’t interesting in the least. They do their job, but stages all do end up starting to feel samey because of it. Luckily, there’s a small handful of bonus stages that change things up for moments. Shoot everything in the room, collect every game cartridge.

While the game is fun, the strongest feature of Gunpig is it’s music. As soon as the main menu, the music is fantastic. There’s a good number of tunes, so it never feels like you’re just hearing the same loops again and again. It’s definitely a soundtrack I’d listen to outside of the game.

After you beat the game, a sequel is teased and after playing, I will for sure check it out. Clean up the graphics a bit, give more enemy variety, and maybe have some ship customization and you definitely will have a must play. Even without those, I enjoyed my short time playing Gunpig immensely.