Today’s offering comes to us via Stegersaurus Games, which made several games I have previously reviewed (namely “Tank Strike”, “Mega Monster Mania”, “This is Hard”, “Baby Maker Extreme 2”, and (one of my all time favourite indie games) “Battle Beat”
“Lots of Guns” is a departure from a lot of what they’ve done before. It’s a shooter that, at first glance, looks to be little more than a guilty pleasure, but ends up with a bit more depth than you’d expect. That it does it without ever sacrificing the gratuitous shooting is the brilliance at the heart of it.
It’s a vertical climber, but this is no Doodle Jump. You’re shooting like crazy. It’s simple enough to begin with, but as the number of enemies increases so too does the need for you to consider the respective advantages and disadvantages of each weapon at your disposal. The rocket launcher’s gret, unless you’ve got bouncing enemies bounding towards you that won’t all be in the same place at the same time when the rocket shell hits. Dual-wielding handguns, on the other hand, are fantastic when swarms of enemies are descending on you. Other situations will call for mines, bubble guns, spikes, miniguns, shotguns, firecrackers, and what feels like hundreds(and probably is actually dozens) more. Some of the weapons are more fanciful too, such as the “Butt Gun” (I won’t spoil it for you) and the “Deathballs”. The fact that the game actually forces you to think about what to shoot with is a pleasant change from the normal 2D shooter.
The game has a creative way of letting you choose your loadout: what path you take as you climb the tower will dictate it, with you passing through barriers named after death-dealing devices. You’ll need to choose wisely, as you can’t have them all at once. If you die you not only don’t restart at the beginning of the game, you continue climbing and even keep your most-recently acquired weapon, which helps keep the game from getting frustrating compared to some forced climbers.
There’s a platforming element here as well, well sort of. You may be able to avoid enemies rather than shoot them if you have a deft hand, but every enemy that hits the “floor” reappears above you so eliminating enemies is crucial. Take too long to eliminate existing enemies, and newly-appeared enemies run the risk of overwhelming you as their numbers pile up.
I love the deliberately pixellated presentation, and the 80 Microsoft Point price tag is impulse-buy friendly. Whether you appreciate the depth, or just grab weapons at random and soldier through, it’s an easy to recommend game either way.
Here’s what the developer (Stegersaurus Games 2) has to say about the game:
“Are you hardcore enough? Climb your way as high as you can in this platforming shooter complete with an insane collection of guns and explosives. Lots of Guns will have you fighting zombies under an evil moon, out of control robots in a factory, medieval knights, and monster slime creatures on your journey. Voxel styled pixel art gives this game a distinct but retro feel.”
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