Reviewed on Nintendo Switch

There’s something alluring about a hard-boiled hero blasting his way through a neo-noir world. Add to that a quirky little detail — like an umbrella that’s also a gun — and you’ve got an almost endearing action game that doesn’t sacrifice its darker tones for some good fun. That’s Gunbrella.

It’s a Gun… and an Umbrella!

The Devolver Digital-published Gunbrella is a 2D shoot ‘em up, but it’s presented in a way that’s much more deliberately paced than the typical genre offerings. In terms of its mechanics, it doesn’t stray too far from the formula that shooter fans are used to. You’ll take on baddies and pump ‘em full of lead, all the while dodging their attacks. Because your gun is also an umbrella, you can use it as a shield to deflect incoming shots. Depending on your timing, you’ll either block incoming damage or send those bullets right back at your enemies.

Even on the normal difficulty setting, combat in Gunbrella offers a nice challenge. If you’re not careful, you’ll get overwhelmed by baddies and bosses. The shooting and aiming mechanics are solid, though, so nothing ever feels impossible here — sometimes you just need to be a little more tenacious.

There’s quite a bit of platforming in Gunbrella, too. Some of this stuff is fairly basic and is used as a means to get you from point A to point B. It’s when the game plays around with your umbrella abilities that the platforming gets really fun, though. You can use your umbrella to essentially zipline across longer stretches. You can also open it up to slow your descent when you’re falling from a high distance, avoiding spike traps and other obstacles as you fall downward.

A Noir-Heavy World

Though the action of Gunbrella is exciting, it shares the spotlight with the game’s world. It’s not that the storytelling here is super deep or complex — but rather, it’s interesting enough and feeds you bits of lore about the characters, the world they live in, and the titular gunbrella in such a way that piques your interest.

While Gunbrella may have a somewhat serious tone, there are plenty of quirky characters and dialogue sequences for you to encounter. It’s not necessarily ludicrous or full of in-your-face humor, but there’s some welcome silliness to be found in between all the death and sadness that you encounter.

Dark Tones and Cool Pixel Art

Gunbrella puts you in the middle of a sepia-soaked world that’s absolutely filled with brooding atmosphere. The dark atmosphere is thick in this game, with darkness and rain washing over a lot of the game’s environments. There’s a lot of personality crammed into each pixel thanks to the very specific aesthetic style. The end result is an adventure that, sure, looks quite charming visually, but thematically, it’s very adult.

Developed by Doinksoft, the studio that brought us last year’s Demon Throttle, Gunbrella definitely mixes a nice retro look with a stylish flair much like that game did. It all just looks really cool, and you can even adjust certain visual settings like bloom and film grain to make things even moodier.

The music and sounds you’ll hear throughout Gunbrella also help to amplify the game’s melancholy aura. I wouldn’t call any of the sounds “catchy,” but they’re super effective and work incredibly well to realize the game’s dark tone further.

The total runtime of Gunbrella clocks in at about five or six hours. This depends on whether you take on side quests and talk to all of the characters, but it all makes for a fun-sized adventure that’s absolutely worth revisiting subsequently thanks to its world and gun-based action.

It would’ve been one thing for Doinksoft to make a straightforward action-based shoot ‘em up. But the way Gunbrella puts emphasis on its world, story, and dialogue helps set it apart from other similar shooter games. By adding in some interesting characters, a few high stakes scenarios, and a noir-themed world, Gunbrella is able to suck you into its magnificent shoot ‘em up adventure and makes for a completely worthwhile experience.

Score: 8.5 out of 10

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