The Gunstringer Reviewed-By: Beac

[I am Canadian]

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Game: The Gunstringer
Reviewed-By: Beac
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Arcade, Casual, and Platformers

Presentation-Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 Briquettes
Presentation-Comments: Very polished. Very stylized. Just as quirky as you'd expect from Twisted Pixel. Their love of FMV is central to the main theme which has you acting as the puppeteer recounting a tale of betrayal and revenge, live on a theater's stage.

Gameplay-Rating: 4 out of 5 Briquettes
Gameplay-Comments: Unusual but easy adapted. You hold your left hand about chest high, this "holds" the strings of the Gunstringer marionette and is used to make him jump and move left and right. Your right hand is your gun hand, held about waist high. You don't have to make it into a gun shape but it will help with pointing to the proper target, believe it or not. As you progress through a level you will maneuver the Gunstringer around obstacles while "painting" your targets, up to six at once, then jerking your gun hand up toward your shoulder as if your "gun" recoiled. The targets you "painted" as such will satisfactorily be getting blasted. The mechanic is a little different for the boss fights as those take place on stage rather than in the game universe.

There are a variety of weapons that have a slightly different method of use but nothing drastic or unusual. You will be faced with Hogan's Alley sections, rail shooter sections, flight and turret sections and even some cover use sections. All in all the game handles itself very well. I had a tendency to get too close to the screen initially but once I found the right spot the game was golden. It's worth mentioning that this is one of the few Kinect titles that can be played sitting down. Reliably played. The game also handles smaller players well enough, my 6 y.o. son had no issues other than getting tired of holding his arm up to guide the puppet. Multiplayer, or more properly co-op, allows a second player to jump in and act as another gun on screen. The first player will still control the Gunstringer's movement and their own cross-hair.

Audio-Rating: 4 out of 5 Briquettes
Audio-Comments: The VO work is AWESOME. Everything else, the guns, bombs, swords, the villains and background chatter are all nearly perfect. Even the live audience reactions help sell the story as you play.

Graphics-Rating: 4 out of 5 Briquettes
Graphics-Comments: Good for a Kinect game. In some respects they are limited by the story they've developed. There's only so much you can do when the background "people" are supposed to be paper dolls. It's very colorful, the backdrop gives a good sense of perspective and the enemies and bosses all stand out well and are very lively.

Longevity-Rating: 3 out of 5 Briquettes
Longevity-Comments: While there is a good amount of replay to be had while you try for the gold medals, but that seems to be the extent. The built-in DLC area gave promise of new content but to date only houses the bonus Wavy Tube Man Chronicles. (An homage to Mad Dog McCree that is amusing on the first playthrough but it's a one note tune.) Legitimate expansion DLC would be great, but I'm not sure if there are any plans in place. There are plenty of unlockables, including game tweaks that change the appearance of the graphics but they won't really do much for you once you've used them a few times.

Overall-Rating: 4 out of 5 Briquettes

Final-Thoughts: If you have a Kinect you should have this game. It's a fun, vibrant game. The lower price tag of $40 at launch, probably less now, if you can find one of the launch copies it will also score you code for a free copy of the $10 XBLA title: Fruit Ninja Kinect.

[Willkat98]

Thanks for the review.

I'll be picking this up for the kid for Chirstmas.

And the free fruit ninja dealie is a nice bonus.

Also gonna nab a 320GB hard drive with the free game as well!

[I am Canadian]

Nice review, sounds better then I expected. I seem to recall there is a demo for this right?

[Beac]

There is indeed.