By Kieron Gillen on June 10th, 2010 at 10:16 am.
She’s a girl! She’s got a gun! She’s the second one of her! She’s GunGirl 2! Yet more multi-year-development freeware splendidness here. Playing the eponymous GunGirl – or GunDude! – you go on a sizeable action platformer which marries a lot of the classic elements with a whole lot of zombie-based evisceration. Only had half an hour with it, but notable features include the RPG-esque system, a “levelling up” power system which rewards you for not bumping into enemies and a whole lot of polish. Only thing I’m not sure about how the amount of blood flying around can disguise zombies rising from the ground, leading to surprise deaths. Still, this is strong stuff. You can get it here, or watch the trailer below
[Who has spoke one of the ancient jokes? Who has summoned us forth? Who has-- oh, he's gone now. Toodles. - The Four Cyclists Of The Apocalypse]
10/06/2010 at 10:28 Kerosiinipelle says:
Wow, I certainly have to try this.
10/06/2010 at 10:54 Barts says:
It actually looks very pretty and is freeware – which means I will be giving it a try soon!
10/06/2010 at 11:10 madU says:
Don’t shoot me, silly boys ;D
The music rocks !
10/06/2010 at 11:43 Ian says:
That looks like it could be fairly splendid.
10/06/2010 at 12:02 Wilson says:
Yeah, I’ve just played through a fair bit and enjoyed it. Very smooth, though I’m not 100% sure about the way zombies pop up.
10/06/2010 at 13:42 Stompywitch says:
It’s pretty nifty. I’ve a good chunk of the way in, have most of the weapons, and am off to the third main area. I think I prefer the style to the beta’s map-based exploits; the world all feels more connected.
The upgrade system is nice as well, but weapon XP loss can be a bit too punishing if you take a few hits; the machete definitely helps with that, though (As does the shield in general, really).
10/06/2010 at 15:11 Berzee says:
?
=p
10/06/2010 at 15:24 Poltergeist says:
What? No complaints about the music yet? Am I really on RPS?
10/06/2010 at 15:28 Weylund says:
Zero dollars for something billed as freewarez with zombies in it? I’m going to have to pirate it.
But seriously, looks a bit meh.
10/06/2010 at 15:54 Hwan says:
The music is done by the same fellow who did soundtrack for The Spirit Engine 2, Josh Whelchel. I think.
10/06/2010 at 15:56 Soundofvictory says:
Wow, this is a bit of fun. I actually started prototyping a game almost exactly like this about a year ago, but got distracted by other things. Also: I was using GameMaker which is a bit limited.
Gameplay is mostly rockin. My least favorite part is the artstyle; it looks like it was made in Paint.
10/06/2010 at 15:56 Fumarole says:
Free zombie killing is a good thing.
10/06/2010 at 16:13 Alez says:
I’d just like to say that i could not play this game because of the SHIT controls.
It looked like a cute game to waste some time on but…the controls are shit.
Default, on my xbox controller it only gave me the movement keys and firing, no jump or anything. I couldn’t even set some buttons, it didn’t recognize them being pressed.
Then i said “fuck it” and i switched to keyboard but now commands were missing buttons.
I have just spent more time typing this than playing the game.
Grumpy Mcgrouchy, signing out…
10/06/2010 at 16:16 drewski says:
Serves you right for getting your lovely PC all grotty and dirty with a *spit* Xbox controller.
10/06/2010 at 17:51 mcwizardry says:
The initial mapping for the XBOX 360 controller seems to be messed up in some way. You have to re-assign everything except the directions and it plays just fine.
10/06/2010 at 18:27 Metalfish says:
@Drewski,
Even in jest, that’s a stupid thing to say. The 360 controller is lovely, and if you’ve never played a game on PC that works best with a pad you have very limited taste.
11/06/2010 at 01:14 Thants says:
Games that work best with a pad tend to do so because the developers screw-up the keyboard+mouse controls. And as someone who prefers the mouse, developers’ reliance on controllers is actually ruining perfectly good games.
10/06/2010 at 16:32 Radiant says:
Ok I’m not usually one for talking about the portrayal of women in games but that character is literally just blonde hair, tits and a gun.
Don’t game developers realise we also like to stare at legs?
How inconsiderate is that?
10/06/2010 at 17:28 Simon says:
If you want to fix up the controls, run the ‘GG2Setup’ executable in the same folder. It lets you set up a 360 controller or any other USB gamepad nicely enough.
10/06/2010 at 18:17 bakaohki says:
I really really didn’t like the music – but for some unknown reason now I really want to find a NeoGeo and play some Metal Slug.
10/06/2010 at 19:48 geldonyetich says:
If this is the kind if thing we’re excited about these days, perhaps Duke Nukem should have never gone 3D.
That said, the RPG elements look interesting. I’d give a demo a spin.
10/06/2010 at 21:47 JD says:
How the hell do you get by the Church level? The tombstones popup more zombies than I can kill and the counter keeps going up!
11/06/2010 at 07:49 mcwizardry says:
I was wondering about that too.
10/06/2010 at 22:40 Rhooke says:
I was being sad that there weren’t enough high-budget, full-featured 2d platformers of any kind being made these days. (last one I can think of (well, it wasn’t *that* high-budget but it the other two points) was Shadow Complex on XBLA)
And this definitely isn’t a huge production, which makes me wonder why people are griping about its quality… or not being original, or being willing to try a demo of it. It’s free. And a surprising amount of content so far (my progress-o-meter is nearing the haflway mark)
And it’s also a lot of fun. A lot of low-budget, sophomoric fun, but fun nonetheless.
Oh, and @ JD, just kill the zombies that spawn from the tombstones at range and no more will spawn. Or something like that… worked for me!
10/06/2010 at 22:46 PixelProspector says:
you may also enjoy “war hogs – revamped”
(a great freeware platform shooter tribute to contra / metal slug)
the game is still in development but it offers already lots of fun.
more info, demo and gameplay video here:
http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2009/07/war-hogs-revamped/
11/06/2010 at 02:09 FhnuZoag says:
Savepoints are really kinda poorly positioned. Always let me save before a boss fight/at the end of an area, kids!
11/06/2010 at 15:02 JD says:
Apparently you can eventually kill all the zombies from a gravestone, it just takes forever.
11/06/2010 at 18:40 Mike Hawk says:
Controllers ruin games? Seriously, not every game is ideal for a mouse and keyboard, nor is every game ideal for a game pad. Personally, I prefer a gamepad if I am going to be doing a lot of platforming, and I prefer the mouse if precision aiming is going to be required. What to use is a choice that must be made by the dev and when they choose poorly the game suffers for it. To imply that in all situations a mouse and key board is superior is just an asinine and terribly misinformed opinion (see also “wrong”)
As a side note, the xbox controller is fine except for the fact that the d-pad is garbage. I have been using the same logitech dual stick pad for at least 5 or 6 years and it is great. They are cheap too (less than $20 USD)
11/06/2010 at 18:56 Skippy says:
Good game, enjoying it a lot. For those confused about the church, just keep killing the zombies that pop up and they’ll stop eventually, same for any other gravestone.
Stuck at an impossibly unfair jumping puzzle now though, would be nice if there were some cheat codes for segments like this as I can see myself giving up soon.
13/06/2010 at 16:26 Anonymous says:
@Kieron: It might have been a good idea and an apropriate gesture of respect to the developer/publisher, not to only post his game but also give proper credit, his name is Paul Schneider aka BlueEagle.