I’m contemplating changing the title of this section from “Game Reviews” to “Devolver Digital knob gobbling”. The frequency at which Devolver publishes games is getting a bit much. Worse than that, I like them. The reviews I write for these games are not because I’m accepting bribes, it’s because I do like them. If EA was on a streak this good then we would all be checking our calendars to be sure we weren’t back in the 90s.

I like the Serious Sam games; I like Hotline Miami and for those wondering: Yes! Katana Zero will get a review soon. For now, let’s see how well Devolver’s huge advertising campaign for My Friend Pedro went by figuring out if this game is any good.

Story:

An unnamed man wakes up in the back of a butcher shop. His wakeup call is a sentient banana which would annoy the minions. The banana tells him that he needs to escape and take out the butcher while he is at it. Once the butcher is dead the man gets further orders to assassinate more people from his buddy of a banana Pedro.

I’m not going to spoil the story but it borrows heavily from the Indie psychology list so you can guess what is going on pretty soon in the game. Just think of the worst thing possible and you could be right.

The story is delivered by pop up comic boxes. There are no cutscenes which I enjoy.

Sound:

I like the level of background tracks. They are a combination of rock and punk tracks and since that is all I listen to I love them. They fit well with the level themes, they aren’t muted or on low volume like they are in most games. Their audio volume is about the same as everything else in the game making the other sound effects act as beats to the soundtrack. I like this approach since the music works out well adding to an already good selection of sounds.

There isn’t any voice acting which isn’t missed since the game forces you forward at every step.

Graphics:

Most Devolver games have an 8-bit aesthetic but My Friend Pedro doesn’t. It tries to look like semi-realistic while not going too realistic… seems someone finally listened.

The bullets are fast yellow lines and are probably the weakest of the special effects. The special effects are well done starting from the blur that covers the screen when you go into bullet time. The blur looks good while not overdoing it. The other special effects like electricity, explosions and kill popups look last gen but they do not look bad at all.

Gameplay:

On initial inspection My Friend Pedro looks like your run of the mill side-scrolling platformer, it does an admirable job of keeping this façade for a full 10 minutes. After which it shows its true colours of being a combat-oriented side scroller rather than being a platformer or puzzler.

You can tell that My Friend Pedro is combat-oriented by various features such as bullet time, wall jumping, ricochet shots, zip lines, dodging and the one that holds them all together: the ability to target an enemy while aiming at a different one. It is straight out of an action flick. The mechanic lets you easily lock onto one enemy or object while aiming at another. It’s kind of disappointing that no action game has used this to date or at the least to this level. My Friend Pedro should have focused on this more since once you have double-handed weapons this amazing ability goes straight to hell.

The other abilities are known and have been seen time and time again. Either way, let’s go over them again. The first up, as expected is bullet time: As in Max Payne’s bullet-time, time slows down while letting you act in real-time. It’s a godsend in these hectic combat games which My Friend Pedro is. The only problem I have with the bullet time mechanic is how jumping changes in and out of bullet time. Outside bullet-time your character jumps high but in bullet time he dives, while this is usually alright most of the time it can be a problem while fighting enemies and trying to jump or wall jump over obstacles.

The other main ability is the bullet dodge. As the name suggests, it lets you dodge bullets at a moment’s notice. The problem with it is that you cannot aim while pulling it off. You can shoot while pulling a bullet dodge but the bullets go in whatever direction the gun is currently pointing in. Killing enemies during a bullet dodge is fine when you are on the ground since dual-wielded weapons shoot in both directions but the problem starts if you have a double-handed weapon since you have to wait till the gun is pointed in the right direction to get a kill. It’s especially annoying in the air as your character does a spin so aiming is an absolute pain. Irrespective of all the trouble though the bullet dodge is useful and looks fucking cool at the same time. It is also fulfilling when you pull it off correctly.

The other abilities like wall jumping, zip lines and a strange entry: skateboarding are as their name states. I had no problem with any of them except for the skateboard which once flipped over is a pain to turn over to be used again but when it works you get some cool and fast action sequences, the skateboard can be improved to never allow the board to be upside down. The last thing to talk about is melee, you can kick enemies as well as objects. You can kick knives into people or frying pans into the air so that your bullets ricochet off them to meet enemies in the face. There are boards that you can ricochet your bullets off as well which are nice and add to the cool factor.

The weapons are not great. You have pistols and Uzis that you can dual wield along with a shotgun, rifle with attached grenade launcher and a sniper rifle to even the odds against you. The dual-wielded weapons while not high on damage let you spam everyone around you with bullets while the double-handed weapons are more focused about their damage to even out their lack of split damage.

The enemies exist purely to be cannon fodder. While they carry different weapons and amounts of armour killing them is not anything I would worry over. Just make sure you see them, aim and pull the trigger, if you want you can do a little dance while you’re at it. The boss fights are unique and varied. One boss has to be chased on a bike, another chases you in a chopper and the other two which I liked the most are in the video playlist of the videos in this post.

The levels are the final element in this game and they are well thought out. Unlike some games where levels are just made to be played next, the levels in My Friend Pedro seem like someone actually played them and modified them accordingly. The levels are just right. They let you enjoy and abuse the combat systems while not holding your hand. They are fun while being diverse enough to never let you feel that you have had the same experience before. I suspected the level design was failing in the “Internet” chapter but it was simply a change of focus from combat to platforming. The levels were more platform-oriented and seemed annoying at first but once I figured out what they were trying to do I enjoyed them and felt a sense of accomplishment when they were beaten.

The combination of all these elements is amazing. The game is complete and utter chaos at times when you are shooting two enemies down while contemplating your next targets while dancing past bullets. Managing dodging, diving and shooting while preventing holes in your character is fun and frantic. To add to the confusion is a combo system that lets you tie together kills and kill methods to get a high score. Trying for a high score will keep you retrying levels for ages to come.

Conclusion:

My Friend Pedro is great brainless fun. I have found myself starting it again and again just to get better level scores or using game modifiers just for the fun of it. A short game if you play it just for the story where you would be doing yourself a disservice. Playing it at different difficulties for the fun factor and level ranks is great fun.

Pros	Cons
Interesting Story	Average Delivery
Decent graphics	Bullet effects could be better
Great sound track	No voice acting
Great level design	“The Internet” chapter breaks momentum
Fun dual aiming mechanic	Double handed weapons ruin the system