The Gunstringer

The Short

Pros

- One of the few Kinect games that actually plays as advertised

- Can be played sitting down

- Easy controls: left hand jumps/moves, right hand aims/shoots

- Good mix of regular running/gunning, taking cover, driving stuff, etc. 

- Can play two player with a second shooter

- Absurd, goofy story

- Stylized graphics with a hilarious mix of FMV

- Massive number of unlocks including themes and different modes

- Comes with a free code for Fruit Ninja Kinect if you buy new

- Retailed $20 less than a normal priced Xbox 360 game (even with the Fruit Ninja bonus)

- First batch of DLC is free and amazingly dumb

Cons

- Despite having a lot of charm, the graphics do look dated

- Game is pretty short, with the only replay options literally replaying levels for more money

- Default difficulty is too easy, though you can unlock harder difficulties

- Bosses are repetitive and don't particularly have a good deal of variety

The Gunstringer has plenty of goofy, tongue-in-cheek humor

The Long

While I think the Kinect is a cool concept, it is rare that games actually do...well, anything worth spending a considerable amount of time with. This is probably due to two reasons: 1. Not using a controller messes up precision, meaning they have to make gimped games and 2. It gets really tiring to stand up and prance around for several hours. If I had to stay standing through all of Skyrim I'd have been on my feet for like 130 hours. That might have killed me. 

So when a game shows up that both works on the Kinect and also is fun, you gotta jump on that. Which is exactly what The Gunstringer is. Made by Twisted Pixel (the awesome guys who made The Maw...you guys know you want to hire me to do something :P) and using their "Beard" engine (and I have a beard! I'd fit in perfectly), The Gunstringer combines their signature humor with simple, easy to pick up gameplay that makes an entertaining and enjoyable Kinect experience.

And you can play it sitting down, to which I say about time. 

I'm getting some Mulan vibes here

The general gist of The Gunstringer is pretty simple. As a marionette, you were betrayed by a bunch of jerks that fit every western stereotype hilariously (Chinese samurai, big-oil money man, lady of the night... wavy tube man...wait what) so you've come back to the dead to get revenge. The game is essentially on rails with control limited to movement and jumping (as well as aiming and shooting), but that's pretty much par for the coarse for Kinect games. Hey, at least it let me sort of determine my direction, which is better than Child of Eden.

Don't get me wrong, Child of Eden is pretty great...it just makes me feel like I'm on a bad trip.

Controls, as I've said quite a few times, make or break Kinect games (usually break). Luckily Twisted Pixel took the right route and didn't try to shoehorn a bunch of stupid, unnecessary actions in. On a video preview on Giant Bomb they mentioned that when developing they noticed that the Kinect is really good at picking up arms and hands, but it can sometimes have issues with legs and feet. So they just axed the "legs and feet" part and just stuck with tracking your arms (and sometimes head), which is probably why it actually is pretty precise. I suppose this same game could be played with two Wii-motes, but then you wouldn't BE THE CONTROLLER.

Left hand drives the Gunstringer left and right, or moves him out of cover, or just generally does directions. Right hand is your gun, which you point at the screen (you don't have to shape your hand like a gun, but if you don't you clearly have no soul...or play a lot of Child of Eden which plays better with your palms forward). You "lock-on" target with your gun hand (like Child of Eden) and then pull your arm back like getting gun-recoil to fire (also like Child of Eden). You can "paint" six targets this way, though if you are tricky you can extend the chain, defying the laws of physics and gun capacity (and earning a cheevo). 

No, Wavy Tube Man, I do not want to make a down payment on a used car!

The game mixes things up by having you drive a river raft, slide down hills, dodge rocks, etc. It also has a combo system that encourages not getting hit (you also lose life, but the game is so easy on the standard difficulty you probably won't be worrying about lives), and that's...pretty much it. The game paces itself well enough that it mixes things up usually every couple of minutes, meaning you are never doing the same thing over and over. It makes for a fun game to play in bursts, and you can even play two player (though the second player is just a disembodied targeting circle). 

Bosses come after each Act, but to be honest they are all pretty similar. You get free control of the Gunstringer and essentially dodge shots and attacks until you get an opening, blast the boss, and repeat. The only real difference between the bosses are the shots they fire and their attack patterns; the principle is still the same. The game offers so many mini-bosses in each act its forgivable, though (and unlike Ninja Blade's minibosses, these ones are actually, you know, fun.)

As a whole it's a pretty short experience, probably around 4-5 hours on the high end. A lot of the time is spent watching goofy cutscenes, which I'll bring up more later. Or I'll do it right now, why not? It's my review, sucka. 

The Gunstringer don't take no lip

So as you can see the game looks...decent. It has a ton of style, which is to its advantage, but it's hardly pulling off bumpmapping or any sort of extensive textures. The Gunstringer started its life as an XBLA game before being "upgraded" to this disc release, and it still looks like an XBLA game. This isn't bad (especially considering they sold it as a discount and with a free game), and since its so stylish I'm just going to write it off. The graphic's weren't distracting, which is really the only issue I have when a game has bad graphics, so I'll give them a "passable" and move on.

Something that is awesome graphically, however, is the FMV (aka Full Motion Video aka recording of Twisted Pixel guys doing weird stuff). The game is essentially a puppet show being put on display in a theater (with you being the puppeteer), and so often you see audience reactions (super corny audience reactions), and a surprise ending that is straight up hilarious. Twisted Pixel loves putting goofy FMV of their team members weirdly interacting with games, and on The Gunstringer it is not only presented best, but it also fits (seeing as it is a play). 

Bosses usually follow the same formula

The music is also fantastic, written by "Chainsaw," who write all Twisted Pixel's music. It's pretty evident he's talented based on the wide range of songs he's done, but this one is probably my favorite of his work. Plucky, western songs accent the already over-the-top story, fitting perfectly with both the western theme and the absurdity of the story. Ok, I guess the "Donuts, Go Nuts" song from Splosion Man is still better. I actually have that song on Rock Band I like it so much. It inspires me to eat luther burgers. 

Plus, Chainsaw has an epic beard. Though he looks like he'd tie you to the traintracks and laugh like a maniac.

Back on subject, The Gunstringer comes with loads of extras to justify the fact it isn't an XBLA game anymore. There is absolutely an astronomical amount of stuff to unlock, from concept art to green-screens of the audience to designer videos to songs to game modes to different characters to Xbox themes to an achievement (yeah, you buy an achievement. And the game calls you out on it). Their previous game, The Adventures of Captain Smiley, also did this to what I then considered an insane degree, but this outclasses it by a long shot.

As an added bonus, the first DLC, a full FMV parody of old laserdisc shooting games, is completely free. It's absurd and totally stupid, but hey...free is free. And hilarious.

And looks like something my friends would make in their backyard

Since we brought up Captain Smiley, I think there's a point to be made: while I enjoy Twisted Pixel's brand of humor, I didn't like Captain Smiley's. It was rude and in your face, which is fine in a small dose, but it got so overwrought it really burned me out. Luckily, The Gunstringer is not like this. The humor is presented in good doses, and while there are some jokes that sort of try to hard (the lumberjack who loved a gater, for example), as a whole they work and are quite entertaining. The narrator is especially funny, reminding me of what would happen if Bastion's narrator got drunk and put in a western.

As a bonus, if you buy it new you get Fruit Ninja Kinect, no "strings" attached! Get it? Because he's...ok fine. 

I bought this game release day (the only copy my Gamestop had gotten, apparently) for $40, though now you can get it from amazon for $32. This includes a full retail copy of Fruit Ninja Kinect, which is normally $10 (and is pretty good, based on my old review), so you are getting two good Kinect games for the price of...half of one? With all the unlocks I'd say it's totally worth it for a Kinect owner. 

Despite a few minor niggles, this game easily earns four out of five. It's a solid experience on Kinect, and if you liked Child of Eden you should totally be picking this up. 

Now bring me The Maw 2 with Kinect controls, Twisted Pixel!