My Friend Pedro is a side-scrolling action shoot ’em up game developed by DeadToast Entertainment and published by Devolver Digital. The game was released on the 20th June and is currently available on the PC & Nintendo Switch.

Let’s start by saying if you haven’t seen the launch trailer for this game, then you need to see it RIGHT NOW as its hilarious. Click the link below and come back here when ready.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyahBxUAYbs

What’s funnier than a talking banana telling you how to cook, and what’s cooler than a fast-paced protagonist on a rampage of gun shooting, knife throwing and using a…frying pan? Yes, that’s what I said.

So with that being said, let’s matrix-style “slow-mo” dive right in and see why there has been a lot of interest in this game.

Gameplay

On a personal level, anything that Devolver Digital puts their name too, I am immediately interested in, ‘Ape Out’, ‘Observation’ & ‘Hotline Miami’ to name a few of my favourites to date.

The game is 40 levels long, where you are accompanied by a floating banana as your guide – “Pedro”. Each level will pit your wits against enemies and the only way through is on a 1-way ticket killing spree, using skills like slowing down time & stunts like running up the wall and flipping over, all these things can leave your enemies in a not so good state. You have many weapons to choose from and you can also kick things too. What can you kick you say? Well, I’m not going to spoil that for you now, am I? But what I would say is my favourite weapon by far is the shotgun, which is sooooo awesome. Your floating banana friend will keep you up to date with what you need to do throughout your journey, as well as raising morale with some witty jokes.

After each level you are given a scoring rating made of your killing sprees, combo’s & how well you did as your rating bases. I was mostly getting “B”s which stands for “Bananas” & “C”s for “Coconut” or “Come On”. The highest rating you can achieve is “S for Silky Smooth”. You have the options to replay each level as many times as you want to increase your points on the leaderboard.

Graphics

I feel the Devolver Digital games that I have played are visually stunning and My Friend Pedro is no exception. With a tagline of “A great deal of blood and gore and bananas”, this game features a tonne of “matrix-style” slow-downs and split aiming blood splattering kills it all looked really super on screen. Playing this game on my Geforce 1060 GTX on high settings was very nice, and I didn’t encounter any issues with the game.

Audio

Throughout every level, you will find yourself immersed in a mix of slow and fast dance tracks which compliments the mood of the game in a way that it’s not distracting. The music suits the style of the game, along with the sound of bullets flying everywhere, enemies being blown into pieces & Pedro keeping the dialogue flowing. Even though I am not into dance music myself, I did enjoy the dance overlay so turn it UP.

Longevity

My Friend Pedro has 40 levels in total, with those coming in 5 separate chapters that are set in different locations. After completing the game, I would easily go back to try to better my previous scores for each level, and as a challenge to myself, I would try and aim for that all important “S” rating. There are also three different difficulty options, (Bananas (the game’s maximum difficulty), so there is definitely replay value there also.

Conclusion

In a strange way, I knew I would love this game. Like I said earlier I enjoy the games that Devolver Digital have published or developed, and when I first saw the gameplay trailer back in March, I knew it was a game to keep my eye on. This game, in a nutshell, makes you feel like a right proper badass!! From Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator chasing down Sarah Connor, or John Wick going gung ho in a nightclub, you feel unstoppable and that you can take on any of the enemies the game throws at you, and in this case, alongside a talking banana sidekick named Pedro.

I really, really enjoyed this game, and hope that the developers will be expanding it with some new DLC in the future, and with the ability to be able to play online with others. This is why I am going to award it the Thumb Culture Platinum Award!

As always, I look forward to more games coming out by Devolver Digital in the near future.

Disclaimer: We received a digital code to carry out this review

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