07/04/2014

My Friend Pedro has its ups & downs. You're able to slow down time in order to do Matrix-style leaps, dodges, and stuff, but at the same time, it's counteracted by how stiff the movement is. You often find your body tumbling in a direction you didn't intend and are punished for it even though you have little control as to where your body flails, leading to a couple of frustrating wall-jumping moments. The combat is iffy, it's just your standard 2D platformer-shooter-type game, and the mechanics are very limited - rolling, leaping forward, and wall-jumping, that's it.

The music is pretty solid, it reminds me of Hotline Miami in some levels and can get you hyped to do some pretty insane stunts.

A major problem, if you haven't guessed already, is the aiming and movement. Even though it's pretty innovative to have your movement hinder your accuracy, it over-commits just a little bit to the point where it can get pretty hectic if you're the type of person who wants to either dodge as much as possible or be as stylish as possible and punishes you for doing so, for better but usually for worse (since most of the time, it's not even your fault). One of the most frustrating problems I came across was trying to wall-jump while in slow-motion while fighting enemies, and just a heads-up: you will never wall-jump during slow-motion unless under a certain circumstance (which is highly unlikely). Why they made that a thing is beyond me, especially since I don't want to be somersaulting all the time, which questions why you would want to use slow-motion during the vertical-oriented parts of a level.

The biggest issue I had with the game is the AI. When they aren't shooting at the position you were at a second-and-a-half ago, they're preemptively shooting at you before you even open a door as if they have X-ray vision. It's really strange considering "aggro" is a thing in this game where enemies have 2 stances: on alert and not on alert (the enemies aggro you upon looking in your direction regardless if a wall, floor, or door is in the way). Overall, the AI is just atrocious and, as the main obstacle for the game, is very lackluster. I understand it's a humorous game, but some challenge would be nice.

But what really lost points from me was the boss fight in the last stage. It wasn't even that humorous, it was as if it was trying to be the Solgryn boss fight in IWTBTB, and it fails in every regard. Overall, it was a huge letdown considering the variety in enemies isn't too great.

In the end, My Friend Pedro is a rather mediocre game, but give it a shot if you want that Badge as it's not too difficult of a game and you might get a laugh from it.

That Banana was fairly humorous though.