Year: 2022
Rating: E10+
Time Played: 24 minutes / 0.4 hours
I picked up One Gun Guy for free the other day because I thought it looked like a fun little platformer. While it was quite short for a play-through on my SteamDeck, I enjoyed myself. There are several influences that clearly went into this game, most all of which are from well-known retro games. This combination of influences made it worth the hour I spent on it. I might come back to it at some point and play again, but the initial play-through was worth it.
Like many of the retro games One Gun Guy is based on, there’s not a ton of reasoning behind why this guy is running through a robot factory and shooting all the robots (or collecting the coins). Still, the shooting mechanic felt reminiscent of Mega Man, which I enjoyed. The real fun comes in all the upgrades you can get to make it easier to get through the game without dying. These upgrades worked in a way similar to Gradius or Blaster Master, where they build upon themselves with subsequent acquisitions.
The health system in One Gun Guy felt like a layered version of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, where each time you get damaged, you lose part of your armor / upgrades. Of course, this game was almost too easy because of this, because you get upgrades by collecting the coins throughout the level, along with clear upgrade tokens that are liberally spread throughout the game. If there were a stronger overarching plot or a few more levels with different themes, it might warrant more attention, but it’s fun for an evening if you have nothing to do.
A heavily retro-inspired platformer that’s fun for an hour, I give One Gun Guy 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
