Gunslugs started off as a prequel to INC, which is probably why it looks pretty similar. However, it doesn’t exactly play the same. At the beginning of Gunslugs you’re able to choose from 2 different characters. As you progress throughout the game, you’ll be able to save 5 other characters which you’ll then be able to choose from as well, each starting off in the environment that you saved them in. We haven’t reached the end of the game yet (and, as Pascal, the developer behind Gunslugs has stated, there is no official ending to the game because ATM, it’s quite the ‘impossible’ task), but as you start, you’re given 3 ‘missions’, or stages, that make up each environment, to make your way through. The first two require you to take out buildings with beacons on top of them while the third is a boss battle. Making your way through the stage, you’ll come across a whole slew of enemies from the Black Duck Army, helicopters that drop off more enemies, and can also be taken out with mines and explosive barrels that litter the stages, ammo, gun and health will be dropped by enemies and can also be found in crates, tanks can be acquired and used for short periods of time - now, I say short because it depends on when you acquire the tanks; they can not climb up any inclines in the ground, so you will not be able to take advantage of them for too long - and better yet, coins that add to your score and that you can collect and use when entering various buildings that can contain either a mini-game, armor, an extra life or power drinks. The buildings can also house extra ammo crates, characters that will refill your health and princesses hiding from the evil army but willing to bribe you so you keep quiet. These buildings are also where you’ll be able to find the trapped characters that you’ll need to save in order to choose them as a playable character. The very mention of mini-games might turn some of you off, but if you’re familiar with OrangePixel’s past work, it shouldn’t worry you too much. The mini-games fit in with the gameplay of Gunslugs quite well, with one game throwing you onto the top of a moving train while you blast enemies away and jump from cart to cart while trying to make it to the front of the train. Another mini-game puts you in a Stardash (or Super Mario Land - GameBoy style) level, where you’ll need to jump on enemies heads in order to dispatch them, and make it to the end, while another is built looking kind of like Donkey Kong and has you jumping from platform to platform, taking out enemies and again, trying to make it to the finish line. Each of these mini-games has no real effect on your main game health or ammo, so dying just sends you back to the building that you found the mini-game in, but if you can manage to complete the games, they will help you rack up a huge score, and work your way up the leader boards. At first, the game does start off a little mindless. Throughout the first world, you’re pretty much able to run around holding down the fire button, blasting everything in sight, and wasting ammo as you go along. But in the second world, thing start to become a little more strategic, as running out of ammo is a real option, leaving you to fend for yourself with no gun, being chased by enemies until you can run over a mine, and blow them up, hopefully grabbing some ammo refills after the process, but obviously leaving you battered and broken after being shot at while running around trying to find a mine. Picking up a new gun, like a flame-thrower, grenade launcher, electro gun, two way gun, ect… and depleting its ammo will refill your main gun’s ammo though, and, as stated, ammo drops are all over the place so long as you don’t just run around with your finger on the trigger constantly, you should be fine. Even during boss battles, bosses send out waves of army troops so that you can recoup some of your ammo and health. Also, entering a building that does not have a beacon on top of it can only be done once, meaning that if you do not have enough coins to play the housed mini-game or purchase the extra life or armor, you will not be able to enter the building again. This does give a sort of risk/reward feature, as quite a few of the buildings have characters that give you coins or refill health, but you can also play through the stage, destroying everything and gathering coins, and then go back and enter the buildings in order to take advantage of their treasures. The controls, as you might imagine, are flawless. This is made even more apparent by the fact that Ravenous (yes that Ravenous, the ones who created League of Evil, the game that was so highly praised for it’s controls) has been saying for months that they are going to look into making their controls more comfortable for iPad play, but have not, and then released their new game, Infestor, on the same day as Gunslugs, only to have a horrid button layout, made even more apparent on the bigger iPad screen, while OrangePixel’s Gunslugs, as with all of their previous games, has fully customizable controls, able to be positioned anywhere on the screen when playing on any iDevice. Another huge perk is that Gunslugs has co-op play. However, it is set up in a not too familiar way for a lot of people. 3 devices will be necessary, with one acting as the ‘console’ while the other two are used as controllers through the Joypad app, which is also supported by all of OrangePixel’s previous releases. But if you’ve got any friends with an iPad, the Joypad app is free, and only takes a second to download, so you could be playing with friends in no time, so long as they can physically sit next to you. To top it all off, Gunslugs is priced at $1.99, is Universal and has GameCenter support with a leader board for your highest score and a whopping 60 achievements to try and snag. There are also 3 objectives which you’ll be able to try and complete while running through games, adding even more action and difficulty to the game. If you’ve been looking for another hardcore run’n’gun title on the iOS, alongside Metal Slug and INC, Gunslugs fits in perfectly. It’s also a great representation of what OrangePixel is all about; retro graphics, perfect controls, great physics, hardcore gameplay and loads of fun and entertainment. While it might not appeal to the more hardcore platforming fan base, it is great to see OrangePixel deviate slightly from the typical speedrun platformers they’ve released in the past, and still holds up as one of their best games to date that should definitely be checked out by any and everyone even remotely interested in action packed, score driven gameplay. 5/5
Great review SV! Thanks for sharing - I echo the sentiment I ran into a bug here: in the building that houses the ammo crates - 6 of them, piled up to the right wall (3+2+1), I had the flamethrower and was just running to the right, opening them and getting the ammo. Sadly, I managed to put myself in a situation where I blew up the bottom 3, and then I was running to the right, blowing up the middle 2 when I finally finish them off, only to have the top one fall on top of me, and for a moment move my character to its right, on top of the wall, and then when I tried to move it back to the screen, my character just disappeared. Hope this description helps to replicate the bug. Cheers!
Fantastic synopsis SV! Now how to figure out how to survive longer than ten seconds in the first entry into jungle scenario. So much going on....have used the flamethrower too...tried jumping more to avoid things but I die quick...tons of fun though trying to figure out a strategy other than chicken with.......
Just because you're in the jungle there's no need to run around like Rambo blasting everything in sight. Slow and steady wins the race, at least that's the approach that works for me. Keep an eye out for mines and bombs, and try to use them to your advantage, or avoid them. When you come across a tank run like hell and gain the upper ground, making it an easy kill. Use safe houses strategically - if you have a tiny bit of health left and start a mini-game, at the end of the game your life will be replenished. Also it helps to have a continue left over from the first area. Good luck, soldier.
Reporting for duty General! Thanks for sharing your tips. They will be very helpful from now on. I guess I just couldn't get over the " chickens with their heads " comment from earlier in this thread. Good luck on the leader boards! Salutes: then walks off to battle
Why won't this games audio play through my Bluetooth headphones? It keeps switching to the phones speaker whenever I start playing! Is anyone else having this problem?
I've noticed this in games that for some reason had their own bluetooth connectivity feature. The same thing happens to my wireless bluetooth speaker. When games support some fancy bluetooth feature for a proprietary device, the regular bluetooth seems not to work. For example, Gamelofts duo wireless bluetooth joystick cancels out my bluetooth wireless speaker.
It's not a bug... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2605727?start=0&tstart=0 I don't think there's a way that an app can have access to two Bluetooth devices at the same time if the iDevice doesn't allow it... Unless they can make the app recognize the Bluetooth headphones and then remove the Bluetooth activity for the Joypad/iCade features because of it... I'm no coder, and it sounds like something that could be done, but I'm guessing if it was a simple fix, developers like Gameloft and the like would have done it already
I thought this was wifi multiplayer for some reason... With like four people? As is it is I don't really like it that much. Wish you could at least save or something? Atleast the levels are randomly generated...but it gets old kinda fast by yourself.
I'm not using my icade and its happening. I have plenty of games on my phone that are compatible with icade and do not have this problem. Again this is all when I'm not using icade.
Then maybe it's the joypad Bluetooth that's overriding the headphones... And I'm. It saying that you are using it.. But if it's first looking for joypad, it might just automatically disable all other Bluetooth items regardless of whether or not it's active
so far this game is awesome, been looking for a great 8 bit game for a while hehe.. i have a question though..by playing through i have collected 1 character, sly rocko in the jungle area.. do the characters appear randomly or do i have to do a certain action or complete something to collect the others? i have reached the siberia part(still stuck on it) and couldnt find the character that is supposed to be in it.. oh yea, i also liked how it says "oh s**t i went deaf" when turning of the sound..these little things do entertain me haha..
yeah the characters are at set locations, the Siberia one is probably hardest to find tho the others are at very simple locations.
Just to let you know the soundtrack is available here: http://gavinharrisonsounds.bandcamp.com/album/gunslugs Glad you enjoy the music!