I’ve never once looked at Mary Poppins and thought “God, you know what would make her cooler? A nine-gauge shotgun”, but Doinksoft clearly has, because that’s exactly what it’s done with Gunbrella. After going hands-on with the first few hours of the game, my third eye has opened to the possibilities - let’s turn every Disney classic into a gunslinger. Can’t wait for Winnie the Pooh to shove a glock in my face.
Ruined childhoods aside, Gunbrella has been one of my most anticipated indies ever since it was first revealed. Gato Roboto proved that Doinksoft has a handle on exciting fast-paced combat, something that Gunbrella is clearly emulating, albeit with a more singular focus on one weapon and a greater emphasis on story and characters.
Though Doinksoft’s pedigree meant I was already expecting to love how Gunbrella plays, the narrative focus stood out a surprising amount in my time with it. A lone gunslinger out for revenge isn’t the most original setup for a story (even if the gun she slings is an umbrella), but the characters are charming, even in such a depressing world, and there were enough twists and turns that left me a lot more captivated than I expected to be.
That being said, the real star of the show is, well, the Gunbrella itself. Not only does it act as a powerful shotgun that can take out most enemies at close range with a single blast, but you can also launch yourself forward with a quick dash, block and deflect projectiles, change ammo types, and even bounce on top of enemies to stun them. It’s a bit like the Parasol from Kirby, but instead of splashing water around it spills blood, guts, and viscera everywhere, which is an instant improvement.
The Gunbrella borders on being overpowered, but only once you’ve come to grips with its massive moveset. My first hour was spent playing the game like any other safe side-scrolling shooter, as I was overhwelmed by how much the Gunbrella can do. Simply running up and shooting enemies instead of putting the Gunbrella through its paces was like being given unlimited access to a sweet shop and just eating the milk bottles.
Eventually, though, everything started to click-click-boom into place and I was taking enemies out with their own attacks, knocking them into spikes, and floating off into the sunset with a massive grin on my face. The journey from slow-paced shooting and being frightened of every enemy to realising how powerful you are if you just throw both your umbrella and caution to the wind is fantastic, and elevates the Gunbrella to beyond just a simple gimmick to something special.
Shooting aside, Gunbrella has just as much depth to its platforming. I was surprised at how much the gunplay was broken up by environmental puzzles and just generally exploring the world, but it’s thankfully just as enjoyable when you’re wave-dashing at the speed of light and seeing the world blur by behind your umbrella as it is when you’re using that umbrella to liberate people from their vital organs.
While the two core tenants of Gunbrella feel great, I do hope things get a bit more complex in the game’s second half. All of the enemies had predictable movement patterns that made them easy to breeze through, and the previously excellent boss fights suddenly felt a bit superfluous when I figured out I could just cheese them by unloading all of the extra overpowered ammo types that don’t feel necessary anywhere else.
I did see some signs that things were about to get tougher, like enemies wielding their own Gunbrellas that should make for some fantastic duels, and climbing hooks to swing from to make movement a bit more exciting, but the first few hours did feel a little too easy on the standard difficulty. If you want to make the most of Gunbrella, I'd recommend switching it up to Hard to get the most out of it, which is exactly what I'll be doing for the full release.
Even though I didn't find myself too challenged with Gunbrella, I still found myself just wanting to play more at the end of my preview. The excellent combat and platforming show that Gunbrella is one of the main indies to watch this year and one that is likely to be one of 2023’s best if it can continue to build on the great formula it introduces in its first few hours and deliver on its surprisingly interesting revenge story.