My Friend Pedro

My Friend Pedro has a solid little reputation, and a well-deserved one at that. Largely made by a single person based on his own flash game, it’s a fun romp that definitely has its place in Devolver’s catalog. MFP’s story is fun, and its art direction colorful. Still, this is a game you’ll primarily play for its insane slow-mo-infused gunplay, reminiscent of Max Payne and F.E.A.R.. This is a brutal bullet ballet where you’ll stylishly slaughter hundreds of enemies with dual-wielded guns and over-the-top acrobatics, using elements of the scenery as lethal weapons when given the opportunity. While getting decent end-level ratings takes some effort and the physics can be slightly wonky, pulling out badass stunts is not that hard and extremely satisfying; plus, thanks to unlimited lives, well-placed respawn points and generous slow-mo meter, not even the most challenging moments are frustrating to play through. The game is every bit as dynamic and insane as the trailers would have you believe, and for the most part, it manages to renew itself well; the campaign regularly adds new guns and mechanics, and discards them when they get old. The real issue with MFP is its last third, which is often criticized... for good reasons. At this point, MFP seems to be out of ideas to renew its combat system and amp up its challenge, so enemies become rarer while the levels become more puzzle-focused. Those levels are still well-designed, but the game loses quite a lot of its appeal at this point, making the average player wish for more hostile encounters. Paradoxically, getting a good rating on the last levels is actually easy due to them having so few enemies! I may have given MFP a 5-stars rating if it wasn’t for its final chapters being underwhelming. Otherwise, it’s still a ton of fun. It is very replayable, and I often find myself going through levels over and over again just for the sheer fun of it. I can only recommend it, and wish for a slightly more polished sequel...

Great game with a fun and well executed gameplay loop, which keeps one playing even after finishing the short Campaign. Though it is sorely missing a level-editor where the community can create and share levels.

without some end game content or level editor or multiplayer options this is a 5 hour shoot fest that is pleasing but is only 5 hours. great game music platforming everything. just needs some end game content.

This is your friend Pedro. He is a banana. He is clever and he will help you trough this bullet action packed game. Fight evil gangster, play crazy level, beat the highscore and talk to a banana! Ah and there is bullet time! 10 out of 10. Pedro approves this game :)

Can you imagine puzzles in Hotline Miami? The game looks and sounds good. There's not much in particular in style that makes the game stand out among similar titles. It can be described as a 2.5D shooter with synth-wave soundtrack. What's with synth-wave soundtracks? They seem to be in every action game nowadays. The talking banana in the trailer was intriguing. I thought it would be in the story more, but, (if I haven't missed anything important) other than the the banana that gives hints and directions and takes you to its world, where nothing interesting or relevant to the story happens, there isn't much. I don't think the story was the primary goal with this game. What appears to be the primary goal (and the game's biggest strength) is the combat mechanics that involve a lot of interaction with the environments, i.e. platforming, ricochet shooting, hitting enemies with various objects, slo-mo, etc. It works and feels great, but only for the first few levels. I consider split-firing (done through dual-wielding pistols or submachine guns) to be the most unique and fun element of shooting mechanics. Being able to kill two enemies at the same time from two guns feels amazing. Unfortunately, it's pretty much taken away from the player upon reaching the sewers level, where the only viable weapon is the assault rifle. Apparently, the developers thought that the players would get bored of all the same stuff on each level, so they decided to detach platforming from shooting, add puzzles (in a fast-pace shoot-'em-up game) and make dual-wielded weapons obsolete by turning up the enemies' bullet-sponginess. Split-fire wouldn't get old. Hotline Miami combat was pretty much the same all throughout the game and it didn't get old. The game would benefit from making more maps encouraging usage of this element. Platforming puzzles were also unnecessary, in my opinion. I enjoyed the first few levels though.