Lodged firmly between Untitled Goose Game and the janky, full-blown absurdity of Goat Simulator, sits developer Dee Dee Creations Squirrel With A Gun. It has some of the same mean-spirited shenanigans of a Goose causing trouble in the neighbourhood, mixed with a healthy dose of the pulled-back, madness of Goat Simulator. At its heart, Squirrel With A Gun is, ultimately, a far more straightforward, light platformer that was clearly inspired by some of the classics in the genre.
Squirrel With A Gun throws you into the fur of a rampaging rodent in middle-class Suburbia whose insane nut-hunting quest has torn all the wheels of the school bus. Exploding BBQs, underground bases, homes filled with lava and more bullets and explosions than an 80’s action movie are your companions here. Why does a spook-filled secret agency want to neuter our furry pal? And why is the squirrel full of rage? You’re going to have to descend into the mean streets of suburbia to find out, but one things for sure, this furry little rodent is going to let the bodies hit the floor!
While Squirrel With A Guns title is rather succinct, thankfully there’s a bit more to it than running around shooting government spooks with whatever ballistic machine of death you can get your little paws on. Sure, that central joke wears itself thin pretty early on, but there are enough jokes and humour here to lift the game above its central conceit into the realm of humorous and sarcastic parody.
From the vaguely Bond-ian opening theme to the little squeals of rage, as something gets in your way, to the over-the-top takedowns and the little screams of pain as you try to climb a cactus, Squirrel With A Gun managed to keep a smile on my face throughout my playthrough.
As you’d imagine, guns play a big part in the game. The most obvious use is to kill the agents scattered around the suburb and to take down the game’s bosses. But you can also use them to hold up the neighbours who drop acorns while shivering in their shoes. A fitting punishment for all those unsolicited photos! The best part about weapons is how they’ve been incorporated into the platforming and move set. Sure you move slower while hoisting a firearm, but having one in proximity is always a good idea as the guns boost your move set.
A handgun can be used to chain continuous jumps together to cross large gaps, while rocket launchers let you rocket jump to much higher places at the cost of some health, a tremendous squeal and losing the weapon, while sub-machine guns function as deadly jetpacks to cross large gaps and scale the most vertical of heights.
Once you’ve picked up a gun, it gets unlocked for you to purchase at various spots in the neighbourhood for some of those tasty acorns you’ve been collecting. Ammo can be replenished by running over a gun of the same type or by running through the ammo spots liberally littered around.
At its dark, little heart, Squirrel With A Gun is a traditional platformer with ballistics playing a large part in the platforming design. It takes its cue from older platformers, presenting you with collectables and fairly challenging obstacles to overcome. The suburbs initially only give you access to a few homes, each housing a couple of Golden Acorns for you to collect. These are usually themed to an activity, like finding a drunken groom and getting him to the wedding, or a house whose floor is lava that needs navigating. Beat a boss and more areas open up for you.
Some are more fun to collect than others and some also require more work than others to get to, but the game is never less than humorous about how it does it. Whether you’re blowing up a barbecue to roast some steaks or using a rocket launcher to blow up agents like bowling pins on floating platforms, Squirrel With A Gun makes it worth your while. And those hilarious chiropractor and gun-specific takedowns are well worth the animation. You will believe a squirrel can snap a grown man’s neck!
Rounding out the collectable list are some fancy outfits for you to find, broken up into an accessory, a costume and new fur colours. Some are merely for looks, while others have some game-changing uses to them. While the pretty dress merely lets you run around like a high society filly, the bomb suit makes you immune to explosions at the expense of manoeuvrability.
Visually Squirrel With A Gun is a bit of a mixed bag. The game runs perfectly fine and the animations, especially the close-ups of our rambunctious rodent, are great but the overall visual look falls firmly into the lower-budget side of the spectrum. I would have liked some visual options to tweak certain features, such as bloom and DoF, but overall the game environments are sparse and the overall visual look could have used some post-processing effects to tone down the harsh, external lighting.
Jumping could also be a little tighter. Right now there’s a slight delay between a button press and your squirrel performing the action. I’m not sure if this is intentional, to make it feel like a four-legged creature gearing up for a jump, but until you get used to it, it can be frustrating around instant death lava and sections where you need to move quickly between platforms.
While the game’s central joke may wear itself out fairly quickly, and the slight jankiness means getting used to movement and, at times, wonky animations, Squirrel With A Gun still manages to be a fun and entertaining ballistic platforming extravaganza that will keep a smile on your face.
Squirrel with a Gun – Console Launch Trailer
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The code was provided by the publisher.
