Solid Game Worth the Money
The well-narrated story of the Gunstringer tells the story of a slick marionette outlaw brought back to life in order to inflict deadly revenge on his gang members that betrayed him. The Gunstringers gang of five each has their own unique hideouts based off of them. This helps with the general repetition of the run and gun mechanic through the levels by making them harder. Also each level adds their own knick-knacks like popsicle sticks and stacks of coins in a bank to decorate the scenery. The narration and level design both do a wonderful job of adding to the western ambiance of the game.
It's not a surprise to see the return of Twisted Pixels delightful FMV. But unlike most of their other games the live action video plays a much bigger role. Throughout the game you will see people cheering you on from the theater, giant hands of fate coming out of the sky to make your life harder and some other small pinches of FMV along the way. The charm of the FMV not only gave me a small chuckle from time to time but also helped to keep me believing that I was controlling a puppet in a show.
The fun idea of controlling an outlaw puppet works extremely well with the features of Kinect. Controlling a characters movement in most other games for Kinect wouldn't feel very smooth but luckily the idea of holding a puppet and controlling by the strings with your hands feels natural and works perfectly with the games theme. What I love about the controls of The Gunstinger the most is the action for shooting. Ever since Kinect was announced the first thing that popped into my mind was pointing my hand in a gun shape like when I was five and going "pew, pew." Unfortunately my personal sound effects don't affect the game, but I guess that's not for everybody. The simple controls play pretty nicely but like most Kinect games I still had to tweak my Kinect settings a little some times when the Kinect didn't pick up some of my smaller movements or was being to sensitive. On the note of sensitivity The Gunstringer does allow the game to be played while sitting down. I did notice that the game was a little less responsive while I was doing this but it could just be the slightly limited room in my gaming area.
Another great thing about Gunstringer is that you get a lot of bang for your buck with. I know some people were worried about paying more for a game that was supposed to be less than $20 on XBLA but there is plenty of content packed into this bundle. Not only is it bundled with a $10 Fruit Ninja Kinect it also includes the free Wavy Tube Man Chronicles DLC that take you through an FMV world of gunslingers much like Mad Dog McCree and includes humorous performances from Lloyd Kaufman. Along with all these things the game is packed Twisted pixels usual huge assortment of extras and unlockables. From music and movies to concept art Twisted Pixel gives you plenty of treats for you to spend your hard earned virtual bucks. For only $40 I really feel that I'm getting my moneys worth.
But not everything about this game can be fun. Unfortunately, boss fights and platforming sections don't really differ. Considering the extra time they got I would have appreciated some unique gameplay for each boss. Its moments in the game like this when there is a lack of originality are when I remember that this was originally planned for XBLA. Unfortunately this was a big flaw that I could not get over.
The Gunstringer is a great game with a lot of great moments but lacks some originality. Im giving The Gunstringer a well deserved 7.5/10.