This game is bananas.
There are a lot of weird games nowadays. There are just a lot of games nowadays, so it is nearly impossible to keep tabs on all of them. Devolver Digital has made a name by releasing unique titles that stand out from the crowd. Whether by their sheer absurdity or the fact that most of them are simply a joy to play. The latest from their flock is a game called My Name is Pedro: Blood Bullets Bananas. As the name implies it is ridiculous. Imagine Suda51 directed a John Wick game and you get the idea. It is all about killing in slow motion with the finesse of a ballet dancer. It also has a banana, so there is that.
The idea behind the game is that Pedro is a banana and he is tasking his friend with murdering a bunch of people in stylistic fashion. That is literally it. Devolver has never been one to focus on narrative-driven games, and My Friend Pedro is no exception. The game is all about murdering people in creative ways in slow motion. It gets right to the point and I appreciate that.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Switch (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
Every big dumb stupid way to kill enemies is here. Slow motion diving, sliding down ropes upside down, bouncing bullets off kitchen utensils. The game offers up plenty of ways to dispatch enemies and it is all about the style. My Friend Pedro is all about racking up combo points. Dispatching enemies will get you to the end of the level, but if you want those high scores you better do it with style. Think of it like Tony Hawk with bullets, or for those that are cool The Club, which was a sorely underrated shooter focused on keeping combos going.
If there is one thing that drags the game down it is the way it plays. I love what I can accomplish in My Friend Pedro, but the controls are almost too loose to always execute them without issue. Bullet time for example is activated by L3, which can be cumbersome on the Joycons. Physics also play a weird role in that they sometimes work against what I am trying to do. I had several sections I simply failed on purpose to do over because it just wasn’t stylish enough. I love everything I can pull off in this game, but sometimes the game fights me with pulling it off.
The art style of My Friend Pedro is great. It is simple and wacky lending to the overall theme of the game. Levels range from corridors to highway battles and then into the eclectic. It really suits the mood of the game. I absolutely hate this term, but this is a great Switch game. It works good on-the-go or on the big screen. The music is also a synthwave of awesome. Tracks stuck in my head and I love the sound effects and slow motion effects. This game is all about style over substance and it owns it.
My Friend Pedro is as wacky as the name suggests. In a sea of games it is hard to make a splash, but Switch owners would be wise not to skip this fun romp. While it has some issues the pure joy of bouncing a bullet off a frying pan and into the skull of your adversary outweighs that frustration. I wish Devolver would put their games on more systems right out of the gate, as I think this game could easily make a splash with just about every gamer.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
