My Friend Pedro review: Brace yourself for ‘gunfu’ stunts

My Friend Pedro packs a punch, chock-full of snappy action and offbeat commentary. Here’s what you can expect from all 40 levels.

How do you defend yourself against a man armed with a piece of fruit?

You shoot him, of course, and then eat the fruit, thus rendering him harmless — unless that banana-fiend is your character in the brilliantly offbeat and action-packed My Friend Pedro.

Developed by Deadtoast Entertainment and published by Devolver Digital for PC and Nintendo Switch, My Friend Pedro is a side-scrolling shooter where you play a Deadpool-like vigilante wearing a banana-themed costume and taking instructions from an imaginary talking banana named Pedro.

This is an incredibly stylish game that lets you live out an over-the-top video game hero fantasy. Picture: Supplied.

You wake up in the basement of a local crime boss’s warehouse and proceed to shoot your way through a series of goons at the behest of your tropical teammate, who provides amusing commentary on the proceedings.

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In addition to your usual run-and-gun stuff, you can activate a bullet-time like focus effect where you can dodge bullets and do acrobatics while you traverse levels — and this is where the game really shines.

The way you can activate the focus effect and leap over enemies while dual-wielding 9mm Uzi sub-machine-guns to engage separate targets — slowly dodging incoming fire, and maybe causing some fuel cans to explode in the process — is like ballet.

Slow-motion dual-wielding is just one way to deal with the many enemies you'll encounter. Picture: Supplied.

There are puzzles to solve, most of which relate to your wall jumping ability, where you can reverse-leap off walls, and I found most of them to be fairly logical while still providing a challenge, especially when local ruffians are accosting you with their bullets in the process.

As with most Devolver titles, My Friend Pedro does not take itself seriously, and it works so much better for it — it’s great fun and acknowledges your character might be a pineapple short of a fruit salad, given that he’s taking advice from an irreverent talking banana.

I reviewed the game on Nintendo Switch and found the controls easy to use. The game was brilliant for something to play in short bursts — an ideal commute game, or something to play while stuck on hold listening to a repeated automated message assuring you your call is important.

Yes, you can swing upside down through the air in slow-motion while firing an Uzi with each hand. Picture: Supplied.

The emphasis is on fun and action, so while the game has a plot thinner than a wafer-thin mint, it really doesn’t matter because it’s an excuse to have a good time leaping through the air firing guns at baddies and making things explode.

Some of the enemies you will encounter include low-level goons, bounty hunters, and cyber-ninjas as well as more absurd bad guys who include “haters” — they differ mainly in how many times you need to shoot them to take them down.

There’s a range of guns in the game, starting with handguns and progressing through submachine-guns and shotguns to assault rifles and sniper rifles, but the game is most fun when you’re getting close and chaotic.

As the game progresses, the trick shots you can pull off become more impressive — in one situation, I shot a frying pan into the air then used it to ricochet bullets into enemies hiding behind cover — but the game never loses sight of the fact it is simply about having an over-the-top good time, and keeps the obstacles at a level which makes things interesting but doesn’t cross over into fun-ruining frustration.

You can use objects like this frying pan to ricochet bullets off, to deadly effect. Picture: Supplied.

There are about 40 levels, ranging from warehouses to construction sites to a weird dreamland to a moving train, but they’re all fairly linear; you keep moving from left to right with very little backtracking.

New environments offer more opportunities to try interesting combinations — such as ziplining through a window in slow-motion to get a “dramatic entrance” bonus — and if you’ve ever wanted to ride a skateboard into a room and kick into the nearest bad guy’s head while saying “think fast!” before filling the room with bullets to deal with anyone else silly enough to be there, My Friend Pedro is definitely for you.

I was impressed by the music, which had a great synthwave/electronic vibe to it and complemented the action really well — it was a good fit and a great addition to the atmosphere.

This guy has no idea he’s about to cop a skateboard to the back of his head — and that’s just one of the crazy things you can do in this game. Picture: Supplied.

My Friend Pedro isn’t going to revolutionise the gaming industry, but it’s a superb example of a fun, easily accessible game that knows what it is and wants to make sure you have a good time with it as well.

It goes out of its way to make you feel like a high-octane video game hero and it succeeds; if you’ve got a Switch and want something to play that you don’t have to get too involved in, you’ll want to become one of Pedro’s friends too.

Royce Wilson is writes about games and technology for news.com.au — continue the conversation on Twitter @RoyceWilsonAU