Guns, Gore & Cannoli Review

Metal Slog:

Guns, Gore and Cannoli has the unfortunate pleasure of having some top-tier genre bunkmates. Incredible franchises like Contra and Metal Slug have popularized the Run and Gun genre and contemporary classics have iterated on these great foundations, making it difficult for smaller indie studios to make a splash in an overcrowded and highly polished style of game.

Story:

Guns, Gore & Cannoli doesn’t help itself with a tired story with horribly overused antagonists. Zombies – that once great bastion of B-movie horror is now every developers go-to for instantly popular enemy types – and sadly GG&C counts itself amongst this horde.

It’s a shame, because the title has some nice early-game hooks. Set in ‘Thugtown’ in the middle of the Prohibition, the game instantly seperates itself from the pack with an interesting, twenties-themed America to blast your way through. But pretty much as soon as protagonist Vinnie Cannoli opens his mouth and an awful Godfather-wannabe accent pours out, everything starts to unravel.

As far as characters go, Cannoli is as 2D as they come – and I’m not just talking about the comic-book artstyle. He’s an annoying character to inhabit, spewing cliché one liners and generally getting on your nerves. The story, which tries to tell a mobster tale set in a zombie infested world, falls flat too, and can’t quite decide what it wants to be. These two themes are too busy vying for the spotlight that neither really ‘sticks’, and the title feels like an out of place mobster story in a world inexplicably full of zombies. There are interesting moments during the course of the short story, but they’re outweighed by such trite narrative that they’re inevitably lost in the shuffle.

Gameplay:

The run and gun genre has recently seen a strong resurgence, especially from smaller studios looking to release arcade-styled games. Sadly, Guns, Gore & Cannoli does nothing to set itself apart from the crowd – or even keep up with it.

Whilst the game works fine, other than running right and blasting zombies when they appear there’s very little else to do. Genre contemporaries have added level up systems, unlockable movesets and upgradeable weapons to mix things up and keep players invested. In their levels they offer optional objectives, hostages to save or collectibles to grab. Guns, Gore & Cannoli defiantly bucks these trends and focuses instead on an incredibly pure execution of ‘run and gun’ – offering literally nothing else.

This doesn’t work in anyone’s favour, especially not the players, and whilst the game looks great and plays just fine, the title became tedious and repetitive very quickly. The title is mercifully short at just a few hours, which wouldn’t be praise in any other game but GG&C had already worn out its welcome by the time the credits prematurely rolled.