Gunbrella Critic Reviews

Gunbrella is a sensational action platformer with incredibly fluid locomotion and a story that takes some unexpected turns.

Gunbrella offers tight and thrilling action, a moving story of revenge, and a fascinating world well worth exploring. I’m not sure what more I could ask for in an action platformer. While it’s a relatively short journey, lasting me only about six hours, I had a blast during my time with Gunbrella and I think most players will as well.

Humorous dialogue and banter brings levity to the grim, heavy narrative and bleak setting of Gunbrella. The game turns an elegantly simple concept on its head, resulting in gameplay that is both responsive and rewarding. Gunbrella is an exhilarating romp with an intriguing story that doesn’t shy away from heavier themes. Though there is some room for improvement, Gunbrella’s heart-pumping boss fights and memorable characters will stick with me long after I’ve closed my parasol.

Gunbrella is another example of developer doinksoft proving they know how to make a wicked cool video game. Featuring rainy nights and gorgeously bleak environments overrun with pollution as the backdrop, the steampunk and noir vibes are palpable as you investigate the inner politics of a town and, most importantly, your wife’s killer. Thankfully all that deliberate dreariness is complemented by a cool traversal system with the umbrella and frenetic 2D action that does a good job balancing the difficult task of empowering and challenging the player. Topping it all off is a final area and twist seen to be believed. Gunbrella is amazing and a must-have modern action title for your library of games.

Gunbrella is one of the most unique 2D action platformers that I have ever played, simply because of the crazy weapon that you use to explore and defeat enemies. There is some backtracking here and challenging enemies to face, but the mysterious story keeps you engaged.

I’ve already hinted as much as I dare about Gunbrella’s ultimate outcome, though I suspect some details will change depending on how you play. Its overarching narrative might be a small rain cloud, but everything else in the game shines so brightly it hardly overshadows the game’s brilliance. I look forward to seeing it in this year’s best of 2023 discussions.

Gunbrella delivers a great combination of platforming and combat, punctuated by challenging boss fights and plenty of character interactions. The game introduces new ideas and challenges at a good pace and boredom never sets in. The narrative could have used some extra weirdness, but the universe is engaging and offers some cool moments. The game could have used more variety when it comes to battle scenarios and maybe a little less backtracking. Gunbrella implements the core ideas of action platforming well and adds plenty of fun new ideas that will appeal both to newcomers and genre veterans.

While Gunbrella might struggle with providing a challenge, it more than makes up for it by providing a dark, gritty world where your choices have very real consequences. Not all is doom and gloom, as the comedy flows like polluted water down a city’s gutters on a rainy night, and you can bet it’s accompanied by some killer jazz.

A surprisingly deep gameplay and occasionally brutal difficulty make Gunbrella an enticing game worthy of attention if someone is in search of something unique and retro.

Gunbrella throws a huge amount of elements into the pot of game design: twin stick shooter, action platformer, a touch of adventure, pure arcade sections, and a story designed specifically to insert any element into the game without penalizing narrative coherence. Impossible to properly delve into every aspect in the bare eight hours required to finish it, but the result is nevertheless very interesting, also by virtue of a slightly lower price than the average for this type of videogame. It also features a very well executed filter that gives the noir look to the excellent pixel art graphics

Gunbrella is a rather easy recommendation. It’s a solid platformer with a lot of charm. I’m not sure it will be at the top of my mind when I think of my favorite games, and I don’t think I’m going to be eager to scoop up a physical copy sometime in the future, but I undoubtedly enjoyed my time with it. It’s worth keeping for a rainy day.

Even if it can be a little too easy and was over far before I’d have liked, Gunbrella’s incredible movement options, surprisingly intriguing mystery, and punchy gunfights quickly made it one of my favourite indies in recent memory and a universe I’d love to see more of in the future. Just remember, there’s a 100 percent chance of blood raining from the sky, so you better bring a brolly.

Between its major beats, and the classical adventure of the protagonist, brought to life in such beautiful noir shades, Gunbrella is an adventure with a real sense of vigour. Its narrative remains gripping, even in its weaker beats, and paints an evocative picture of a dark world that isn’t so different from our own.

A fast and fun action platformer that effectively utilises its core gimmick in inventive ways, Gunbrella is the noir punk indie that you should be looking to play when the weather calls for a coat and a brolly.

If you like your graphics pixel-perfect, your scenery bloody, and your gunplay fast and tactile, you’ll have a blast with Gunbrella. It is a game about a gun which is also an umbrella.

Less a case of reinvention for reinventions’ sake, it’s the mix of familiar genre staples with a widened focus on smaller details that ends up with Gunbrella proving to be a brief, yet highly-satisfying entrant for action-platformer fans. In looking towards those minute moments — from NPC dialogue to pixel art and even the music that accompanies your travels — Doinksoft successfully broaden not just the studio’s palette of aesthetics and gameplay mechanics alike, but so too an understanding on how to build out a world to engage with. A pitch that may not be striving to be the most complex or densest of takes, but whose free-flowing approach to combat and presentation alike is well appreciated. A fitting step forward from the black-and-white, feline stylings of previous, Gunbrella‘s ballistic-fueled ballet of fluid movement and subtle details alike marks this down as one more success for the Doinksoft team.

Gunbrella is a wonderful, quirky noir-punk shooter that, like the abominations confronting the hero gunman, is made up of what should be many discordant parts. Yet what we get is a lore-rich world with slick movement in its bedrock that’ll spawn an unlikely love of umbrellas not heard of since the day that Tom Holland splashed about in fishnets.

Gunbrella is a straightforward, short experience that's refreshing amidst so many games that aim to fill up months of our play time. Its combat might be a bit repetitive, but it's still always a pleasure due to how great it feels to wield the game's titular weapon.

Gunbrella is a nice game: an action platformer with personality, stylish pixel art graphics, a surprising story and a pretty solid gameplay that puts combat first.

Gunbrella is a very solid game. It isn't perfect due to some easy boss fights, and it isn't quite a Metroidvania because of the game's linear nature. However, it does make good use of the titular weapon in performing some nice platforming tricks, and you'll enjoy some meaty combat with most of the enemies. If you don't mind the game's short playtime, you'll have some fun with Gunbrella.