I have always been fond of the games Devolver Digital publishes, and lately, it seems that no matter what title I pick up, it’s a winner. With this preview release of Gunbrella, they have now moved from being a fondness to a trusted must-play category of gaming.

The team at Doinksoft, however, are much smarter than I, as their relationship with Devolver Digital started back in 2019. Now, with Doinksoft’s development of Gunbrella, I’ll be keeping an eye on them in the future.

Gunbrella brings us a tale of revenge. Not a new concept, I know, however, a story of revenge can be very entertaining if told correctly. As old as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or as new as Derek Kolstad’s John Wick, Gunbrella has me wanting more from this little taste. You play as a male protagonist, whose name I won’t reveal as it adds to the story, out collecting mushrooms to take home. When returning with your gatherings, you see your home ablaze and hurry back.

Upon reaching your home, you find your wife dead and the only clue remaining; is the (Insert deep voice like on the title card) Gunbrella! With the Gunbrella in hand, you set out in an investigation to find who is responsible. Along the way, you will meet meaningful and interesting characters, and with a more deepening intrigue the further you investigate, the story soon becomes more than a simple case of murder and revenge.

Gunbrella is a two-dimensional, side-scrolling, action game with some platforming. Controlling the protagonist is super easy, but complex enough to be a challenge when the heat is on. Being able to play using a keyboard and mouse or a gamepad allows the perfect diversity of comfortable gaming with the controls. With everything remappable, you can completely customise the controls, allowing you to master the action in an awesome godlike, unstoppable, gun-toting Mary Poppins way. The ability to use the Gunbrella as a weapon, shield, and traversal method makes for some exciting moments of “OH! YEAH!”

The sheer joy of outmaneuvering a foe and eviscerating them into a pile of giblets painting the environment red never gets old. As you explore, you will be able to collect money and items from boxes, chests, and felled foes, and this can be used at vendors to purchase helpful items like bandages, food, and different ammunition types.

Your Gunbrella can become quite diverse when dealing with situations with these different ammunitions, and it can also be upgraded, allowing you to increase its power and reload speed. There are also health upgrades for the protagonist, which are not only found by searching the environment, but by completing side quests.

The pixel art graphics are nice, and with good animations and hit detection, it makes for an enjoyable spectacle. The environments are well depicted for what you’d expect but can be slightly over-cluttered. This extra clutter left me occasionally searching the scene again to find a way forward. Thankfully, the scenes are small, so the amount of time lost didn’t become frustrating.

The music is beautiful and gives off a very Western feel, while the sound effects are nice and match perfectly to the environment you are in. How the sound radiates in accordance to the proximity of the protagonist is outstanding.

Being a preview, Doinksoft and Devolver Digital have delivered the ultimate of teases. I am very excited to play more and can’t wait to find out where this tale of revenge leads.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove