When I first caught wind of My Friend Pedro, I assumed it would be too hard to play. I mean, it’s a game all about shooting two people in the head at once while doing a skateboarding flip in slow motion and juggling a frying pan, right? That sounds stressful, difficult, and complicated.
In truth, My Friend Pedro is anything but complicated (though I did forget to use some of my abilities sometimes, prompting a reminder). The gunman is capable of moving, dodging, jumping, walljumping, kicking, shooting, splitting shots to different areas while dual wielding, and effecting slow-motion to make all this easier to pull off (and to make flips possible). This is all streamlined to its most simple form, making the basics of play intuitive. Some tricks, such as doing an ollie into a man’s neck or kicking a pan up in the air to serve as a ricochet, might test reflexes, but even a reflex-less gamer can handle it in slow motion.
The game provides 40-ish levels of shooting galleries, and I’d be hard-pressed to complain about the variety. Several levels are built to showcase a mechanic, like the swing cords, zip-lines, ricochet signs, or even one-off mechanics like a motorbike or freefalling. Other levels combine all this into a playground. While I died often, the game never felt insurmountable or difficult, but more like it was pushing me to be stylish and get high scores. For those who love pushing themselves that way, My Friend Pedro will provide hours of entertainment.
For me, who could care less about high scores, I got three hours of guns and mayhem before the credits rolled. The time I spent was funny, filled with variety, and allowed me to pull off some cool stunts… but I was happy to be done, too. The constant combat combined with the way the difficulty focused on getting a high score wore me out a bit, and I had to dive into the game in short doses rather than consuming it in one go. My only other complaint is that not all mechanics were as fun as others. Some parts of the game, including parts of the final boss, felt like a chore. These were few and far between, and that same mechanic was often remixed in a way I liked minutes later.
I blew up a bounty hunter and then kicked his falling head into another bounty hunter’s skull for a combo. If that sounds interesting and not horrible, give My Friend Pedro a go!
Verdict: Finished the game, it took 3 hours.
Kyle Adams 