Should you make like a banana and split?
My Friend Pedro is a violent ballet about friendship, imagination, and one man’s struggle to obliterate anyone in his path at the behest of a sentient banana. The strategic use of split aiming, slow motion, and the ol’ stylish window breach create one sensational action sequence after another in an explosive battle through the violent underworld.
My Friend Pedro is a crazy game in which your lead character goes on a killing spree alongside a talking banana called Pedro. The story is absolutely nuts, but the gameplay is something special with it’s slow motion shooting, fluid controls and total disregard for being subtle. The game is designed like a typical side-scrolling shooter, but with slow-mo and moves that make you look like a badass. Suffice to say, it succeeds and doesn’t end up tripping you up like a certain fruit…
I do find it a little odd that the game is only out on PC and Switch though, I personally would love to see it on the other consoles as well. Maybe it’ll make it’s way over if the Switch version is deemed to do well in terms of sales, I honestly don’t know. But suffice to say, I’d happily replay the game on a different console (mostly for the sake of trophies/achievements, to be fair) but that doesn’t take away that My Friend Pedro is one hell of a shooter.
It’ll take a while to get accustomed to the controls and nature of the game, but before you know it you’ll be doing backflips off walls and lining up shots in slow-mo to obliterate anyone in your path. It kinda has a Mirror’s Edge meets The Matrix feel about it, which is no bad thing.
The visual style also works incredibly well here with it’s comic-book style and fluid animation that pushes the Switch. The framerate is steady throughout and the load times are average, the sound effects and soundtrack also hold up quite well.
The Verdict
Simply put, My Friend Pedro is one hell of a crazy game. I mean, it has a talking banana, Matrix-style combat and a superb art direction. My only criticism is that it’s over far too soon, that and I’d love to see it on other consoles. Come on Devolver!