Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2

Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 is an action twin-stick platformer from Crazy Monkey Studios, which is set around the Mafia in the 1940’s and World War 2. The main aspect of the game is going round shooting-up enemy gangs and blowing up everything in your path, where a constant flow of enemies attempt to hinder your progress throughout the level.

First thing to note is that the game is gorgeous, with a wonderful hand-drawn art style which is not often seen in video games these days and some really good immersive lighting. While a large aspect of the game is set during the night and in a gloomy World War 2 setting, the artists do a good job to include colourful characters and wacky buildings that adds to the fun style of the game.

The clue is in the title, with the game involving its fair share of gore and violence which is one of the games stand-out features. However, if you are like me who has a weak stomach for gorey films like the Saw series and The Human Centipede, the game tackles violence in a much more comical and entertaining way, with cartoony blood and humorous cries from your enemies as you smash a baseball bat around their head.

There are fun and different ways to murder your enemies, whether that be peppering them with a dual tommy-gun or cutting open their insides with a deadly chainsaw. Whatever way you choose to discumber your victims, the variety weapons available all pack a punch and are extremely satisfying. In addition to weapons, there are a variety of environmental kills that you can achieve, such as falling crate boxes, exploding barrels and a wrecking ball. These environmental elements are also used to solve puzzles that are imperative to your continuation in the level, such as blowing up walls and maneuvering obstacles to get through a blocked pathway. The puzzles are not very challenging, however I don’t believe they were intended to be that way as the game is more focused on the action and violence.

Enemy bullets are slow moving, which means you have to ‘matrix’ your way out of the oncoming gunfire by jumping around like a mad-man. There is no better feeling than dodging a barrage of bullets by jumping and bouncing off walls escaping without a single scratch.

There is a plethora of enemy types which keeps gameplay fresh, with each enemy having specific abilities and weak points. No surprises that there are zombies in the game just like nearly all game titles these days, however they are a welcome addition due to the challenge that they offer and the satisfaction of smashing them with a bat that made me feel like I was in Shaun of the Dead.

Before you surprise your enemies with an attack, it is quite fun to watch them go about their criminal lives such as scheming their next robbery or fighting amongst themselves. In addition, there are also more comical scenes such as them sitting on the toilet or checking themselves out in the mirror. To know that I was about to end their poor lives any moment from now always made me smile, but also made me want to join their gang as they seemed rather harmless!

Throughout my playthrough I only died a few times, with that not being me blowing my own trumpet, but emphasising that the game is pretty easy and forgiving. Like the easiness of the puzzles, I don’t believe the developers want you to struggle, but instead have tons of fun shooting up thugs and blowing stuff up, which I thoroughly enjoyed! There is four difficulties that you can try out, where I would recommend choosing hard mode as normal is just a breeze.

The games length is around 3-4 hours which is rather short for a platformer, however I did thoroughly enjoy the game and would recommend you picking it up!

++ Beautiful art-style
++ Fun ways to kill
+ Weapon and character variety
- Needs more puzzles

A PS4 copy of Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.