Gumslinger Game Review | Pick Up And Play, Insanely Easy Shooting Game That's Cute Too

WARNING: If you are after blood, guts and glory, Gumslinger is not the shooting game for you. But even without all the gore and explosions, it has millions of downloads and a truckload of awards.

Gumslinger was one of the winners at the Google Play Indie Games Festival 2021.

By Akriti Rana and Nimish Dubey

The word "gun battle" makes most people think of non-stop action, complicated weapons, exploding buildings, co-ordinated squads, and evil bosses. But not all shootouts are like that.

Believe it or not, some of them can even be, well, cute. Yes, we know we are calling a game in which you end up shooting your adversary "cute" but that is the feeling you are left with after a few sessions of the highly-acclaimed Gumslinger. While there are guns and shooting, this is not really a violent game! The people doing the shooting in the game are made of candy, speak weirdly catchy gibberish, and while there are plenty of firing guns, there is no blood (candy does not bleed, duh!) and there are no massive explosions.

Winner, Winner! Candy Dinner?

There are no gritty and realistic graphics here — instead you have a colourful and slightly minimalistic world, giving you more Angry Birds feels than Call of Duty and/or PUBG ones. We are warning you: if you are after blood, guts and glory, Gumslinger is not the game for you. But even without all the gore and explosions, it has a massive following with millions of downloads and has won a truckload of awards — it was one of the winners at the Google Play Indie Games Festival 2021.

The reason for its success is simple — it is the perfect "pick up and play" mobile game in many regards. It will work on most phones and tablets as it does not require super high resources. It is also super easy to get — it is a free download (although it will have ads) and at around 200 MB, it is not a super heavy download either.

Pick Up And Play

Best of all, it is insanely easy and fun to play. In almost every Western/Cowboy film, there is an iconic moment at the climax when the hero and the villain walk towards each other, stop, draw guns and start shooting. Well, Gumslinger uses that premise throughout the game. You are a gunslinger (a cowboy of sorts with a weapon) and you take on an opponent at every stage. Oh, and both of you are made of very colourful "gummy candy", and hence the name "gum"slinger.

You always face only one opponent, in a tournament that has 64 players and six rounds.

Winning every round or a tournament gives you points and stars and improves your ranking.

Gameplay is very very simple — it is player versus player at its most basic. You use your right thumb to move and aim the gun, and the left thumb to fire it. And you keep firing until your opponent is dead. Or you are. Both your location and that of your opponent keeps changing.

You might just be face to face in one duel, or you might be on top of a barrel in another, or shooting up at them in a third. There is a fair bit of unpredictability and randomness here, so there is no "magic formula" of having just the right gun level or frequency of shooting.

Looks really sweet, quite literally!

Adding to the unpredictability is the way in which you and your opponent react when hit by a bullet. Hey, you are made of gummy candy, so you do not fall like a normal human, but instead, fold and twist and spin in the air or get pushed backwards. And sometimes you spin and somersault in the air and can still keep shooting while doing so — such The Matrix feels!

While all this is going on, there is some very catchy, if cartoon-ish, Western film inspired music playing in the background. And victory inevitably leads to the character doing a celebratory dance of sorts, speaking gibberish in a squeaky tone. Each duel seldom lasts more than a minute, and you can get through a tournament in about five or six minutes most of the time, making this the perfect time waster, for those moments when you are waiting for your Metro, whiling away time between meetings or just want a minor adrenaline buzz.

Gumslinger is also a very good looking game. No, it does not have the crazy detail that many titles have but it comes with brilliant colours that give it a very pleasing appearance. The characters can vary from humans to lobsters to dragons, and although they have no real facial features, we think they all look rather colourfully cute. The areas in which you duel keep changing but are generally not very crowded and have a few (brightly coloured) objects and props. The guns themselves can vary (we have characters using fish to shoot!), but the explosions are small and there is no blood, although there is a "splatter" effect in which characters disintegrate into bits of...well, candy!

Super Cute Time Waster

What is also good is that while the game has some ads and supports in-app purchases, they are never intrusive or super necessary. You can purchase new guns and health kits and all, but persistent play will also get you far, and you will not see an ad pop up just as you are getting ready for a duel. It is a very clean experience, with no bugs and we love the fact that it does not consume massive resources or slow down or heat up your device. In terms of sheer simplicity and addictive entertainment, it is right up there with the likes of Angry Birds and Temple Run.

You will keep coming back for more because it is so easy — no loading times, no waiting for opponents, no lags or niggles.

All of which makes it a must-play.

Watch a trailer of the game here:

The game can be downloaded from Google Play for Android, and App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Price: Free (with in game ads)