Gunbrella Reviews

Gunbrella is a wonderful, quirky noir-punk shooter that, like the abominations confronting the hero gunman, is made up of what should be many discordant parts. Yet what we get is a lore-rich world with slick movement in its bedrock that’ll spawn an unlikely love of umbrellas not heard of since the day that Tom Holland splashed about in fishnets.

Gunbrella is a beautifully animated, focused, and satisfying 2D-action title that delivers on its premise in spades. Gliding around with your Gunbrella as you blast away enemies never gets old, and while the game does suffer from a lack of challenge and minor readability issues, it’s one of the most memorable and often funny titles of the year.

While Gunbrella might struggle with providing a challenge, it more than makes up for it by providing a dark, gritty world where your choices have very real consequences. Not all is doom and gloom, as the comedy flows like polluted water down a city’s gutters on a rainy night, and you can bet it’s accompanied by some killer jazz!

Just about two months ago, I was able to play a demo of Gunbrella at BIG Festival 2023, alongside a handful of other Devolver titles. It was one of the highlights of the event as a whole, even if the demo itself wasn’t exactly long. It showcased me the core essentials: a 2D platformer with an emphasis on platforming and gun-based combat, both of which would be performed by using the same tool, an umbrella. Yep, an umbrella which could glide, boost you up like jetpack, deflect bullets like C...

Expertly executed and with a lot of flair (much like many other Devolver Digital published games), Gunbrella takes a boilerplate idea and setting and goes the extra mile with it. You have found your wife brutally murdered. You are on a trying cross country journey, seeking revenge. Oh yeah, and equipped at your hip is an umbrella that also functions as a gun, found at the scene of the crime. Have fun.

Uncover the dark secrets of a gritty, tangled metropolis and battle diabolic villains with your trusty Gunbrella, a bulletproof brolly that doubles as a firearm. Switch version reviewed.

A fast and fun action platformer that effectively utilises its core gimmick in inventive ways, Gunbrella is the noir punk indie that you should be looking to play when the weather calls for a coat and a brolly.

Gunbrella’s crunchy combat and excellent movement are as awesome as the titular weapon itself.

Gunbrella is one of the most unique 2D action platformers that I have ever played, simply because of the crazy weapon that you use to explore and defeat enemies. There is some backtracking here and challenging enemies to face, but the mysterious story keeps you engaged.

Gunbrella is a fast-paced, rewarding action-platformer full of pulpy noir personality. Minor balance issues and tonal whiplash aside, it is worth your time.

The platforming, while fun, is definitely the weaker side of the action platformer. The gunbrella is the main tool for platforming and can be used to propel the player forward horizontally, diagonally, and vertically, essentially serving as a dash and double jump. It can also act as a glider to travel long distances or to hook onto ropes and turn them into ziplines. What really brings the platforming down is the Murray's jump height, which is weirdly low in ways that feel unnecessary. There are plenty of obstacles that make use of the gunbrella and Murray's ability to wall-jump, which makes small ledges that are a single pixel too high for Murray's jump feel annoying and unnecessary.

Gunbrella has a lot of potential, both in its storytelling and combat. Unfortunately there never feels like there is enough of either that will or could catapult the game into the upper echelons of pixilated side-scrollers. It is very close to being something special, even when it is embracing some familiar adventure tropes. Hopefully, the world of Gunbrella will be expanded on and grow, because it deserves more of the things that make it great.

Humerous dialogue and banter brings levity to the grim, heavy narrative and bleak setting of Gunbrella. The game turns an elegantly simple concept on its head, resulting in gameplay that is both responsive and rewarding. Gunbrella is an exhilarating romp with an intriguing story that doesn’t shy away from heavier themes. Though there is some room for improvement, Gunbrella’s heart-pumping boss fights and memorable characters will stick with me long after I’ve closed my parasol.

The weakest part of Gunbrella is almost definitely the plot and the simple fact that it’s kind of a wisp of a thing; the game won’t take you long to complete, but at $15 it’s not exactly selling you on a multi-hour RPG anyway. Heck, this year has had plenty of amazing, lengthy experiences that reward every moment you spend with them; sometimes it’s nice to just have something that’s a quick, confident, fun romp of jumping, dashing, and shooting.

For that reason, Gunbrella is a rather easy recommendation. It’s a solid platformer with a lot of charm. I’m not sure it will be at the top of my mind when I think of my favorite games, and I don’t think I’m going to be eager to scoop up a physical copy sometime in the future, but I undoubtedly enjoyed my time with it. It’s worth keeping for a rainy day.

Gunbrella is an awesome platformer with an interesting concept that is utilized very well. And yes, it runs wonderfully on the Steam Deck.

A steampunk-themed side-scrolling shooter with a shotgun that’s also an umbrella, Gunbrella crams plenty of frenetic, brolly-based combat into its brief playtime

The sporadic jazz tunes add to this noir flavor and may not be to everyone’s taste, but there are other frenzied tracks coming into play with boss fights and varied key moments, so it evens out in the end.

While Gunbrella has its issues, it’s still a really fun, gorgeous-looking experience that’s definitely worth a play for any fans of the genre. You shouldn’t expect anything groundbreaking in terms of story, but can look forward to a few laughs and endearing characters. Even just messing around with the mechanics made possible by a gun that is also an umbrella should bring anyone hours of enjoyment.

At times, separate entities combine to create something special. Like a sweet and savory bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, there’s a wonderful contrast of opposing elements that merge to make Gunbrella unique. The fusion of a shotgun and umbrella may sound absurd, but the multifunction device is what helps make the game find its own identity and float above its peers.

Less a case of reinvention for reinventions' sake, it's the mix of familiar genre staples with a widened focus on smaller details that ends up with Gunbrella proving to be a brief, yet highly-satisfying entrant for action-platformer fans. In looking towards those minute moments -- from NPC dialogue to pixel art and even the music that accompanies your travels -- Doinksoft successfully broaden not just the studio's palette of aesthetics and gameplay mechanics alike, but so too an understanding on how to build out a world to engage with. A pitch that may not be striving to be the most complex or densest of takes, but whose free-flowing approach to combat and presentation alike is well appreciated. A fitting step forward from the black-and-white, feline stylings of previous, Gunbrella's ballistic-fueled ballet of fluid movement and subtle details alike marks this down as one more success for the Doinksoft team.