The Gunstringer Review
The Gunstringer is a Kinect game created by Twisted Pixel. In the game you play an outlaw who was double crossed and comes back from the dead to seek vengeance upon those who betrayed him. Well at least that's what the puppet show is about as you are a marionette. You will be controlling your directional movement with your left hand and trying to squeeze off your shots with your six-shooter in your right. Now of course there is a left-handed mode, so at least this company remembered that the world is comprised of individuals of different handedness.
Graphically this game looks good. It's probably one of the best Kinect games I've seen graphic wise. You'll see that most of your enemies have that puppet look to them, or paper cut-out look. You'll also see that there is some interference done from time to time by a human hand (green screened) in. From time to time you'll also get to see the audience which I'm assuming was just filmed in a theater down the street from their office. Now of course your common enemies all look relatively the same per level, but there is definitely variety of different enemies when it comes to different areas. There's also the bosses which all have their own ways of attacking, and they all definitely have unique character models.
The music is your standard spaghetti western type music that doesn't distract from the game. The narration is really hit or miss. Most of the times it tells the story well, but when it drops in for comments in the middle of the level it can sometimes get really old fast.
The controls of the game as described above are your left and right hand. The left will control movement and jumping, the right will control your aim and pulling the trigger by jerking your hand up. There will be times where you'll use both hands to throw punches or when magically you get a second six-shooter and you can just go wild blowing enemies away.
So you are the Gunstringer brought from the dead and out for vengeance. You'll have to get through quite a few enemies to get at members of your old gang, but if you can do that you'll be able to exact some revenge upon them. You'll almost always have your six-shooter at your disposal, but there will also be times where you'll get to use a shotgun, flamethrower, and broadsword for a short amount of time to change up the pace. Within the levels you'll have to keep your left hand limber as you'll have to dodge quite a few things, or attempt to jump over them so as to not take too much damage. At the end of each level you'll be given some money which you can turn around and use to unlock special features within the game. My biggest problem with the game is that the controls weren't as tight as I would have liked them. There were times where the slightest move with your left hand could send your character over to one side of the screen more than you wanted and instead of dodging something you run right into it. There's also the issue of jumping. There will be times in the game where gauging when to start your jump will be difficult and there's a very good chance you'll land on something, causing damage, or fall into something that will cause you torespawn slightly before the jump. There's also the small issue of sometimes your right hand motion not causing your gun to fire. When you're in for the fight of your life you'll want to have that as accurate as possible and having to exaggerate the movement after failing in an attempt can completely throw off how the game will interpret your next move with either hand as your body has probably moved to a different spot in the room, even if only slightly.
Even though there are definitely some control issues this game is very entertaining and fun to play. If you're looking for a Kinect game with a little attitude and that definitely has something a bit different, you're going to want to pick up this game and give it a try. This game gets an 8.0 out of 10.
