My Friend Pedro - Review

I initially played My Friend Pedro last year when it was an online flash game.  I had so much fun playing it I hoped it would become a full-fledged game. After a little checking, I found they were, in fact, working on a full game and earlier this month it was released by Devolver Digital.


I like bananas - not every day, but I like them.  I like banana flavored drinks and sweets but what I love is Banoffee.  If you have never had banoffee pie you are missing out, it contains bananas, toffee, a biscuit base and cream.  I have had really really good ones like the one I had in Scoozi's earlier this week but I have also had some awful ones.  Playing My Friend Pedro I found myself was this is a really good mouth water banoffi or did it have me reaching for the toilet?

Story


How do I even being to discuss My Friend Pedro's story?  You wake after taking a knock on the head, floating in front of you is a talking banana called Pedro.  He helps guide you out of the meat packing plant you are in and provide guidance and some cheesy and sometimes dark humor.  The story starts by feeling a little all over the place to start with but quickly turns into you trying to stop the Dictator of the Internet (the internet is actually a real place).


Overall the story is crazy, outlandish and never takes itself seriously, all of which helped in making the game really fun through my time playing.

Visuals


There is an interesting variety when it comes to the visuals in My Friend Pedro, there is everything from industrial, abandoned buildings and futuristic buildings, to a sprawling highway, and the sanctuary where a sentient banana goes to relax. The visuals in some ways can be jarring but it works.  Sometimes you are walking through a bunch of derelict buildings, then you are falling out a high rise head first killing floating bad guys.  Other times you get to hang out with a banana and use his uncle propeller hat to fly through the air.


Overall the game has a rich variety of visuals which are not only fun but help you keep you on your toes when enemies are nearby, which is always.




Music


The music in My Friend Pedro combines elements of electronic, industrial and chillout-style music which suits the kind of game it is.  The music was composed by Naive D, Nounverber, Noisecream and Marks_SF.  Nounverber worked on Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number and released an album called Midnight Album and Noisescream released an album titled Bananas. Unfortunately could not find any information on the others.


The soundtrack runs a little over two hours, while the start of it is slow it quickly finds its rhythm.  There are a number of stand out tracks my favorites being;  'Cave Crawl', 'Sambafellas', 'Low Life on the Highway', 'Sink Drip', 'Stop and Watch', 'Most of Rage', 'Pendulum', 'Overshadowed' and 'Starselect'.


Overall a solid soundtrack for the game with a number of really good tracks that work well with the game.

Gameplay


The gameplay is...hmm, how best to describe it.  Imagine if Max Payne and TV show Happy! made a game, that game would be My Friend Pedro.  At its core, the game is a shooter but it is so much more than that.   Ever kicked a frying pan into the air and shot at it so the bullets deflect off it and kill enemies around you?  I have.  Have you spun gracefully in the air while shooting two pistols killing enemies and avoiding a barrage of bullets? I have.  This is just the tip of the iceberg with My Friend Pedro.


The game allows players to shoot, dodge and slow down time to get many many kills and avoid certain death.  There are two objectives in the game, the first complete each mission the second is to complete it with the highest possible ranking.  This can be achieved by avoiding getting shot, using a skateboard to roll past enemies in style (while killing them) or dropping a barrel on an enemy's head.  There is so much fun to be had with when killing.


Each level is broken into small sections that can be completed in between one and three minutes.  At the end of each level, Pedro gives you a rank between S and C. S is for silky smooth,  A is for Aww Yeah, B is for Bravissimo and C is for Come On.  There are variations on each these which often made me smile.


Overall the gameplay was a lot of fun and is a great example of, easy to learn hard to master.  It is game I have no doubt I will revisit in the future if nothing else than to get praise from a sentient banana named Pedro.




Final Thoughts


So after fours of play how did I feel?  I felt like my experience was short lived and was looking forward to playing more.  The story was bizarre and fun, and I quite enjoyed it.  The visuals were often exciting and sometimes crazy, the music suited the game well and help intensify some of the gameplay.  The gameplay was lots of fun and already look forward to improving on my next playthrough.  Overall My Friend Pedro gets a solid 4 out of 5