My Friend Pedro (“MFP”) is an over the top, side scrolling shooter where you control a masked character who listens to a talking banana called Pedro. Now if that hasn’t piqued your interest, this game probably isn’t for you.
Based on the 2014 Adult Swim game of the same name, DeadToast Entertainment have taken the original and turned everything up to 11. As previously mentioned, you play as a masked individual in some dystopian future who wakes up in a gang hideout. Pedro promptly tells you to kill them all and so the game begins. Remember the lobby scene in The Matrix? Where Neo and Trinity go to rescue Morpheus and they have to fight the armed guards in the lobby? MFP is that scene played out, but stretched over the next 5 or so hours. Pedro walks you through your move-set as you start progressing through the first couple of levels. You can wall jump, you can dual wield guns, you can slow down time and you can even dodge bullets! You’re a mute Neo right out of the gates.
MFP’s main mechanic and drive throughout each level is maintaining your combo. As you get kills and look stylish while doing them, you slowly accumulate a multiplier which adds to your final score at the end of the level. If you’re familiar with games such as Devil May Cry and the Batman Arkham games, you’ll know what I mean when I say that your ultimate achievement for each level is to ballerina through the level and never drop that combo. And that’s where MFP shines, when you’re just ‘flowing’ through a level and rocking out to the amazing techno soundtrack. Unfortunately, DeadToast Entertainment threw in some levels towards the end of the game that run that flow. There are a couple of puzzle levels with insta-kill lasers that seem really out of place in a game where you want to be going as fast as possible. It’s especially weird to put them towards the end of the game, where by now you’ll have your move-set mastered and will want to blast your way through a level. Not sitting and waiting for lasers to move out of the way.
When I finally did get to the end of MFP, I was left wanting more. Once you beat the final boss there’s nothing more for you to do beside gunning for top scores on each level. (It took me just over 3 hours to beat MFP on the Hard difficulty). While my ride on the crazy head trip that is My Friend Pedro was mostly enjoyable, I do wish there was more for me to do. I’m hoping DeadToast Entertainment are looking to create an expansion of sorts. This would definitely be the kind of game where a level editor would go down a treat on the Steam Workshop.
If you’ve got some spare change and you’re looking for something a little bit different to spend the afternoon on, I would definitely recommend My Friend Pedro. However if you’re after something with a little bit more depth, I would suggest to hold out until Borderlands 3 launches.