Gunbrella turned me into shotgun-toting Mary Poppins

digitaltrends.com:

A good title can tell you everything you need to know about a video game in just a word or two. When it comes to elevator pitches in that vein, you just aren’t going to get much more succinct than Gunbrella.

Developed by Doinksoft, the studio behind this year’s physical-only Demon Throttle, Gunbrella‘s title really tells you everything you need to know about the 2D action game in three syllables. You have a gun. It’s also an umbrella. What other information do you need to determine if you’re in or out?

A zany name like that can have its downsides though, as players can be quick to write something off as a “meme game.” Fortunately, that’s unlikely to be the case here. Based on a 30-minute demo I played, Gunbrella is shaping up to be another worthy addition to Devolver Digital’s consistent slate of indie action games. Like some of the publisher’s best releases, it makes action just as much about moving as it is about shooting — and that’s all thanks to its namesake weapon.

My demo begins when my character, a quiet woodsman wearing a brown bowler cap and a long scarf, arrives on the outskirts of a small town via boat. An NPC at the dock quickly puts some quests in my logbook by mentioning some mysteries happening in the game’s “noir-punk” world. The most intriguing of those relates to the titular Gunbrella that I’ve arrived with, which has some sort of strange insignia on it.

From there, Gunbrella wastes no time in introducing me to its core ideas. With its default ammo, my trusty weapon acts as a short-range shotgun that can take basic enemies down in a quick burst. However, that’s just one of many tricks. When holding down a direction button and opening the umbrella with a right click, I zip in that direction. That allows