Shotgun Cop Man is no frills, no fat, all shotgun-jumping fun

thesixthaxis.com:

At first glance, Shotgun Cop Man might not seem like the bigger-and-better follow-up to indie hit My Friend Pedro that many would’ve expected. It’s got a stripped back aesthetic, and the gameplay has shifted from slow-motion chaos to more minimalist micro-movement platforming. It’s a surprising shift in scope and style, but after getting my hands on the debut demo for the game, I see the vision.

It’s not that this game is a smaller and simpler project. Instead, it skews so deftly into an efficient, minimalist approach to art-style and gameplay that it’s more like I’m playing the long-awaited sequel to N++. A sequel with shotguns and Satan in it.

There’s a narrative hook to Shotgun Cop Man, but it’s been written on a napkin and dangled from broken fishing-line and, honestly, that’s totally fine. You are Shotgun Cop Man, and your job is to go to Hell and arrest Satan. It’s so obnoxiously and hilariously barebones that it immediately accomplished two things for me. Firstly, it made me laugh a lot. Secondly,, it made it clear that the focus is all on the gameplay, and just the act of playing in itself.

It’s an act which is fun as Hell, by the way. This is a side-scrolling platformer where you have no jump button. Instead, you use your right-trigger to fire a pistol that shot propels you a little bit so you can hover in the air, or you use your left-trigger to fire a massive shotgun blast that propels you much further in your direction of choice. These weapons are also meant to be used as literal weapons, though, with demons scattered throughout each level trying to shoot you before you can make it to the exit.

So, the loop immediately reveals itself and it hooked me in an instant. Every bullet you fire isn’t just a potential hit on an enemy, but also a sudden force of momentum that flings you in the opposite direction. Thinking about gunfire and platforming not as parallel actions, but as a yin and yang that flow into each other is really fascinating. As I progressed