Gunman Clive – 2 dollars, 2 paragraphs

It’s been an interesting week on the 3DS eShop, and for the first time in almost a month I’ve played another system more than Wii U. 3DS has reminded me how amazing it is, with escapeVektor, Gunman Clive and New SMB 2 DLC assaulting the eShop this week. Americans can also finally stop bitching about not having Wario Land II. I’m going to write about Gunman Clive first because I’ve already finished it (I’ll probably never finish The Impossible Pack in New SMB 2). Basically it’s a 2d platformer with short levels, a solid physics engine, and a good western vibe. Jumping, running and shooting are all simple and responsive, the music is catchy and the 3D effect is amazing.

It’s an iOS port as you can see (*groan*), but thankfully 3DS has real buttons so the screen isn’t obscured like this picture. It has its fair share of glitches, once I had a sound loop go forever; even quitting back to the menu left bullet sounds repeating through the speakers. Bizarrely my 3DS completely shut off during one of the boss fights too. One other thing that annoys me is that enemies re-spawn about 5 seconds after you kill them, I’m not sure if this is intentional but it’s annoying if you just want to take your time. It’s a decent game with some problems, but is it worth it? It’s worth it just for the boss battles, but there’s 16 levels of platforming thrown in-between. Levels are short (30 to 90 seconds without dying), but it uses a lot of different physics and objects (by a lot I mean as much as any other game) and doesn’t dwell on a new idea for very long. Boss Battles give you a few simple patterns to learn and they look pretty awesome. Gunman Clive is very short but good fun and has a few surprises. If you have an awkward amount of money left on your eShop account like $3.10 then it’s worth buying.