Guns, Gore & CANNOLI is a nice cartoon themed platformer set in the 1920’s in a city called Thugtown at the height of Prohibition. The game is set around St Patrick’s day and in this over the top survival horror you take on the role of Wiseguy Vinnie Cannoli as he must battle through hordes of Zombies, rival gangsters and the army, as you discover conspiracy and betrayal in the criminal underworld while looking for your long lost pal to find answers to what the hell is going on.
The story is set over 12 lovely drawn themed levels from harbour areas, alleyways, Stripclubs and sewers, creating a dark and moody setting as you progress through each
level. The graphics are similar in a way to games of old like Metal Slug or more recent, Valiant Hearts but with a Zombie/Mafia mash up, but it’s the enemies that you encounter throughout the levels that are spectacular as they come in all shapes and sizes.
Starting off you get the bog standard zombies like cops, civilians, butchers but as you progress through the later levels you will encounter rival gangsters, army soldiers, huge rats and flying leprechaun’s, and if that wasn’t enough there is a couple of Big Boss fights thrown in which are a little bit more challenging than the usual vermin you come up against and requires a bit of tactical moving about while firing to win.
With all these enemies you will need a substantial amount of firepower at your disposal to take them out. The weapons consist of pistols, shotguns, Tommy guns, flamethrowers, and an electrical discharge weapon which fires your enemies as their flesh is zapped off leaving but a skeleton which disintegrates into dust after a short time, at times you may feel that you have too many weapons to choose from but you will need them.
This for me was one of the plus points of the game and sometimes the funniest as enemies die in such a comical yet gruesome way when using a specific weapon, but it’s the reaction of the enemies as they die such as when the flamethrower engulfs your enemies in flames showing a shadow screaming in pain as they slump to the ground, but the magnum was the most hilarious outcome as one shot is so powerful it could pop two enemy heads at the same time, I could go on and on but there is just far too many ways for you and the enemies to die.
Guns, Gore & CANNOLI brings some brilliant Wise Guy one liners to the game as Vinnie mows down hordes of zombies while cracking of lines like “take that ya Filthy animals”, or “that what you get for standing in front of my gun”, and as you expect no Mafia themed game would be the same without your classic Italian music playing in the background to bring out that authentic little italy feel to it.
Guns, Gore & CANNOLI brings that little extra with a versus mode which is a 4 player no holds barred Deathmatch covering similar levels that were within the story mode,This mode can be played with 3 other friends or with 3 AI characters, but I have to admit this mode is very enjoyable and even though it was a case of die, spawn, die, you just have to make sure you kill before you get killed. The gameplay in this mode it is so fast and frantic you really do need to get weapons to stand a chance of staying alive, but can be a bit disorientating as you can’t make out your character at times as there is too much going on screen at any given time.
The versus mode can have customised battles with games primarily using light or heavy weapons or you can use specific weapons by playing either a Bazooka or Shotgun game only.
Finally with any game there are achievements but in Guns, Gore and Cannoli there are specific achievements in the game which can be challenging as you may be required to go
through an entire level without killing any enemies this means you basically have to run jump and dodge like crazy to survive.
Summary
Overall Guns, Gore & CANNOLI was an enjoyable game to play, it had plenty to offer with how the game looked and the stereotypical Wise guy humour, it was the gorish effects that really make this stand out from your standard platformer and even though the story experience was very short, the multiplayer versus mode injected some extra lifespan into the game.
