(Rapid Platform Shooting) Shotgun Cop Man

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There are good twin stick shooters, there are good platformers, even ones with great aesthetics, and then there's this. Something straight out of Satan's bumhole, where in order to jump, you have to aim the shotgun right below, and balance that with shooting enemies.

Personally not much of a fan of its minimalist design, it's getting tiresome playing games like that, yet I'll be damned, playing Shotgun Cop Man was just fun. You don't need deep mechanics, completely original gameplay, level design, just play as a dude who shoots his way literally through trapezium shaped levels, avoiding traps, razor blades, and god knows what else.

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• Freeze Devil!

Hot on the trails of the devil after 5 years of being on duty, Shotgun Cop Man takes what he learns to field work and goes toe to toe with his minions. It's that simple, eliminating all of them, this while pulling a speedrun attempt across the maze like level design.

It's a 2D twin stick shooter with various platforming involved, you have to act quick at times avoiding projectiles while using the inertia of the shotgun blast to move around. Furthermore, it's tricky since right analog is used as direction for where the shotgun blasts and the main weapon fires. You can use both to kill enemies off, but it takes a while to get used to.

• Shotgunning your way out

Is there much of a story? Nope. All you do is complete sets of levels, each taking around like a minute or so to complete. The final level ending with a boss fight, before the next one is you telling the devil to stop, but he keeps flipping you off.

Ok, I'll be real, I had a real hard time getting used to the twin stick part. Not only am I crap at using my analog to jerk around quickly to aim, and move around, but it takes real practice getting used to something like this. Though, once I've understood the rhythm, the rest seems pretty easy. Don't get me wrong, though, this game can be quite punishing in its own ways.

Like think Super Meat Boy, but a lot of shooting. Enemies are tricky to take down, they're scattered, placed behind walls, or I need to move elsewhere quick to kill them. There are traps that can kill me like rotating blades, spikes, lasers, and so on. Lots of trial and errors involved to grasp their design, form a rhythm, and use muscle memory in a way to easily overcome everything else. You'd think your sweaty hands got over it, but no, there's even more, and that's elimination levels.

These levels literally involve taking out the maximum amount of minions spawning, in one area, while doing everything I've learned about the platforming. Except, it takes a lot of the difficult aspects of it, and cram them in there. Ok, I'm getting carpal tunnel now.

Another tricky part I forgot to mention, both weapon ammunitions are limited. Shotgun has three, and it will reload in half a second, but you have to time things well, if not you can use primary to keep you floated before you recover. Neat stuff, just be sure to not take hits either. You have one life, and you have to retrieve it while it floats, making it possible to go through without dying.

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• Gung-Ho in hell

Now, are you ready for the next fun part? It's the weapon pick-ups you find, and there's many to use. The most overpowered is the auto-shotgun, but there are situational far better ones too, like the SMG, multi-target pistols, laser weapons, blasters, freaking mini-guns, and more.

Oh, don't get me started on enemy variety, some you can pick up, and throw. But I'm already trying to balance movement and aiming, how on earth am I supposed to remember that now? Then There are enemy types that are explosive, have blades to protect them and requires so much firepower to kill, others literally shadow warping with limited invincibility, it's going balls to the walls at this point.

• Slim-pickings

You have to solve puzzles too, using the guns to move objects inbetween to get through, testing the ambidextrous capabilities, and pushing them to their limits. And finally, you got the boss battles, oh god. Ok, dying in the levels don't mean I have to start from the beginning, the bosses on the other hand, well, all I can say is good luck. They're quite handful.

What I like is how after completing a set, you come across the devil reading his Miranda rights and all he does is flip you off. Even the cop is getting irritated, and ticked off, though this running joke becomes less funny the more these levels drive me insane and hurts my hand. But damn it, what a blast. Devolver Digital got another one, and oh, it's from the guys who made My Friend Pedro.

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