Gunman Clive

You have have noticed that a game popped up in the Awesome Games list on the right hand side so I guess now is about the time I said something about it.

Gunman Clive is a little indie platformer, developed by Horberg Productions and is available for Steam, 3DS and Android...I think.  To give a quick summary of the game, Gunman Clive is a platforming game that takes inspiration for all the best side scrollers of yore and then slams them together in a wild west setting.

At the start of the game a woman is kidnapped and it is up to you as Clive to go and save her.  Although at the start of the game there is a character select screen so you can also play as the woman saving....herself...it's strange.  If you do choose to play as the female character she has a little bit of a different jump but her and Clive both play about the same way.

The game play is standard side scrolling action and it's quite clear to see right from the get go that Megaman was a pretty clear inspiration for the game play.

Remind you of anything?

You jump and shoot your way through a bunch of levels and then there is a boss.  Each boss has a unique design but you kill them all in exactly the same way, by shooting them in the face.  It's a shame the bosses weren't made to be a little more complex because the levels change up their design as you go through but it's not going to ruin the experience.

It's also got this really sleek art style that makes it look like something out of a story book but the soundtrack is a bit forgettable.  My only other real complaint with this game is that it's very short.  I finished the whole thing in about an hour,  but then again the game costs only £1.50, so it's an appropriate price for what you get I guess.

That said, upon completion of the game you unlock a Duck mode, where you have to play the entire game as a duck that can't attack.  I've not played much of this mode so I'm not sure how you'd kill bosses but it's something I'll go and look at some day soon.

Still, if you have a little bit of spare change and you need to kill a few hours in an afternoon, Gunman Clive is a fun little way to do so.  Replaying for speed or damageless runs is also something that may extend your game time, so there is definitely £1.50s worth of content here.