My Friend Pedro was a game I've very much anticipated a few years ago when it got announced. Another cool skill-based action game from Devolver. The trailer showed just how creative you can get with your kills. I was sold. However, when I've finally got my hands on the game right after release, the game was just kinda okay. I had some fun with it but ultimately I felt let down and definitely didn't worth 14€. Years later I've just stumbled upon this game in my Steam library and saw that i'm only missing a few achievements so I decided to pick it up again and try to complete it. Not exactly what happened...

I've quickly realized that 100%-ing this game is a miserable experience. You have to get S ranks on all the levels and that kinda means memorizing every level and playing it over and over again. In the end I've just opted for a normal playtrough to see how I feel about this game again. And well...

The game clearly understands that in order to keep the player interested, you have to introduce new mechanics and build levels around them. Yet somehow, the game just becomes so stale near the halfway point. I guess it's mostly due to the overall combat not really evolving much. Almost all the enemies are the same, you get new weapons but you don't really swap between them tactically, you just use what's the most powerful one and which has ammo at the moment. Doing a frontflip and capping a guy gets rather stale after the 100th time. You can't really get as creative with your kills as the trailer suggest. Whenever the game gives you the opportunity to do some sick environmental kills, it's placed in such an obvious way that it just isn't as satisfying as it should be and the 'ricocheting mid-air frying pan gimmick' gets rather boring the third time. Let's compare this game to another game it's clearly inspired by, Hotline Miami. Not only that game gives you the opportunity to equip different masks a.k.a playstyles but you can also beat a level in so many different ways, keeping it fresh and always a joy to play trough. Not to mention, HM's mechanics are so much easier to understand and more satisfying.

I guess Pedro the Banana is somewhat iconic but other than that, it's a very unremarkable game visually. Graphics are neither high quality nor stylistic. Music is good tho. Not as good as Hotline Miami and Katana Zero but still good. The game doesn't take itself seriously which is fine but I also haven't find the jokes all that funny.

Even now, I feel My Friend Pedro is built upon a good foundation but the end result kinda misses the mark. It's just an okay game but a sequel that fixes and adds some stuff could be amazing.

My Friend Pedro reminds me of a lot of early 2010s flash games, just with a lot more polish and a good bit more meat to it. It’s got some platforming, some solid Adult Swim humor, and a healthy scoop of Max Payne-esque shooting, only in a 2D plane now. And I’ve got to say, it’s a better time than I expected. Each of the 40 levels is around 5 mins or less, perfect for short gaming sessions. Along with regularly introduced guns and platforming mechanics like levers and lasers, it helped the game from becoming stale. Though not wildly differing I liked to switch up my choice of weapon now and again, aided by a healthy share of ammo the game offers.

It’s pretty easy on normal difficulty. You almost have to try to die unless you never use your dodge or slow motion, though higher difficulties offer a healthy dose of challenge for those who want it. Plus if your aim isn’t horrible you can pretty much use slow motion permanently as long as there’s an enemy around to shoot. Speaking of, the spotlight of My Friend Pedro is how fun the movement combined with the slow motion is here. It has its derpy moments, but by and large the movement is very reactive and smooth.

The slow motion front flips, akimbo rope descents, and hilarious monkey-ball method of rolling around were a great mix of funny and cool. Skateboards, frying pans, and explosive barrels were there to break up monotony as well. I’ve heard others criticize the game for being too repetitive or basic; I respectfully can’t disagree more. Sure, it’s not winning any GOTY awards, but successfully combining an irreverent flying banana razzing you while you channel your inner action hero is more than I would’ve expected from a small pick-up-and-play game. There’s no million different methods to beat the game, except it was never advertised as such. Maybe it’s because I didn’t marathon it that I didn’t ever feel like it was dragging. I went into it lukewarm thinking the premise would expire before the game did, but I’m happy to report that was not the case. My Friend Pedro adheres to the “what you see is what you get” adage. And speaking personally, I’m quite happy with what I got.