Review by Gamatroid
In the near future, the world is in an energy crisis. When all hope has been lost, world famous scientist Dr. Klaus makes a surprise announcement: the discovery of the "Tetra Cell". It’s incredible energy-producing properties could be used for the good of mankind.
However, 24 hours later, he mysteriously disappears and his lab is destroyed in an explosion. The industrialist A. Easton, President of Easton Industries is suspected to have kidnapped Dr. Klaus and that he intends to use the Tetra Cell to create a new type of super weapon.
You assume the role of Vincent Fury, a special operative on a mission to infiltrate the top secret research facility of Easton Industries, rescue Dr. Klaus and recover the missing Tetra Cell before it’s too late!
GUNS OF FURY
- RELEASE DATE: 2/13/25
- MSRP: $14.99
- DEVELOPER: Gelato Games Ltd
- PUBLISHER: Gelato Games Ltd
- PLATFORMS: Switch, PC/Steam
- PLAYED ON: Switch
Guns of Fury is a side-scrolling pixel-art game that combines the "run & gun" visual style and gameplay of Metal Slug (without the intense difficulty) with the exploration and power-up gameplay of a Metroidvania. Your main attack is a pistol with unlimited ammo, and you can obtain more powerful pistols as you progress.
The general gameplay feels similar to a game like Metal Slug, but it plays more like a Metroidvania, so its not as punishing and crazy as a typical run & gun.
RETRO ROOTS
Guns of Fury is both heavily inspired by "run & gun" games like Metal Slug and by Metroidvania's like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Metal Slug is a classic Neo Geo game that itself was heavily inspired by Konami's Contra, and featured an animated-looking pixel-art style, that both looked great, but was comical at the same time. It had tons of bullets flying everywhere, lots of explosions, and was generally pretty difficult. I always liked the idea of the game, but playing it could be a bit frustrating.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was the first "Metroidvania" that caused the term to be established. It combined elements of the classic Castlevania games, with RPG-like elements, stores where you could buy equipment, and powers you would gain over the course of the game that granted access to previously inaccessible areas.
Many, MANY games have been created in this general style since then. Some recent examples would include Blasphemous I and II (even though they incorporate Souls-like elements as well), Animal Well, and Hollow Knight.
REVIEW
Gameplay & Mechanics
The gameplay is the perfect combination of Metal Slug-light run and gun action, but WAY less punishing, and Metroidvania exploration and upgrade paths. It's a combination I frankly never thought of, because I probably didn't consider dialing down the difficulty and what that could mean for these kinds of games, but for someone who finds Metal Slug and similar games WAY too punishing to be fun, I really enjoyed the change of pace. If you really like the difficulty of traditional Metal Slug games, you might be disappointed.
The visuals are really great with big, beautiful pixel-art characters and environments, fluid detailed animations, and tons of pixelized explosions. It really does pay homage to the Metal Slugs games, in the best possible way. This is a professional-looking game, despite being an indie, and it absolutely shines in its visual presentation.
Audio & Music
At first I didn't give the soundtrack much of a thought, even though it is definitely good, but after a while I found myself really digging the tunes, and enjoying hearing the music change as I moved between zones. I'm not at the point where I'm ready to buy a vinyl copy of the soundtrack, but I definitely enjoy the music while I'm playing the game. Kind of like how I feel about Final Fight's soundtrack, where I like it and it fits the action but I don't need to listen to it outside of the game, versus something like Streets of Rage, where I absolutely love it and listen to it independently on the regular (but hey, there are very few games that can compete with the tunes from Yuzo Koshiro).
The story is...fine. This is not a game where you really worry about the narrative, and I don't mind at all. The story is standard action game fare, and honestly I couldn't really tell you what it is if I had to. While it won't move the world, or likely inspire fan fiction novels outside of the game, it's totally fine for the assignment at hand.
Technical Performance
Unlike my experience with some modern games, I did not run into any technical issues while playing Guns of Fury, and frankly that's pretty amazing since it's on Nintendo Switch (and let's face it, the Switch is more than "long in the tooth" at this point). The game runs as smooth as butter, and the controls are tight and super responsive. Very impressive, and professionally done.
Innovation & Originality
Now you might think that a game based on a combination of two pretty well established genres wouldn't seem that original and innovative, and maybe it's because I've never played a game like this before, but I found the combination very refreshing and fun to play. I really love how the general gameplay of a Metal Slug run and gun gets more strategic and frankly (for me) enjoyable, when its slowed down and combined with the exploration and upgrade mechanics from a Metroidvania. I'd love to see more games use this combination in new and interesting ways.
Value
Guns of Fury is $14.99 on Switch and PC, which seems like a great deal considering the quality and depth of gameplay. Many indie titles (and even professionally produced games) don't deliver this kind of quality for the money, and I think it's a bargain for the experience.
OVERALL SCORE: 9
During my time playing Guns of Fury, I had an absolute blast. I am definitely one of those people who always liked the idea of Metal Slug, but the difficulty turned me off.
This games looks and plays great, the music is really good, and the extra depth added through the Metroidvania-formula really improves the overall experience.
In total, this is an excellent new pixel-powered game, and I would 100% recommend that anyone give it a try.
CRITIC'S CORNER
In looking at other critic reviews and user ratings, Guns of Fury's ratings are fairly consistent, in the high 8's, which is roughly the same as our score, given we don't use decimals. While there are some outliers (like the review from Video Chums), most people seem to be loving it.
(EG's score compared to other publications - raw score quoted then followed by normalized score out of 10, if applicable)
- Electronic Gamers: 9/10
- PS4Blog.net: 8.5/10
- Video Chums: 3/5 (6/10)
- Steam: 87% positive (8.7/10)
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