Little Rascals
In Gun Gun Pixies you play as wank fairies. Two tiny alien ladies who have come to our planet to cultivate happiness from college dorms, like a perverse reimagining of Monsters Inc. Bee-tan and Kame-pon are a classic buddy cop duo, with Kame as the straight-laced veteran and Bee as the ultra-horny borderline insane one. Wait, what?
As opposed to a lot of similarly weird “erotic” Japanese titles Gun Gun Pixies has the decency to present itself with a knowing sense of humour. It doesn’t excuse all of its weird behaviour but some self-awareness is certainly refreshing. The strange habit of sneaking into dormitories comes up quite often in these titles, this being no exception. Breasts swing with reckless abandon, the first commandment of video game erotica dutifully followed.
The main gameplay loop is following the comparatively enormous girls around various rooms and shooting them with “happy ammo”. It feels like a cleaner re-imagining of the scenario misanthropic Marvel fans desired between Ant-Man and Thanos. At times this turns into a 3D bullet hell as you avoid the “negative balls” and the notice of your targets. This never becomes too hectic and asks players to position themselves strategically for maximum efficiency.
Little Dorm of Horrors
Exploration plays a large role too. An early mission asks you to find the source of a foul smell within the dorm. Although these large levels are quite bare and simplistic there is a tactile charm to having these environments to explore. Impressively scaled if lacking in detail. It is a sad reminder of the forgotten Gamecube classic Chibi-Robo in which every inch of its enormous house was crammed with charm. Poor Robo.
Certain spots will give you additional power so it’s worth finding these vantage points. That said the jumping is terribly slippery and imprecise which can result in rage-inducing failed leaps of faith. Crawling is an option too, seemingly only for the unfortunate camera placement that comes with it. At least it confirms the protagonists are wearing clean underwear, can’t say that about any Resident Evil games can you?
Big Trouble in Little Japan
Despite the simplistic and clean visual direction, there are some strange stuttering issues, especially when surrounded by bullets and demons. The camera is a traitorous swine, often choosing to leave you in favour of clashing against furniture. In a third-person shooter, this is a deal-breaker, making both platforming and firing a huge pain in the tiny ass.
Gun Gun Pixies isn’t a bad game, at times even witty with a certain anarchic charm. However, the sloppy execution of the central premise cannot be ignored. Despite the novelty of such a strange take on the shooter genre its failure to fulfill the basic necessities is unfortunate. These masturbatory gremlins deserve better but this is still a weird trip worth considering. Just make sure to shout “IT’S A COMEDY” if anyone catches you playing it, can’t be too careful with all the weirdos around nowadays.
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