Review: Guns, Gore & Cannoli
Guns, Gore & Cannoli is like a Metal Slug and Godfather cocktail with a zombie chaser. I love a little run and gun action and this game delivers a sweet amount of action with stylish hand drawn graphics and a roarin’ soundtrack. A 20’s era zombie shooter might sound a bit weird, but it works like a charm. It has a couple minor issues, but I recommend it for any fans of the genre who want a cool new experience with a fun story and host of cool characters.
Basic idea of Guns, Gore & Cannoli: you play Vinnie Cannoli, a mob enforcer, being sent to a recent zombie outbreak area to track down Frankie and bring him back to your Don. Your job would be great if it weren’t for all the freaking zombies. There’s a small arsenal available throughout the game and a horde of zombies plus some hapless military and rival gangsters to gun down. That’s it – shoot everyone and eat some cannoli.
I’ve got a couple gripes about Guns, Gore & Cannoli. The biggest is the design choice to make Vinnie shoot straight ahead only. It was only a little aggravating until floating enemies made their debut. That’s when I started screaming at Vinnie to just look up and shoot the little fucker out of the sky. Finding a way to climb up and shoot the annoying guys out of sky is less than ideal. The other thing that got old was the lack of phrases that Vinnie has while running around. I like the voice acting, but I can only hear him spew the same half dozen phrases so many times before I start talking back. Yeah, Vinnie, I know that’s some good cannoli. Just like the last two dozen cannoli you picked up off the street in a town full of shambling undead. Who’s leaving all of this great cannoli laying around?
So like I said, pretty minor complaints. The game is really good looking. All of the hand drawn characters and enemies bring the game to life. I know it’s 2015, but I still love a good 2D game with cartoon looking graphics. Exploding heads are lovingly rendered and the flesh melting is meticulously done. Seriously though, I love the various enemy character designs; it all oozes a prohibition era charm. Some of the weapons can be a bit over the top, but man is it satisfying to make some zombie flambé with a Molotov or a flame thrower.
The audio in Guns, Gore & Cannoli is fantastic. The music sounds like something your grandma would have listened to back in her flapper days. It’s a great soundtrack that I’d listen to on Spotify if I could. The voice acting (complaints of repetition aside) is phenomenal. Vinnie, Frankie, and everyone else are like caricatures straight out of an old gangster film. Don’t even think about skipping cut scenes, you freakin’ animals.
Bottom line: Guns, Gore & Cannoli is a fun shooter experience. It features controller support (I played the whole thing on an Xbox 360 controller), up to 4 person multiplayer, and a good 4 hours of game play on normal mode if you’re not too much more skilled than me. There are, of course, multiple difficulty settings to adjust to your particular level of ability. Lucky for me, prohibition is over and I can play games like this while enjoying a nice cold one. It’s available now on Steam for PC & Mac. Console version are due out in the future. In the meantime, check out the trailer below.
