Quick Review: My Friend Pedro

“Gone bananas.” That’s never been more apt.

In case this guy's athletic achievements were not
ipressive enough, he can wall jump, too.

This game was developed by DeadToast Entertainment, published by Devolver Digital and released to Steam on June 20th, 2019, although it existed since 2014 as a Flash game. This is the tale of a guy who starts seeing a floating, talking banana named Pedro that convinces him to go full vigilante on the criminal underbelly of this city. The unnamed, masked protagonist becomes a superhuman John fuckin’ Wick who can slow time down, shoot two guns at once, and do all sorts of insane feats. All because of a (possibly imaginary?) banana.

Only the first gangsters of hundreds.

This 2.5D platformer has a lot of controls: You aim and shoot with the mouse, move back and forth with A and D, use S to duck. W is used to evade bullets, which is frequently necessary; when your health is low and a bullet could kill you, a QTE-style prompt appears to make you press W to avoid said bullet. You jump with Space (and can wall-jump), interact with items with E, reload the firearms with R, and change weapons with Q. You can also kick with F, which is useful against opponent very close by or to send projectiles at them, like a knife or a gas canister.

Most importantly, you trigger bullet time by pressing a key (I personally set it to my left Caps Lock). Bullet Time slows time, yes, but also slows down the speed at which a score multiplier meter depletes. You can get a higher score by killing multiple goons in a row, and your performance is judged with a letter grade at the end of each level.

That's a lot of guys to kill.

Now, there IS a story to the game. For starters, the protagonist awakens in the cellar of a butcher shop with amnesia, and spies a discussion between Mitch the Butcher, a gangster and arms trafficker hiding behind a good business, and his mooks. After Mitch leaves, we kill the handymen, then must kill everyone on the way to find and murder Mitch. And then Denny, Mitch’s affiliate. Thus begins a roaring rampage of violence fueled by drugs and the elucubrations of a banana.

You have to be an incredible shot if you can
activate levels with your bullets...

There’s a bit of a shift in design; in the first half, you aren’t too hindered by blockades and puzzles in your way, so much of the focus is on going through each level and killing every enemy in the most stylish way possible. Probably confident that you’ve got the hang of the basics by then, the second half involves a lot more puzzles forcing you to figure out how to progress through each section, but you still need to kill everyone. In my experience, bullets also get rarer at that point. You find many different weapons, but only the first ones have infinite ammo (though you still need to reload). For the others, you need to find bullets by killing enemies.

That high-speed road fight is a highlight.

A lot of the focus is on facilitating cinematic combat, hence all the controls and options, so the more puzzle-based platforming later on feels a bit out of left field. That said, the game stays true to its influences throughout and features a story that’s pretty interesting (let’s just say, things get weirder) while still displaying that offbeat comedy. There’s even a sequence on the road, which is the part I enjoyed the most. Getting letter grades above C is very difficult unless you master the controls and can chain kills easily, taking bullet time into account. The environments are not super varied, but the soundtrack is really good.

This game’s fun, look it up if you’re looking for an action-packed experience. My Friend Pedro is available on Steam for 19.99$ USD.