Now that Shotgun Cop Man has been released, I can experience the full game. I had previously previewed the game, which you can read about here, but for all intents and purposes, the preview and review will not differ much. Developer, Deadtoast Entertainment, and publisher, Devolver Digital, have done a great job presenting exactly what Shotgun Cop Man is, so there is little more to add to this review.

You play as Shotgun Cop Man, and you’re trying to arrest Satan. The story does not diverge from this line as you move from level to level, and if anything, by the time I got to the final stage on level nine to challenge Satan, I was all ready for closure on my epic battle through hell. Unfortunately, the ending is unsatisfying. Maybe if I had spent hours mastering the levels, something different would have happened, but even as a completionist, I’d had my fun and was ready to move on. Ultimately, my prediction of the story being very light and playing second fiddle to the gameplay was correct, so I did not feel the compulsion to go back through it.

As said in the preview, Shotgun Cop Man is a two-dimensional platformer where you control Shotgun Cop Man through the stage, shooting demons with your two firearms to reach the portal at the end. The guns are not only for defeating enemies but also for traversal – there is no command for jumping, so you must shoot down to propel yourself vertically. Using the pistol to “jump” is like a quick press in the various platformers, whereas the shotgun is more like a long press.

The catch is that you can only shoot a set number of times for each weapon before it requires reloading, so you can’t indefinitely stay aloft. When you are back in contact with the ground, you will automatically reload, allowing you to take flight once more. This is what makes Shotgun Cop Man challenging; not only do you need to defend yourself from attackers, but you also need to navigate the perils on the stage, such as saw blades and spikes.

I predicted Shotgun Cop Man would require some slick movement, fast reflexes, and a lot of patience to complete. Unfortunately, the level of challenge remained about the same. As you get deeper into the levels, Shotgun Cop Man introduces more enemy types and different platforming challenges. Once you learn what the enemy does or the platforming gimmick, you will naturally move through the stage like any other. Maybe Deadtoast Entertainment can add a difficulty slider in a patch. There are goals you can complete on each stage: kill all enemies, speed running, take no damage, and do all three in one go, but that doesn’t change the difficulty; it only changes your approach to the stage.

At the end of each level, you get to fight a boss. Each is unique and fun to challenge the first time around; however, much like the stages, the challenge fades quickly once you learn the patterns – yet another opportunity for a difficulty slider to exist outside of mastering the goals.

In the preview, I gave only a couple of examples when talking about alternative weapons to the pistol. The full release of Shotgun Cop Man has many more than what the preview had to offer. With such an array of weapons to find and use, picking up something new to try is always exciting. Some stages benefit from weapon types, which will help achieve the four goals in every stage. The gameplay mechanic of retaining the alternative weapon, dropping your heart, collecting it, and continuing from checkpoints is unchanged.

As I mentioned in my preview, the graphics are minimalistic, with bold, hard lines and a chunky pixel block feel, only going into more detail during close-ups of the characters. Music is hard rocking synth beats with a deep base, and sound effects are a general affair of gun blasts, whirring blades, and meaty mincing spatter noises.

Shotgun Cop Man is fun and will give you at least four hours of entertainment, and more if you strive to complete all the goals. With many weapons, simple gameplay, and fitting music to keep you hyped up, Shotgun Cop Man is a nice alternative to similar genres like Super Meat Boy.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove