Enter the Gungeon from Dodge Roll and Devolver Digital is a fast-paced crazy action game on Nintendo Switch that you have to buy right now. Find out why in our Enter the Gungeon review!

 

Before you get started on your first run with the game you can select between the available characters: The Marine, The Pilot, The Convict, and The Hunter, each with his/her own weapon and item loadout to take on the dangers of the Gungeon. You should give each one a go since their default weapons (and how much damage they deal and how many bullets they have), as well as their abilities will give you a different experience for each run you do. I started playing the game by following the order in which they’re placed in the hub area, from left to right, and this allowed me to find out about the pros and cons of playing with each one.

You will control your character by moving with the left analog stick while you aim with the right analog stick, shooting with the R button as you dodge attacks with the L button. Since you’ll shoot so much all the time, you will need to reload with the Y button, and can change guns by pressing left or right on the D-Pad. And if you get an item you can use it with the ZR button, and you can move to the next item by pressing up. If you find that you need to drop a gun you can do so by holding down on the D-Pad and the same can be done for items by holding the up direction. You should also make good use of the B button to interact with characters and objects, especially with objects since this can lead to flipping stuff to use as cover, or to just screw around with stuff.

Before you dive into the game proper, you should head into the short tutorial section so that you can learn the basics as you are taken by Ser Manuel through each room, learning new stuff as you go. You will put into practice your roll, learning that you’re pretty much invincible during the first half of the roll, or how you can press down on the left and right analog sticks to shoot a blank which will destroy all enemy fire around you, a valuable tool that can only be used if you have any on you – but worry not since they refill every time you enter a floor. The tutorial will end with a deadly fight against Ser Manuel himself, because of course the guy who was teaching you the basics a few minutes ago is the one who gets to test your might.

 

The goal of the game is simple: shoot anything that moves, explore all rooms, collect new items and guns, defeat bosses and stay alive through the procedurally generated maps inside of the Gungeon. As you defeat enemies you will gain some empty bullets which act as the in-game currency to purchase useful stuff at the store, things such as extra blanks, keys, hearts to recover your health, armor, ammo, a heart of ice, and more. Just be careful and don’t fire your weapons inside of the merchant’s store or else you’re going to make him veeeeery angry – so angry he will shoot at you and close his store for the rest of your run.

When exploring each floor you will unlock handy teleporters that you can use by opening up your map with the ZL button to select a teleporter snd instantly jump there by pressing the B button – this is a welcome feature and something that greatly speeds up the exploration process. You might, for example, end up exploring a floor and end up right before the boss’s room and realize there are several extra rooms you could visit, and being able to instantly travel to a nearby teleporter to explore a new path instead of having to move back there room by room is a great option.

During your time with the game you will run into enemies of all colors, shapes and sizes, with the recurring theme being they’re either bullet or ammo-based. This means you’ll run into a ton of bullets that move around shooting colorful energy orbs your way, which is certainly hilarious. Bosses also follow this theme, so on any given floor you might end up running into giant twin bullets or a large Bullet King on his bullet throne summoning bullet minions – and that’s just two examples from the dozens of bosses that you can battle.

Every gun, item, thing, enemy and boss you run into/unlock/whatevs gets added to the Ammonomicom, a large tome with a ton of info you should check out when new stuff is added to it so that you can get a good laugh at the bizarre description for everything. And, you know, because info is knowledge and knowing is half the battle… or something. If you want to 100% the game you’ll need to do several runs of various lengths to be able to find all items, fight all enemies and battle all bosses. There’s a ton of content in this one if you’re patient and give it a chance!

Enter the Gungeon is a solid action-packed release on Nintendo Switch that you should definitely add to your collection. Every run that you do will feel a bit different, and the more you play the more enemies you’ll run into, learning about their movement and attack patterns so that you can make the most of subsequent runs – same goes for the weapons and items you can find or purchase.

Disclaimer
This Enter the Gungeon review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Devolver Digital.