Dylan Del Rio
You know I usually spend a good twenty minutes staring at a blank word document before I place my fingers on the keyboard. I have to come up with some way to start this and naturally tether opening to the game so it does not come off as a bunch of inane rambling. The reason I bring all this up is if there were one word to describe My Friend Pedro it would be inane. It’s like if Johnny Knoxville and John Woo fused together and made a product that was equal parts intense action and lowbrow humor that’s borderline random.
In My Friend Pedro you take control of an unnamed mask man who wakes up in a basement with no memory of his past. As he comes to his senses he encounters the titular Pedro, a floating banana with a face who may or may not be an hallucination. He goads you into taking on the local crime family who has turned the city into a war zone. It is a simple story but at times it feels like it’s conflicted. On one hand, things like Pedro casually talking to the main character while he’s mowing down dozens of guards is clearly played for humor. Near the end it feels like it wants to get slightly more serious with the main villain and it feels like a sudden tonal shift. The humor is really hit and miss for me, I think some of the banter with Pedro is fun but there are some sections where the dialog is just embarrassing. The absolute low point comedy wise is when you start fighting stereotypical nerds armed with machine guns and LARP swords. Literally every line they spout sounds like it was written by someone who got all of their knowledge of nerd culture by observing the nerdy characters in Saved By The Bell and American Pie.
Gameplay wise My Friend Pedro is a 2-D platformer where the goal is to get to the end of the stage while killing as many enemies as possibly. You start out with pistols but as you get farther you’ll gain access to more weapons including an Uzi and a shotgun. You have the ability to perform a kick to take out enemies next to you and a dodge roll to avoid bullets. You also have the ability to slow down time, which is limited by a meter, however it recharges whenever it isn’t in use or when you kill an enemy. The main hook of the game is racking up as many kills as possible using various weapons and items. Every time you kill an enemy a combo meter starts and if you kill more you add more points to the multiplier, which will ultimately improve your overall score. You can start by rushing into a room full of enemies and shooting the first guy point blank with a shotgun, which blows him to bits. Then you can kick his remains into the heads of one of the other guards, killing him instantly, and finally jump over the rest of the guards while lobbing a grenade. When it’s all in motion it is rather intense. The game is always at it’s best when you’re fighting a bunch of enemies.
That being said there are a few parts when the game falters. There are a few levels, mainly near the end of the game that are mainly focused on platforming rather than combat. While it is functional it is rather unexciting compared to the madness that came before it. Near the end it get’s really frustrating when the levels switch from fast paced combat to more slow paced methodical platforming. It’s such a pace breaker, it’s like splicing in twenty minutes of Gone With the Wind into the middle of Commando. Also without wishing to spoil the way the game’s ending feels abrupt, like the developers just decided “eh screw it that’s enough” which I suppose fits with the ridiculous tone but I still find it weird.
My Friend Pedro is an odd, fun little game, while I have mixed thoughts on the humor and overall story is mixed I think the overall gameplay loop is solid enough to overcome those short comings. As I said before it feels like a product made by some Johnny Knoxville/John Woo hybrid, insane flashy and gloriously stupid.