Twisted Pixel, the company that brought you Splosion Man, The Maw, and Comic Jumper, takes away the controller with its new ambitious title, The Gunstringer and turns you into the weapon. The Gunstringer utilizes Microsoft’s Kinect in its upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game. It is a third person shooter which has you controlling a marionette gunman. It is set on a stage in the Wild West, and the stringed protagonist is out for revenge.
The controls are fairly simple: you can make the marionette move left or right by moving your left hand left and right. Pulling your hand up causes him to jump. With your right hand, you target or mark up to six enemies. To shoot, you pull your hand back in a shooting motion; this fires the gun. This works fairly well and is great fun to do.
The graphics are mildly cel-shaded, and the world environment resembles a puppet stage play. The trees look like they are made of cardboard and sticks. The unique and quirky art style adds to the overall entertainment of the game. Honestly, when I first heard that Twisted Pixel was announcing an Xbox Live Arcade game using the Kinect, I was curious to see how well it would work. After playing it, I can say that it responds exceptionally well to your motions. You can even play it sitting down. Like all Twisted Pixel games, the tongue-in-cheek humor stands out as a major feature. For example, eating fiery tacos multiplies your score and gives you a speed boost. In addition, the boss I fought was a giant inflatable wavy tube man.
I’m looking forward to its release. This just might be the start to a new wave of games for the Kinect.