“Enter The Gungeon” North American Retail Nintendo Switch Edition Review

In a hail of bullets, gunslingin’ prowess, and dodge rolls aplenty comes a fun and unique rogue-like game from the aptly named developer Dodge Roll: the Enter the Gungeon retail bundle for the Nintendo Switch.

I was provided a free copy of the Enter the Gungeon NA retail edition for review. The opinions are my own.

Enter The Gungeon comes packed with a whole lot of attitude and it’s actually, surprisingly difficult!
You get to choose between a few characters or ‘gungeoneers’ right off the bat. There’s the Convict, the Pilot, the Hunter, and the Marine. each with their own special abilities. For instance, the Pilot will get a 50% chance to unlock a chest along with a 15% price drop in shops. The Marine comes with his better gun handling and supply drop. The game diversifies the characters to let players use the Gungeoneer that will best fit their play style.

Enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Birds come flying with vomit energy beams. Wizards cast spells in different shapes to destroy you. Bullet Kins come locked and loaded to make sure you never escape the Gungeon. Bosses are unique. My first boss was a huge Bird strapped with a Gatling gun that may or may not have wrecked me countless times.

Destroying the environment has never been more fun. I can’t tell you how many times I vanquished my enemies in any given room, only to want to break every pot, bookshelf or knock over a fire hearth to burn everything to a crisp. It felt so satisfying just to hear pots break or pages from books slowly descend on the floor as I made my way to the next dungeon.

The music is incredibly lively and energetic and flows so smoothly with the combat. You can tell Dodge Roll had a great time in the studio making the soundtrack for this game.

Speaking of the developer, they have one important thing to tell any aspiring, newbie Gungeoneer: “Dodge Roll! Dodge Roll! Dodge Roll!” This is such an important mechanic. I constantly dodge rolled around cover, corners, and pillars to avoid heaps of incoming fire and even in my quest to vanquish every pot and bookshelf.

Guns are incredibly hilarious. You have your standard guns like an AK-47 or Laser gun. But you’ll also have a camera with a flash to stun enemies or even a pillow to throw around which was incredibly fun to whop bosses with.

As someone who clings to and hoards health packs in many video games, I found the rarity of health items this title provides frustrating. By the time I cleared my given rooms to get a new gun or two I found myself mostly at half of my health or sometimes on the brink of death, leaving me to have to rely on my dodging skills and a little bit of luck just to survive the level.

I can’t tell you how infuriating it was to have a Boss’ health down to a pinch only to die because I dodged INTO an enemy projectile.

If you die without defeating the Boss, you have to start the entire chapter dungeon over! I had moments where I took a fraction of a heart of damage and immediately restarted. But don’t worry about the repetition of it all because the Gungeon comes procedurally-generated. This means your levels will always be different than the last, even if you restart it. Enemies will come at random difficulties. You may find that restarting could lead to enemies being pretty passive toward you while the next playthrough features enemies bombarding and chasing you around every corner of the room.

This rogue-like dungeon crawler will most definitely whoop your behind and offer no apologies for it. You’ll sometimes spend 30 minutes clearing out the Gungeon only to die and have to start over. It’s incredibly addicting to try and outdo your runs and finding yourself pleading to fictional enemies to just “stay still and die!” as I so loudly said during one of my gaming sessions.

Respect the Gungeon because it will school you!

Enter the Gungeon NA retail edition is currently available for purchase on the Nintendo Switch. You can get it on Amazon, Best Buy, or GameStop.

The retail edition comes with a whole lot of goodies which I showed in the unboxing video above.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us!

Author: Micah Carrillo

Micah is studying English and Digital Design. His love of geek culture spans across diverse mediums and genres. Comics, anime, films, you name it! He enjoys video games on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox.

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