Gunman Clive

 
Developer: Horberg Productions   
Steam Release: Jan 2014
Hours Played: 2.5
Similar To: 20XX / Mutant Mudds / Mute Crimson+ / Oozi: Earth Adventures / Paper Monsters Recut
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Gunman Clive is a delicate, run and gun action platformer that has you assuming the role of the eponymous hero as he embarks on his journey to rid the world of menacing cowboys. You move left and right as well as duck, jump and fire on your 16-level quest but you'll also need to be on the constant lookout for aggressive dogs, obstinate ducks, missile totting pelicans and all manner of moving and disappearing platforms. It is quite a simple and straightforward platformer with a lot of emphasis on well-timed jumping but there is plenty of shooting and dodging to keep you sharp. This is an old-school style screen-scroller with no bells and whistles - and no checkpoints. You have a health bar that gives you a reasonable margin of error but death means restarting the level right from the beginning.
  

BALANCE & PACE
The 16 levels can be completed in about one or two minutes each with perfect play but this will take practice and trail and error. As you get deeper into the game, you will need to work out more intense and detailed strategies. With the pacing pitched just right, success is always a tantalising few steps away and far from this making repeated attempts a chore, it is actually what keeps the player coming back and retrying levels over and over. The game doesn't throw any unfair curve-balls at you (although some bosses will make your blood boil) so you know it's entirely your fault if you screw up. Sure, there are no checkpoints and you'll have to restart the entire level again after a failure but with such absorbing bite-size levels the frustration is usually mild and the desire to crack the level is strong enough to bring a rewarding feeling when you do.  
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Fans of Norweigan group A-Ha and their pencilled video of their 1980s chart-hit Take On Me will see echoes of that scratchy art-style in Gunman Clive. With bright pastel colours of mainly soft yellows and orangey-browns, all the action is heavily shaded and hand-drawn with a pale wash. Add the thoroughly appropriate and catchy honky-tonk tunes that bounce merrily along in the background and you have a game that captures the allure and romanticism of the wild-west mood in a tasteful, classy and stylish way. Levels also have an interesting way of freezing our hero in a snapshot as he successfully exits a level - again, a unique and subtle touch that adds character to the game.  
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Along with its hardcore design decision not to include checkpoints, Gunman Clive gives you 16 levels that you have to complete sequentially. There's no skipping of levels allowed here and with each level adding trickier gameplay mechanics than before this ties in with the game's excellent firm but fair philosophy very well. After hitting Start you'll get info on what stage you're on, play time and retries. Another click takes you to a fairly plain map-screen of circles along a path and crosses to indicate completed stages. It's in increments of five stages so you'll need to scroll through. For hardcore speed runners there is a Clear Time stat in the top right which shows your best time for that stage. There is a tricky boss every five levels and although I haven't unlocked any extra characters myself the game boasts 3 playable characters.  
  
   

CONCLUSION

At the usual price of just £1.59 Gunman Clive, with its classic old-school gameplay, is a no-brainer for any fan of action platformers.The rise in difficulty as you pick off hostile cowboys, gun down varieties of wildlife and leap about from barrel to platform is pitch-perfect. It can definitely get challenging but you'll know that, with practice, you can overcome that pesky jump or outwit that annoying boss - and this makes the experience fun. There is more good news in that the game comes with a fine sequel (Gunman Clive 2) that will set you back the price of a sandwich.