MY FRIEND PEDRO MASK PRO

One problem I ran up against a lot was not being able to accurately target seperate enemies with akimbo weapons –the game wants you to use the dual weilding mechanic as a default but I found I struggled with it. There were times when I’d get overwhelmed by the amount of enemies I had to deal with and mess up my run because I’d mashed the wrong buttons in a panic. My Friend Pedro is a complex action game, necessitating similarly complex inputs. If there’s a sticking point, at least on the Switch, it’s the controls.

Enemies and blood pop more vividly against the grey backdrops, giving the player a clear indicator when a foe has been dispatched. Colours are mostly kept fairly drab, allowing for greater readability in the chaos. Between the streets, dank warehouses, high rise apartments and rooftops, each level provides all the framework required for dazzling acrobatics.

With only a handful of notable exceptions, most levels are cut from an industrial cloth. Land a barrage of complicated trickshots in sequence to start a combo, which generates a score multiplier. The trickier your run, the more points you score. Enemies are arranged in such a way that slowing time to allow more precise aiming is core to any strategy. You’ll be doing a lot of bullet time management - a significant component in My Friend Pedro is a Max Payne-esque dedication to bullet time shooting. Nevertheless, Pedro’s nutritionally-complete advice pays off and before long, your character will be performing wall jumps, uzis akimbo, landing trickshots as the bullet time meter ticks down. “You’re not leaving this room until I see you do a 360 degree flip,” he insists, which is asking a lot from someone who just woke up in a murderer’s basement. Pedro wants what he wants and you, as his vessel, are bound to deliver. The practicality of these moves is never once taken into account. He likes it when you do cool shit and much of the early game is given over to Pedro demanding you try new moves and murder methodologies for his entertainment. Pedro lives in the American Psycho vein of affable sadomasochism, less a coping mechanism than a manifestation of raw, vengeful id. Possibly driven mad by whatever events landed them here, your character is goaded into action by a spectral banana named Pedro and the great rampage begins. The Butcher has been grinding up rats and pigeons to sell at various markets and now he’s looking to add you to his menu. Your character, a nameless lunatic in a black gas mask, regains consciousness in the basement of some natty old warehouse owned by a gang leader called The Butcher. It’s a puzzle game, one that asks you to analyse your surroundings on a case by case basis, and I wonder how many players will understand that. Your effectiveness as a murderer is then ranked from C at worst to A at best.

It rewards effective play, trickshots and lengthy combos with points and score multipliers, which are totalled at the end of each level. It’s a game about stylish murder, one that teaches you to look for ways to make the most of your carnage.

MY FRIEND PEDRO MASK PRO

My Friend Pedro plays almost exactly like an old Xbox game called Total Overdose, which is to say that it sits somewhere between Max Payne and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

My friend pedro mask