Just when I thought games couldn’t get any crazier, I got my hands on Gun Gun Pixies. It’s an anime-stylised game where you’re playing as two super small aliens, who look like normal girls in pretty outfits, shooting “Happy Bullets” at giant human females. Surprisingly, although it started quite weird, it quickly became one of the most entertaining and unique games I’ve experienced for a while
Despite not really being a fan of anime ‘fan service’ games, and shooters in general, I still decided to give this game a try because I’m a fan of Compile Heart‘s games. Other than the zany plot, I was pretty sure I would easily find other things which would also capture my attention – I wasn’t wrong…
Two tiny aliens, named Usamaeru and Kamerieru, have come to earth to study humans as the means to save their planet, Pandemo, after it was attacked. The thing here is that they cannot interact with, or get spotted by the humans, and thus, while hiding and secretly helping the humans they’re observing, their job is to shoot out “Happy Bullets” so their subjects become relaxed and unknowingly discloses useful information. Whilst trying to complete their mission, our protagonists have to not only avoid the giant humans but also fight off tough enemies such as squid-like aliens. Ultimately, their goal is to observe the girls, save their planet and help resolve any social issues which come up.
First of all, something which I really enjoyed about Gun Gun Pixies is the hilarious dialogue between Usamaeru and Kamerieru, as well as the ones between the humans. Usamaeru kind of reminds me of an old man who is lusting after all the other girls, but at the same time she just behaves so cute while saying rather cringy things. However, I couldn’t help but adore her and smirk whenever she was trying to hit on Kamerieru. Kamerieru, on the other hand, is the serious ‘girl’ who tries to bring Usamaeru back to reality.
Despite that she’s always refusing her approaches, I felt like they were just the perfect fit and the game simply wouldn’t have been as entertaining without both of these particular aliens. Additionally, as aforementioned, the human girls are all super adorable as well and it was interesting finding out about the most unnecessary things in their everyday life like, for instance, trying to discover where a bad smell was coming from.
The characters weren’t the only thing which intrigued me, I surprisingly enjoyed the gameplay despite the game being a genre I wouldn’t usually go for. There are two modes within the game, the first being when the characters are talking to each other and the second is where you’re freely walking around in the girl’s rooms. Rather than freely walking around with no set goal, you always have a certain task you have to finish whilst you’re within the actual ‘gameplay’ segments. Despite the most common objective being shooting your “Happy Bullets” at various parts of the girls’ bodies, there are other missions where you just have to find a certain item without being seen/defeated.
As long as you’re paying attention to the dialogue, the task is quite obvious. However, if you don’t read the pre-mission briefing correctly then it’s easy to become unclear on what to do. To those who like to skip things, I’d say you’re best to not completely skip the narrative if you want to understand what’s going on.
Since you’re only small you have a lot of obstacles you have to overcome which aren’t there for ‘normal-sized’ beings – luckily our cute protagonist is very agile and can crawl under things and jump to higher places. As you explore the various rooms, you’ll also come across coins which you can collect. As you’d expect, there are bronze, silver and gold coins scattered around, offering an increasing amount of coins based on their colour. I also found that the higher the value, the more well-hidden or out-of-reach they were often placed.
There are occasional boss fights against the human females in which you have to use your “Happy Bullets” to ‘please’ parts of the giant girls’ bodies. Usually, you have to hide so the girls don’t spot you, or else it will result in a game over, but this mode is a little bit different. Here, the girls are indirectly attacking you whilst you’re trying to shoot them. Once your ammunition runs out (which will be quite often in these battles), there are several capsules available in the room which you must find so that you can fill it up once again and continue the onslaught of ‘happiness’. When you do end up getting hit by the girl’s attacks, your clothes start to get ripped off(!). Luckily, there are repair spots also situated in various points around the room, though you need to be careful when trying to use one as you might die while trying to repair your clothes (which happened to me a few times).
The artwork within Gun Gun Pixies is high quality, as well as the soundtrack and various CGs which are shown. I found the presentation and the concept really interesting. As you’re playing as someone incredibly small, everything becomes a hindrance due to its size, it was a whole new perspective – It was almost like a baby’s, except replace the baby with tiny alien women!. Even climbing into the trash bin was harder than I expected it would be as it took me a few tries until I was finally able to successfully jump into it. In all honesty, I’ve never been concerned about not being able to reach the inside of a trash bin before, but it was an interesting feeling, to say the least.
Official Trailer:
Final Conclusion:
I had more fun with Gun Gun Pixies than I initially thought I would have had due to its genre and format. I’m glad I gave it a try despite its zany synopsis, as hey, crazy stories have the potential to surprise the player. As aforementioned, I’m not really a fan of shooters, yet I found that the simplistic gameplay this game provides isn’t really targetting ‘shooter’ fans, it’s simply a game anyone could enjoy as long as they’re into cute anime girls and/or ‘fan service’. Gun Gun Pixies is a third-person shooter that will entertain pretty much any anime fan gamer and is definitely worth a try if you don’t mind peeping at the everyday life of ginormous human girls (and Nep Nep).
We also reviewed the game on the Nintendo Switch a few months ago – you can check out that review here: https://www.gamepitt.co.uk/gun-gun-pixies-nintendo-switch-review/