Video Game Review - Fingun

Rob reviews Fingun on Nintendo Switch...

Fingun is a curious side-scrolling shooter. While others in the genre focus on evil space aliens, or terrifying monsters, Fingun has you blasting away at anime girls!?

Developed by Pixelteriyaki and published by Gamuzumi, Fingun tasks you with ending the threat that these figures represent. With zero stories given to you in-game, you'll fight these scantily clad characters in a variety of locations, within your trusty flying hand-gun space-ship - the Fingun. 

Playing as this sentient disembodied appendage, you'll traverse through fourteen different boss encounters. Each boss then has a weak point that you'll have to destroy to send them back to where they came. Then it's on to the next to repeat the process. As such Fingun isn't a particularly long game, and with a degree of skill you'll see off all of its fourteem encounters in little under an hour. 

When it comes to gameplay, Fingun behaves like any other shmup. Travelling from left to right, you'll be dodging the scantily clad boss as it does its best to hurl various projectiles your way. On occasion, the boss will move behind you which means you'll need to flip your finger to then repeat the process. Once you've destroyed every "sexy weak point" the boss falls, and it's then on to the next. To keep things interesting (and I use the term very loosely), at certain points you'll receive predetermined power-ups which grant extra shields or another projectile attack. It's all incredibly basic, but that's not why you're here. 

Oh no, the main object of the game is to see how bizarre things get before you see those final credits roll. To put it into perspective, the first boss has you battling a giant twerking-pixel-anime-lady, who wants nothing more than to smear your finger gun spaceship onto her behind. This is then followed by another anime lady whose attack comes from the soap suds that are (just about) covering her modesty. These are arguably a couple of the "tame" encounters, as there are a few that are a lot worse. I don't think I'll ever go to a Sushi bar again and not think of Fingun! 

And yes, my favourite encounter was the incredibly random "Cat inside a Russian Doll"...I'll leave it like that. 

When looking at Fingun as a shmup it's incredibly lacking. Not only is your movement a bit on the slow side, but the enemies also aren't exactly menacing either. Bullet density is also pretty light which affords you plenty of time to dodge out of the way. The aforementioned upgrade system is also a bit lacklustre. Competent shmup veterans will have no issue in completely upgrading their finger well before seeing the half waypoint. This in turn then turns the rest of the game into a cakewalk as you'll plough through the game in zero time.

Another aspect that Fingun lacks is its variation. The entire game being one big boss rush doesn't offer much in the way of replayability. There are no stages to fight through, or varying degrees of difficulty to tame in the hope of achieving that high score. Instead what we get is fifteen flat boss battles, with nothing to break them up. 

Away from this and Fingun does have an element of charm to it. First off its presentation style is very bubbly. The characters all have a degree of charm to them, with each having a different style. Their attack patterns are varied too which see everything from soap suds, slime, and even volleyballs, thrown at you. While Fingun does push its lewdness to the very limit, it doesn't cross the line in forcing it upon you. If you do want to see anime boobies then there is a gallery that shows off "some" of the bosses in all their glory. In a strange turn of events, even with the lewdness (and nudity) some of the artwork is very good - albeit over the top. Anyway, topping the presentation off is the game's soundtrack. As music goes the soundtrack here is extremely catchy. Much like those old 16-bit chiptunes, the soundtrack is light and bubbly and you'll soon find yourself humming along. 

All in all, Fingun is a game that sits firmly in the middle of being good or bad. It's the pixilated world is bright and colourful, with each boss being more outlandish than the last. While its gameplay is pretty simple it does lack the weight of a more competent shmup. This is mainly seen in the game's poor running time, as well as its severe lack of content. If anything the world of Fingun is worth saving once, then being left to the annuals of gaming's past. 

Rating: 4/10

Fun is available now and can be purchased via the Nintendo Switch eShop by clicking here

A code was kindly provided for this review

Enjoyed this review? Want to support the blog further? There’s no pressure of course, but every little helps to keep things running. If you want to support my writing you can do so by heading over to Ko-Fi.com/GeekCultureRev. Any donations are greatly appreciated, but so is the fact that you took the time to read my work! Thank you!

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev