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If You Like Bullet Hell Shooters, Then You Should Play This Game – Gun Fungus Review

21K View2022-07-04

There are three things you should know right out of the gate about Funday Factory’s Gun Fungus:

1. It’s got guns

2. It’s got fungus.

3. You use said guns to shoot said fungus.

Do you really need to know anything else? It’s a pretty simple (and entertaining) formula, as Gun Fungus is an intense and original bullet hell roguelike where you fight through various rooms on randomized alien planets while building a unique run with the weapons, perks, and abilities you find on your path to the final boss at the end of thirty challenging rooms. If you succeed in those first thirty, you take on a new planet (seven all told) with a ramped-up difficulty level and thirty more platform-based levels to bound around on. The perks and drops—Jump Grenades are my personal favorite—are enticing and fun to experiment with. The gameplay and combat style are both perfectly executed even with touch controls.

It has the various tropes found in many other mobile games such as good ol’ loot boxes and shop mechanics where you can buy various weapon and character upgrades. The inevitable ad watching is also here, but at least it’s voluntary, and you get a perk or boost if you choose to do it.

Gun Fungus is also quite the looker, as its cartoony graphics pop off the screen. I truly dug the designs of the seven initial characters in the game. The sound effects go BOOM, BANG, and ZAP in an appropriate manner, and the background music is fine, though it kind of gets lost in the mix. I say that because as I am sitting here typing this review I cannot recall a tune that sticks out to me...but that also means there were no musical tracks that annoyed me either, so there’s that.

Realistically, the only thing I didn’t like in Gun Fungus is how the shooting mechanic is implemented, but this is rather important as all you are really doing is jumping and shooting during this experience. My issue here is that both auto-aiming and auto-firing are employed. This works just fine in the easier levels, but when things start to ramp up and get hectic, I really would have liked to be able to pick my targets more strategically. This issue became apparent to me when the sniper-like fungus enemies were introduced, because with several of them on the screen it is easy to get pinned down. If I had the ability to turn off the auto-aiming and auto-firing, I would have immediately moved to take out these evil fungi first so they couldn’t trap me in this manner, but that option isn’t given.

Regardless, Gun Fungus is an engaging and breezy experience that’s easy to pick up and play a few rounds of without breaking much of sweat. However, it lacks much depth to be engaging for long periods of time, unless you’re one of those people that just has to unlock every skin and weapon. This is the video game equivalent of cotton candy—it’s sugary and sweet going down, but it lacks any real nutritional value and sustenance.

SCORE: 3 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• My Heroes: Dungeon Raid. Try Gun Fungus if this bullet hell dungeon burner gets you hot and bothered.

• Contra/Contra Returns. Gun Fungus may not be as enduring as this classic 8-bit run-and-gun shooter (and its recent remake), but it definitely has a similar feel at times.

Have you played Gun Fungus? Let us know what you think of it in the comments! Even if you haven't played it, leave a comment sharing your favorite shooter!

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