The Matrix has been a cultural icon since its initial launch in the early 2000’s, and since then we’ve seen countless parodies, references, and applications of a single scene. The scene I’m referring to is where Neo dodges bullets in slow motion before doing a shitload of speed and beating Mr. Smith’s ass. My Friend Pedro decides to see what would happen if you had a game around that concept and mashed it with Sonic.
Levels play out episodically as you jump, skate, repel, and shoot your way through hordes of henchmen. Where the twist comes in, is that you can slow down time at will to evade enemy attacks and fire back with more precision. You’ll slide down a rope and start spinning as you unleash a whirlwind of lead, or you’ll split aiming in-between two enemies to take them out simultaneously. It’s a neat concept, but after a while the game loses steam in large part due to rougher level design and clunky controls.
A good Sonic game knows how to balance momentum and platforming, unlike the giant turd that is Sonic Forces. Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and much more recently Sonic Mania, do a good job with levels that allow the player some breathing room by making use of speed to keep you engaged. If the level is too constrained or claustrophobic it messes with the flow and Sonic’s movement are akin to driving down a road with multiple speed bumps. You will race through a section only to have some impedance slow you down and ruin the fun. This is important to keep in mind for this style of game, since a lot of the value comes from the replayability.
Here in My Friend Pedro, they try to have the best of both worlds, but that balance is constantly shifting. This results in the momentum and platforming becoming subprime. The level design in some sections will feel fluid as you hop your way around, gunning down enemies until some tight cramped space will remove any momentum you had. The skateboard sections especially ran into this issue. You would be picking up speed, killing guys as they pop out and then when you jump the skateboard just detaches itself from you or gets stuck on the environment for a second as you frustratingly try to get it back in the action.
In some of these sections it also becomes more apparent how slow your character actually is. When platforming they try to create this stylish parkour movement that comes at the expense of speed, or control responsiveness will dwindle. You’ll jump between two walls only to have your guy half-ass it and make you try again. For a game that looks to create a fluid experience, there are just a lot of hitches along the way. Like with the slow down mechanic they implore, these frequent hiccups put the brakes on the action. The shooting is completely fine, but considering how much of this game uses platforming elements it feels like the character should have a tighter control scheme.
There are other interesting aspects, like being able to ricochet bullets off a frying pan or metal paneling to kill enemies. It can be cool when incorporated into the level, but the issue of responsiveness comes back to haunt these parts. You can melee enemies with a kick move that can extend to the frying pan, skateboard, and a few other items to propel it in some direction, but the kick can be a bit of a pain in the ass to get something off the ground. This is a minor issue, but one that stood out more as I reached the later levels.
Story wise, I think the weird elements fit the overall aesthetic of a banana guiding you through a murderous rampage. The trippier levels were my favorite, but I think they needed to be more prominent since most levels take place in an industrial settings, but this game is also only four hours long. The boss fights can be interesting especially the first, second, and last ones. The first fight you’re in this motorcycle death race, the second you’re plummeting from a skyscraper, and the final one you’re riding a walrus through a rainbow world while a banana tries to gun you down.
Originally, this game started as an Adobe Flash product before evolving into the current state, and it becomes apparent after playing through. There are a lot of promising elements, but by the end it felt like a high budget flash game falling victim to a rougher design. My Friend Pedro splatters a guy’s brains and does a sick ass kick-flip only to roll its ankle.