Stupid is as stupid does. In Shotgun Cop Man’s case, stupid is as stupid does, and it looks stupid, but its gameplay mechanics are absolutely fantastic — and you’d put money on it being a speedrunner’s dream, especially when you know the creators responsible for these shenanigans.
DeadToast Entertainment, the developer of the delightfully insane My Friend Pedro, is once again partnering with publisher Devolver Digital, which effortlessly pushed Death’s Door, Disc Room, Inscryption, and my indie GOTY of 2022, Cult of the Lamb. In it, you — as Shotgun Cop Man, who looks remarkably like the perfect mixture of the Mitchell brothers from perennial U.K. soap opera EastEnders — take on the role of a heavily armed lawman dropping into the bowels of Hell to, er, arrest Satan.
Shotgun Cop Man doesn’t just have the most wonderfully route-one name; it has also clearly positioned itself alongside the likes of Super Meat Boy as a precision, speedrun-encouraging 2D platformer, but where weapons are essential for both offense and propulsion. Your shotty, pistol, and a range of other “devastating weapons” are needed to kill demons and get through the myriad rooms, tunnels, and long falls that Hell has to offer.
Its demo, available now on Steam, offers a whopping 17 levels — which are admittedly short once you get the hang of the game, even though you know it’ll be incredibly punishing in the longer term — and they slowly unfurl at pace to give you a taste of the chaos, self-loathing, and copious swearing the game puts you through.
Shotgun Cop Man knows exactly what it is, promising a tough campaign with additional No Damage and Speedrun modes for hardcore players, as well as a hub for user-generated levels that could well set the bar for plenty of self-flagellating players on TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch.
Sadly, Shotgun Cop Man has a limited release planned for later this year, landing only on PC and Switch — but for a bargain price of $9.99. Let’s hope it makes its way onto other consoles in the weeks and months that follow.
