How to play
A/D to move; space to jump; J for fire (autofire when held); K to throw a grenade. Switch weapons with number keys. Pick up weapon and ammunition crates from defeated enemies. Each level ends in a boss encounter.
Game features
- Twelve hand-designed run-and-gun levels
- Seven weapons including machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher
- Boss encounter at the end of each level
- Pixel-art aesthetic with hand-tweened explosion sprites
- Local two-player cooperative mode
- Three difficulty modes scaling enemy density
Editor review
The run-and-gun arcade-shooter lineage has a specific design vocabulary: side-scrolling levels with chest-high cover, enemies that spawn from off-screen at predictable rhythms, weapon pickups that meaningfully alter combat, and boss encounters with multi-phase patterns. Pixel Gunner adopts all of these conventions with care and produces a game that feels right to anyone who played Contra or Metal Slug in their arcade era.
The seven weapons feel mechanically distinct. The default rifle is balanced; the machine gun trades accuracy for volume; the shotgun is devastating at close range; the rocket launcher clears clustered enemies; the laser pierces multiple targets in a line; the flamethrower deals sustained area damage at short range; the homing missiles seek targets but reload slowly. Weapon selection matters per encounter.
The local two-player cooperative mode is the games best feature for couch-play groups. Recommended for retro-arcade-shooter fans.