Adventure, Versus, and 8 characters — including Ana from Spelunky 2 and the Minit hero — will be playable in Early Access
The long-time-comingSamurai Gunn 2resurfaced today with a blistering new trailer and a revised summer release window for Steam Early Access. What about Nintendo Switch? It’s still happening — but that version won’t come outuntil the 1.0 launch on PC, which should take “about a year or so.”
The sequel had plummeted off my radar, but after catching this gameplay footage, I immediately remembered what it was like to face off in frantic one-hit-kill combat with friends. Simplicity and split-second decisions are still the name of this 2D action game. That said, there’s more to chew on.
For combat, beyond the super-lethal sword and gun at your disposal,Samurai Gunn 2now lets you “swallow” one of your three bullets to dash. Trickier yet, the dash allows you to fly through slash attacks, but not other players’ shots. A small change can have a big ripple effect in high-stakes duels.
In terms of modes and content,at Early Access launch, the game will have thefirst of four Adventure worlds(with solo and four-player co-op support!),nine local/online Versus levels(two all-new originals, six updated zones fromSamurai Gunn, and aMinitarena), andeight characters(two of which are guests). There’s also agraphic novelfrom artist Valentin Seiche (the first of six chapters).
Wait, guests? Yeah. Indie crossovers can be used to great effect, andSamurai Gunn 2is on the right track so far with Ana fromSpelunky 2and the cursed hero ofMinit. Everyone has unique abilities, too.
For those of us planning to wait for theSwitch editionor the 1.0 PC release, Beau Blyth and the team are using Early Access to “make a better game by seeing what people enjoy the most and doubling down on that.” (And adding more characters.) As it stands, they saySamurai Gunn 2is “extremely fun to play right now, and has all of the main modes and features we want in the finished game.”
As much as multiplayer is the screaming heart ofSamurai Gunnfor a lot of people, I’m all about Adventure mode. Whichever you prefer, online support should be a huge boon for the sequel.
