This Week In Retro: Enter the Gungeon (Patreon)

April 5, 2016: We need some Bullet Control

by Diamond Feit

In my humble opinion as a cultured, worldly adult with a college degree, I believe that comedy is the highest conceivable form of art. The esteemed institutions who hand out awards each year may disagree, but I see no greater accomplishment than telling a story that makes people laugh. I know drama has its fans and I've certainly grown to appreciate horror in my middle age, but I view that as low-hanging fruit on the tree of human narrative. Everyone feels bad when a character loses a loved one and feels frightened when a monster leaps out of the shadows, but writing a joke demands incredible craftsmanship.

Having made this utterly non-controversial statement, I must now follow it up with a question: Why do we groan at puns? Given the established importance of adding levity to our lives, what's so bad about skillfully deploying language to exploit two words that sound alike? Who decided that writers should apologize for or otherwise distance themselves from a naturally-occurring pun in their work?

I recognize the subjectiveness of comedy but I still find this general animosity towards a tradition which dates back thousands of years puzzling, especially when a pun can instantly transmit so much meaning to the reader. Think about the challenges that localizing the names of 151 original Pokémon presented to Nintendo's American branch 30 years ago; now marvel at the beauty of calling a flaming lizard Charmander or a wet turtle Squirtle.

In that spirit, I must commend the team at Dodge Roll for mashing two common words in video gaming together in their debut title released 10 years ago this week. The second I learned of Enter the Gungeon, I understood the basics of the game and that the project would offer at least a measure of levity.

Enter the Gungeon starts by delivering exposition through a sepia-toned series of sprites. It seems that somewhere in the darkness of space, there existed one particularly "grim fortress" with a remarkable treasure stored within its depths. Even when a great force destroyed the stronghold, its fabled prize remained undiscovered. The fortress has since been rebuilt and fortune seekers continue to visit in the hopes of acquiring this rumored relic: One single firearm with the power to "kill the past" and "make what was done, undone."

Players assume the role of a Gungeoneer to explore the fortress and retrieve the legendary weapon. Each of these four default characters have their own custom loadout and unique strengths to consider. The Convict becomes enraged when injured and deals extra damage, The Marine benefits from stronger starting gear, The Pilot can pick locks no one else can open, and The Hunter has The Dog to keep her company. Two players may also enter the Gungeon as a team.

While the narrative and the presence of a space marine suggest a science-fiction milieu, Enter the Gungeon prioritizes more traditional trappings in its levels. The individual chambers of the fortress are appropriately dark with stone walls, wooden furniture, and flickering light sources. Players can overturn tables to make barricades and kick barrels to roll them towards foes. Depending on their contents, the barrels might extinguish fires, add fuel to fires, or simply explode.

Regarding the fortress, Enter the Gungeon abides by standard roguelike rules in that dying means starting over and the game generates new maps for each play session. However, the software merely arranges rooms originally conceived by the staff. Dodge Roll's Dave Crooks explained the difference in a 2016 interview with Game Developer. "We created a room and played it over and over again," Crooks said, "and then structured floor layouts based on rules that we think make good dungeon designs."

This human touch really comes across when playing Enter the Gungeon with each new space packed with unnecessary yet welcome detail. There's just so much stuff everywhere to knock over or shoot at, all lovingly drawn and animated. As a Shiren the Wanderer veteran, I'm used to boxy dungeons featuring nothing but functional rectangles and narrow hallways. Enter the Gungeon's rooms come in all shapes and sizes, each one carefully laid out to maximize combat potential.

The game pits the Gungeoneers against wave after wave of Gundead stationed throughout the citadel, all ready to repel unwanted guests with unlimited firepower. The Gundead fight back with such fervor that they can fill the screen with projectiles on par with the patterns seen in so-called bullet-hell arcade shooters. That moniker feels extra appropriate here as most of the Gundead are themselves shaped like bullets.

Founded by fleeing employees from Mythic Entertainment before its closure in 2014, Dodge Roll began work on Enter the Gungeon after Dave Crooks came up with the title. The studio spent almost two years on development with a particular focus on imagining as many guns as possible, eventually shipping the game in April 2016 with 190 unique firearms.

Critics responded positively to Enter the Gungeon's tense action, demanding difficulty, and sense of humor. In a review for Rock Paper Shotgun, John Walker praised the game's "remarkably upbeat nature, cheerful where the genre is so often grim." According to USGamer.net's Mike Williams, "There are painfully hard roguelikes, but Enter the Gungeon feels like it's tuned just right." Audiences agreed, purchasing over 200,000 copies in Gungeon's first week on Steam and the PlayStation Network.

Later that same year, I saw the impact Enter the Gungeon has on players firsthand when I attended the Busan Indie Connect Festival in Korea. Dave Crooks demonstrated the game on stage to a throng of cheering fans, many of them teenage girls. "It helps when your enemies are cute," he told me about Gungeon's warm reception. One young fan even gifted Crooks a strawberry rollcake with "for greatest game creater [sic]" written on the box. The accolades didn't end there, as the festival awarded Enter the Gungeon their Grand Prix award and a prize for Excellence in Multiplayer.

Trying Enter the Gungeon for myself in Busan and witnessing such unbridled enthusiasm for its pixel art and colorful firefights, I bought a copy for myself as soon as I came home. The high difficulty kept me from progressing very far, but I certainly delighted in the game's playful tone and eclectic collection of characters. Even the tutorial made me laugh—a rare feat indeed—leading me to forever associate Dodge Roll's inaugural title with having a good time. I'm definitely curious how the forthcoming sequel will turn out.

My lasting impression of Enter the Gungeon coming from its good vibes counts as another data point in favor of my pro-comedy argument. With budgets ballooning and graphical fidelity prioritized over all other traits, I find myself increasingly uninterested in the self-important why-so-serious games which dominate online conversations. Meanwhile, delightful romps like last year's Skin Deep and Promise Mascot Agency continue to occupy my thoughts long after I rolled credits.

In other words, less dungeon crawlers and more fungeon crawlers, am I right?

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit has written professionally since 2009 and contributed to Retronauts since 2018. Look up feitclub on social media or visit Diamond's lofi website.