If there is one thing that indie gaming does that AAA games does not, that thing is taking chances on bizarre and unusual titles. Today, Dave Corn reviews Squirrel with a Gun from developer Dee Dee Creations and publisher Maximum Entertainment. It’s a game about a squirrel with a gun!

“Squirrel, meet gun. As the neighborhood’s most obnoxious rodent, develop a knack (and a love?) for crime and mayhem in pursuit of golden acorns in this nutty sandbox shooter and puzzle platformer. Fight tooth, claw, and gun to escape a secret underground facility and defeat the Agents.”

Ok, I’m just gonna get this out straight away, Squirrel with a Gun – I like it and here’s why…

Released on Steam on the 29th August (console version Xbox series X/S and PS5 release date October 15th) Developer Dee Dee games (published by Maximum Entertainment) have done something wonderful here – marketing. Now people of a certain age will remember the Ronseal Wood Stain advert, “Does exactly what it says on the tin” and Squirrel with a Gun goes with that, it’s a squirrel with a gun… there you go, that’s your plot. You escape a research facility run by extremely poor Agent Smith (Matrix suited ‘n booted) type bad guys.“It does exactly what it says on the tin”

Now, during this escape your squirrel will get its first gun, and it is the most amusing moment I’ve seen in a game for a while. The love from a squirrel for a gun is just too beautiful, seriously your heart will swoon and if it doesn’t, you are a monster (there are spaces for people like you, I wouldn’t like to say the cell next Fritzell but, you get the idea). During this game however, there a many guns and nuts, lots of nuts… oh the nuts.

The basic gameplay it’s really about messing around in a suburban-based sandbox. You use platforming skills to collect acorns and then use them to unlock new weapons and vehicles. After a while of being amused by the squirrel and being able to propel yourself higher in air by aiming your gun at the floor, you are left with a fairly lacklustre, frustrating platformer and puzzle solver. You do get various fun missions that include a fantastic water park level and a downhill type mini-game, but these altogether add up (with the main game) to just over four hours playtime. This game does keep you coming back though, for a game that takes four hours to complete, I’m currently 47 hours of playtime and only unlocked three of the possible 20 Steam achievements.

There are other items to collect, other than guns, by exchanging your collected acorns. These include clothing, toy cars and emotes, squirrel colours, wacky body parts and bomb armour. Just when you usually decide to put the Steam Deck down and take a break, an idea will pop in your head about how to get to a particularly tricky acorn, and your planned break is a distant memory as you try to reach them high up nuts! And that’s basically the game, it’s adorable and funny, the graphics are great in places and naff in others (NPCs can look a bit shite, but the lighting and metallic objects sometimes make you feel like you’ve been dumped in a different game). NPC’s AI is pretty dire, but it’s still a fun game, and that’s what you’re getting here. Squirrel with a Gun a bit of fun, and it does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a “squirrel with a gun” and compared to some of its predecessors and similar physics-based sandbox titles (Goat Simulator, etc) and peers, this game stands tall amongst them.

It’s not the best game ever, but you will enjoy its silliness, of which there is a lot to enjoy.

Graphics: 8/10. Falls down on the NPCs looking a tad bizarre.
Music: 8/10. Plods along until something happens, and then the music suddenly changes… usually I would be okay with this. But the normal music is quite chilled and then metal, rock or punk (which I all love) kick off at 3am when everything is quiet and loud – it’s quite a shock.
Gameplay: 6/10. Unfortunately, this is where the game falls down. It’s fun running around with the gun and using said weapon to propel the ‘lil guy into the air with recoil, but when you actually try to progress, that’s when those grind hours build up. Why? You may ask. The controls are so inaccurate, for the purpose of this review I used the Steam Deck/Pro Controller/Keyboard and even a mouse, and all of them were terrible. Platforming became an unenjoyable task and trying to move stealthily or fight, both had issues.
Sound: 7/10. It’s not just this game – it happens in movies, TV shows and games – all of a sudden there’s s a really loud moment in the middle of nothing but calm to really heart attack inducing explosion in the next room style sound effects. I mean, hands down to them, it’s an effective method to liven things up quickly.

All in all, I’d sum Squirrel with a Gun up as a fun game where you spend more time messing around than actually playing the game. Playing it this way made me rethink other titles that I just messed around in and never played through properly. The main one, GTA 5 I have now started playing again. As for Squirrel with a Gun, wait for it to drop in price for some fun nonsense. Squirrel with a Gun…