Gun Gun Pixies Review

It’s hard not to dismiss Gun Gun Pixies as an Ecchi game that just wants to focus on panties and over-sexualized jokes. From the start of the game you immediately know if this game is going to be for you or if the game is going to win you over, it plays out its cards and lets you know exactly what you’re getting into from the get-go.

If you do decide to stick it out, Gun Gun Pixies can be fun but hard to explain to those walking into you playing on the Switch in dock mode – or looking over your shoulder while in handheld.

In Gun Gun Pixies, players take control of two tiny aliens from a military planet named Bee-tan and Kame-Pon who infiltrate a women’s collage dorm in order to research human behaviour to help repair their own social issues with their race. The girls of the dorm each follow an Anime Trope – one is the caring mother-like figure of the house, while another thinks she has magical powers, and another tests lewd video games for a living.

Kame-Pon and Bee-tan goals are to investigate these girls and see what makes them tick, which often requires them to interfere with their daily lives, however they cannot be seen or else this would affect their mission and let people know that tiny aliens exists and are sneaking around in our apartments trying to find out more about us.

This opens up the game’s hybrid Platformer/3rd Person Shooter element. Levels are broken out in to a pattern of Find an item in the room using a special search feature or to pacify the girl by shooting her with “Happy Bullets.”

There is a bit more to this of course as stealth is a priority in the game. You’re given a field of view for the giant humans who are walking around the room minding their own business, and a sound meter to know what they’re able to hear and what you’re able to get away with. Players will have to find cover using the furniture in the room while crawling or moving slow to not make noise.

In order to pacify the girl, you’ll need to shoot the “Happy Bullets” and hit her in three main locations – the face, chest and butt. These will raise a meter that when full will… ahem… give them a rush of endorphins. Now this sounds easier than it looks because there is also negative emotions that flow from the girls, which can damage your pixie (and her clothes) and can be a huge annoyance.

This leads into the most damning thing of the game, the controls. While the shooting itself is fine, moving around the room, jumping and adjusting the camera so that you can tell what is about to hit you is a chore. Much of the game includes hidden coins and special sniper spots which are scattered around the room, some require an extreme amount of patience in order to climb up, jumping on multiple platforms while keeping out of sight and not making a sound.

The issues with the platforming makes it very clear at how repetitive the game is, as the game’s levels are confined to the rooms of the dorm which sadly doesn’t change that much between missions – with the only thing that does change is the pattern the girls move and the activity. If you’re able to stick out with the controls, you’ll find that over the 8 missions the game doesn’t tend to get any harder aside from more emotions to battle while attempting to pacify the girls.

While I would normally forgive the control issues and repetitive missions if the characters were more entertaining. The audio is in Japanese only which is not a fault, however some of the voice acting is grating and it doesn’t help that the characters become more annoying over time than endearing.

If there is one positive thing I can say is that I did enjoy how portable the game is, in fact I recommend it being played in handheld mode as missions were quick and simple to go through while I was on the go. It also saved me time to explain myself as of why I was shooting a giant woman in Yoga clothes in the crotch why having my panties exposed from getting hit by a giant purple squid.

After it’s all said and done, I can’t decide if Gun Gun Pixies is a bad game or not a game for me. It’s obvious that it has its audience for those looking for something ecchi on the go for the Switch, but I feel like the comedy, controls and story was a miss to make the perverted nature of the game enjoyable.