Squirrel with a Gun

We’ve all come across media with a title that presents an insanely weird premise, be it a tornado made of sharks, a life simulator of a humble goat, or that of a small rodent baring a firearm. Squirrel with a Gun is the latest in the craze of “combine animal with object/disastrous event” which caught everyone’s attention and soon enough graced the gaming space being a sort of warped student unity project where the rules could be damned. But is this just another shallow attempt to pique gamers' interest with a silly concept, or does this game have some serious nuts?


What is Squirrel with a Gun?


 With a title like this, your mind might be racing on what exactly Squirrel with a Gun is all about. It’s about a Squirrel who loves nuts and decides to wield guns to fight against a shady government organisation hellbent on … world domination. I’m not quite sure, but all I know is I’m a Squirrel, I love golden acorns, firing guns at government agents, and helping a lonely man celebrate his birthday by bringing him a cake.

Wholesome stuff.

The best way I can describe Squirrel with a Gun is like a quirky platformer that’s been put together in Unity by a few students on a weekend drinking endless Monster, and our lovable cute protagonist can hold a rocket launcher. You collect Golden acorns, akin to Banjo’s golden puzzle pieces, and can partake in various activities that unlock outfits, new fur types, and golden treats. Our friendly, gun-touting neighbourhood squirrel can explore a small town that’s particularly filled with impractical features such as houses full of lava, the most depressing children’s birthday party, a waterpark with slides 200ft in the air, and a jogger who never, ever stops jogging.

I’m not sure I can paint a good enough picture of this game’s insanity, but it’s one that you’ll either click with or not. And I think it will for most people.


This Squirrel has nuts bigger than my head!


Things start innocently enough as our furry little friend finds themselves in a secret lab which houses a tasty golden acorn the size of a large baby. Squirry the Squirrel (classic British TV reference there if you know) gobbles the massive golden nut, and is soon set upon by shady government agents, all doing their best Mr Smith impression. After a tense stare-down, our Squirrel friend picks up a stray handgun and soon understands firearms and can use them effectively to rid the world of shadowy government scum … with no other explanation, or the fact a handgun is heavier than a squirrel, let alone a rocket launcher, and why would the government be after a squirrel spending all that time and resources?

I don’t know, and I love it!

From here on, our adorable squirrel is let loose within a small town where the goal is simply to gather as many golden acorns as possible to progress further, unlock new weapons and methods of transport, and face off against the heads of the organisation known as Mother and Father (who are indeed married!).

It's a madcap series of events where players can investigate houses full of molten lava, have shootouts in an old western saloon, and bring a lonely man a birthday cake and celebrate. There is no rhythm or reason here, and the end goal is simply to take down Mother and Father who seem to dislike our squirrel quite a lot. Enough to shoot him with a tank and heavily armed helicopter.  

It's all very random and tied together in this sort of playground of madness, with a singular goal that’s utterly hilarious and crammed pack with references, and broken physics. But you’re not here for the story, but more so for the squirrel with guns, and to answer your questions, yes.

Yes, this is an incredibly silly, but charming game that made me laugh more than I expected, and the mere thought of a squirrel taking on the government is simply amazing. The off-presentation just adds more to it, and as I said, this feels and looks like something put together in a game jam over a weekend. But in quite a literal sense as there are floating telephone poles (for the young ones these a very tall wooden poles with wires), lava in houses, and wonky animations and out-of-bounds moments that for a lot of games don't look right, but here it looks and feels right.

It's janky on purpose, but never janky in a terrible, game-breaking way. Everything works as it should, despite some terrible driving controls for some vehicles and one single small area in the map where the framerate drops to single digits … was this intentional? I have no idea. It’s not great if it’s an in-joke, but the other stuff for the visuals and sound design are solid, uncompromising, and unashamedly naff in all the best possible ways.

Although the camera can be a pain at times… more on that later.

And I can’t leave here without talking about the theme and boss music and saying they’re freaking awesome!


Insert squirrel/nut joke there for gameplay header


As you might have guessed, gameplay revolves around platforming, puzzle solving, gathering key items to progress and unlock new areas, and gathering brown acorns for basic currency, and golden acorns for new item/weapons unlocks.

Oh, and yeah, you can blow the s*** out of stuff with various firearms.

Squirrel with a Gun is indeed a warped kid’s game, where you do innocent, yet engaging tasks like collecting acorns, mixed in with some neat and compelling problem solving that does come about quite organically, while on the side you can pick up guns, hold up people for nuts, and hilariously shoot bad guys.

You can also be a cute squirrel, where people who aww after you, take your picture and jump up and down with joy if you jump on them … and you can also snack their necks. Wild, but hilarious.

The format of Squirrel with a Gun is to give players a playground with problems, solutions and acorns, and let them roam free. We get a couple of set pieces and moments progressing the “story”, but what you do is up to you, and there’s a lot to do. I liked the random encounters and just going with the flow of solving them, which this game does exceptionally well. But also how nicely dense the world is to explore and engage with, harbouring many secrets and rewards for the keen squirrel.

Platforming is pretty good, driving certain vehicles is fine, and surprisingly, weapon handling is tight and a lot of fun. But as a squirrel, you’ll be doing a lot of jumping, running, and climbing be it flag poles that give you an insight on where collectables are, or trees, or through fences, or just taking a casual swim. I do swim the general movement speed for our squirrel was a little faster, as the large environments and his modest jogging speed don’t match. You do get a little car not too far after the game begins that’s a massive help, but there are many sections, especially in the late game where the car’s use is limited.

As for driving, driving the car is fine. Driving a speedboat, you get halfway through the game is a different matter… it’s awful. But the best is the drone which is for the end of the game, and a squirrel on a drone is like Scones with jam and cream (not peanut butter …. Some people love that). Generally, I enjoyed driving around, as it looked adorable, it was efficient and there were plenty of ramps and cool bits of set-dressing the world to drive along on. Plus some set-pieces where you can drive along a mini-highway and shoot enemies were quite entertaining.

The only issue in some instances was the game’s physics engine would kind of spoon out and make it easy to lose control of the car. Thus, diving over the edge of a highway above lava could happen semi-often. And the camera can be a massive pain for driving and climbing at times, either going in way too close to see anything.

Thankfully Squirrel with a Gun is kind enough with its checkpoints and getting back into the action was quite seamless.

Now, for the guns! The gunplay is simple, but highly enjoyable and with some neat little features that come into general play quite interestingly. As a squirrel, you can pick up any gun lying on the floor, but only one at a time. You can fire a gun until it’s empty and you can’t carry around a spare magazine once this happens. You can find random spots that magically refill your gun, or you can collect special pick-ups that refill the gun instantly without one of the aforementioned spots. When you fire a gun, you might get a bit of kickback, which is a nice detail, and something to watch out for especially if you’re on a very high building.

At its core, the gunplay is solid and does what it needs to do, and often with some great results. Each gun as a finisher when enemies were downed (only one per gun which becomes a little tedious repeatedly), and each gun felt useful for its purpose, be it in combat or for platforming. And yep, this was the best thing with the guns as they can be used to help squirrel make jumps and get from certain point As to certain point Bs.

Firing a handgun for example will give you a little boost in the air, and several of them can easily help you clear gaps and reach high ledges. Shotguns, submachine guns, and even a heavy sniper rifle all proved useful for making big jumps that our squirrel couldn’t simply make on their own. This mechanic is used well enough, but I feel more could have been done with it. But still, it was useful, and I liked how each gun could provide a bigger jump. Especially the rocket launcher.

And yes there is a good variety of weapons, all useful for taking out enemies or platforming. I would have liked to have seen more exotic guns, like a railgun or minigun (would love to see that) in the game, and maybe there is, as an unlockable. I have finished the game but didn’t see new weapons sadly … but what we get is pretty good!

And the biggest, most compelling thing Squirrel with a Gun has going for it, is the tactical edge imbedded into the gunplay and platforming. As bullets are limited, and you can carry one gun, and not carry them everywhere with you, you must be smart, and cautious with each shot. You can just blast enemies and spam a reload spot, but when jumping across floating platforms 200ft in the air with only handgun blasts giving you that extra boost you need is quite intense.

There are of a couple of boss fights and I’m so mixed on these. On the one hand, they are hilarious and joyous, as squirrel will fight a tank and helicopter head-on. They’re challenges of endurance and lateral thinking, but also frantic efforts of survival. Good fun, until you realise that squirrel on foot against a tank or helicopter is quite annoying. You can drive in some parts of these fights, but this can go wrong for several reasons. And these fights tended to be so long with so many different stages which dragged on.

So as a whole, Squirrel with a Gun’s gameplay has flaws, but is so charming, engaging and quite clever with some neat ideas on how guns are used, that it’s quite brilliantly enjoyable for the most part. But the heart and enjoyment for me came from exploring the world, solving problems, collecting acorns, and doing mad s*** as a frisky squirrel.


Overall?

I have such love for Squirrel with a Gun, as its honest, simple fun kept me invested from start to finish, made me laugh, question humanity, and be a badass rodent that’s not Basil the Great Mouse Detective.

It’s lovingly put together and has so much jank and weirdness that I couldn’t help but admire it for what it is. Not only is the gunplay enjoyable and utterly strange from this furry perspective, but the general gameplay loop of exploring, problem-solving and being rewarded be being an investigative squirrel is some of the best, wholesome fun I’ve had in 2024.

I feel most people will love this, as I certainly did. The game is more than just a silly title, and feels like a love letter to weird, wonderful randomness, that could bring together rodents, firearms, and quirky platforming that rewards massive acorns that I can only dream of. Simply a beautiful mess of a game, that should win awards, all the awards!


++ Insanely good platforming fun that’s rewarding and engaging
++ Great lateral elements and sense of discovery
+ Silly antics which are adorable and entertaining
+ Cute squirrel stuff, plus snapping necks

-- The jank can be a little annoying at times
- Could have used more guns and gadgets
- Boss fights can be a tad tedious


The publisher kindly provided a review code of Squirrel with a Gun.