Squirrel with a Gun is charming and a nutty idea at first glance. It’s better enjoyed in small bursts as to keep its small supply of silliness enjoyed to the fullest extent. If you’ve ever wanted to go nuts being a squirrel with a large arsenal of guns, this is the simulation for you.
Folks who have lived in a suburb or have spent enough time on a suburban-adjacent college campus would understand the lives of squirrels. When I was an undergraduate, I was accosted by a pair of squirrels who lived in the tree right outside of my dorm room. I would mind my business as I walked to-and-from class, but they would screech at me and occasionally chuck nuts at me. I found it amusing until I moved on and attempted to have a garden. Fast forward to 2024, squirrels plague me: they unroot my plants in my garden, eat my veggies, and screech when I attempt to walk around the neighborhood as though I am the one being a general nuisance.
Having a wild imagination, I would occasionally think of the ways a squirrel would enact its revenge upon the neighborhood. You know, the types of silly daydreaming conducted on a long car ride or waiting in line at the DMV. I would think of how squirrels were part of a rodent cabal and were plotting world domination, biding their time only to strike at the perfect moment.
It’s sill to write out. I feel ridiculous even sharing it in a public freaking space let alone with someone else, yet here I am sharing it with you in my review of Squirrel with a Gun. Dee Dee Creations have put together a very silly game, but its biggest drawback is the size of its sandbox.
Squirrel with a Gun does not take itself the least bit seriously, nor does it expect the player to treat it as such. Instead, Squirrel with a Gun opens up with a simple premise: Imagine if a squirrel broke into a top secret facility and came across a gun. With that gun, the squirrel went on a mission to collect gigantic floating golden nuts scattered throughout the land and blow up anything and anyone in its way.
In a nutshell, Squirrel with a Gun is the rodent-version of Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game. Instead of simple nuisance of the latter and the egregious chaos of the former, Squirrel with a Gun flirts with absurdity while setting players off on a Mario Odyssey platforming collectathon-meets-Grand Theft Auto sandbox. These subgenres have the potential to mix if there’s enough variety to last more than a few hours. By the end of the sixth hour, you may have exhausted all Squirrel with a Gun has to offer; this can be interpreted positively and negatively, depending on your thoughts on silly sandboxes.
The entire premise of Squirrel with a Gun is absurd, packing quite a bit of dumb fun in the form of shooting pistols, throwing grenades, and walking through mines wearing a bomb suit that protects you, the squirrel, from the deadly blasts. If holding a gun, you can double jump (which consumes ammunition) or even float in air, depending on your weapon of choice. You could toss your weapon aside and do squirrel things, like climbing telephone poles and tree trunks, but that’s nowhere near as much fun as causing a ruckus.
Luckily, the gunplay doesn’t require the player to be too precise save for a few instances. Shooting in the general direction of enemies will cause them to cower or flinch with damage. Upon taking enough damage, the squirrel can run up to an enemy and perform a cinematic finishing move. The first few times I performed these finishes caused me to audibly chuckle, but it wore off in situations where I wanted to simply mow humans into dust and turn them into ragdolls so I could collect the nuts ahead of me.
Perhaps the collection aspect of Squirrel with a Gun is the driver behind the absurdist novelty wearing off too soon. It’s great to have objectives in a sandbox – when there’s something to do and work toward, I get a sense of direction and purpose. As one with a type-A personality, I want some structure, even if it’s in the form of a simple to-do list. Unfortunately, there is no such firm setup of checkboxes or lists; there are instead recommendations and blocked off sections that are only unlocked once I had collected the gigantic floating acorns and the smaller acorns scattered throughout the area. I had no trouble collecting the smaller acorns – they’re everywhere. I could walk through flowers, under stairs, or even looting them from the bodies of NPCs I had rightfully slain. The larger acorns were tucked away, sometimes hidden entirely from view as a part of a hidden quest.
Even the most experienced platformer player will be familiar with the notion of 3D platforming involving jumping through hoops, onto narrow ledges, and from column to column (involving some changes in camera perspectives). Squirrel with a Gun involves these elements, often with finickiness that yields more frustration than fun. Bouncing on an outdoor umbrella can be fun when momentum is involved or you’re going from one part of a level to another, but it becomes annoying when you’re trying to collect floating acorns and you miss them by what seems like a few millimeters. The challenges of collection in Squirrel with a Gun become frustrating affairs when the engine and platforming function unexpectedly.
By the end of the short game, there are a few standout moments of Squirrel with a Gun. Its rare boss fight is full of zaniness and gags that reminded me of the potential charm of Squirrel with a Gun. Why weren’t there more of these breaks from collection and general platforming been featured to a more prominent extent? They provided the best changes of pace and silliness all the while utilizing the gun aspect of Squirrel with a Gun more than usual.
Where does Squirrel with a Gun sit, then? I see many Steam players glow over the game’s silliness, charm, and memeability. The larger criticism I see involves its length, finicky platforming, and lack of variety. I agree that Squirrel with a Gun is very silly – delightfully so. I also agree that it contains that excellent degree of charm separating a decent sandbox from an excellent sandbox. The problem, sadly, is that it needed more depth and some tighter focus to make the game smoother and worth replaying. That said, Squirrel with a Gun is excellent in small bursts to get the most emotional enjoyment out of its absurdity.
Squirrel with a Gun is charming and a nutty idea at first glance. It’s better enjoyed in small bursts as to keep its small supply of silliness enjoyed to the fullest extent. If you’ve ever wanted to go nuts being a squirrel with a large arsenal of guns, this is the simulation for you.
