Gunpowder on the Teeth review for Nintendo Switch, PC

The makers of Gunpowder on the Teeth clearly have a lot of love for the Game Boy. After all, their game looks and, to a lesser extent, sounds like it comes straight from Nintendo?s first handheld. Everything here is varying shades of green, and even if the music sounds a little more modern, there are enough chiptunes flourishes here and there that you can hear the influence loud and clear.

Now, there?s nothing inherently wrong with that. The Game Boy was a great little machine, and I have plenty of fond memories of sinking hours and hours into it. The thing is, though, the retro graphics are pretty much the only thing Gunpowder on the Teeth has going for it — and, in their own way, they actually probably hinder the game more than they help it.

The big problem is that everything here is green. Slightly different shades of green, obviously, but not different enough that you can differentiate between, say, a bush and an enemy trying to shoot you, or barbed wire and yet another bush. Consequently, you spend a lot of time here squinting at the screen, trying to figure out what it is that you?re seeing, and you frequently aren?t able to figure it out until it?s too late.

Unfortunately, that?s not the only issue. The platforming is also kind of lousy — which, seeing as this is a run & gun platformer, is a pretty big issue. Jumping from platform to platform is pretty inconsistent, and you can never quite tell just how far you?re going to go at any given time. Likewise, you can wall-jump here, except it, too, is pretty inconsistent, which leads to plenty of falls to your death.

In other words, there?s really not a lot going for Gunpowder on the Teeth. Whatever goodwill it may have gotten from its graphics goes out the window as soon as you see it in action, and then the gameplay itself finishes the job.

Forever Entertainment provided us with a Gunpowder on the Teeth Switch code for review purposes.