- "Don't be a T.O.O.L., enlist today!"
Gun Bros is a 2010 Top-Down Shoot 'Em Up available for free on phones running iOS or Android. A lower-quality version can be found on Facebook. A sequel was also released in 2013.
It's The Future, and the evil forces of T.O.O.L. are on a mission of galactic conquest! But never fear, the Gun Bros, agents of F.R.A.G.G.E.D., are on the job, huge guns in hand and cigar chomped firmly in mouth.
The player controls either Percy Gun or Francis Gun and proceeds to lay waste to hordes of Mooks, accompanied by the AI using whichever brother not picked. The player uses twin touch-based "thumbsticks" to control movement and shooting, respectively. The player can equip two different guns and switch between them at will, and use "Smartillery" powerups when things get ugly.
The game is divided up into waves, 50 per mission, or "revolution". Each world contains multiple revolutions, and there are multiple worlds. Each successive wave, revolution or world yields greater rewards but also tougher foes. You earn Experience Points and glowing purple Xplodium crystals as you play. Leveling Up increases your maximum health, and you can increase the Xplodium you receive by clearing waves without taking any damage, thus increasing your "Xplodium multiplier". Dying resets this multiplier but not your overall progress- you can begin from the last wave you reached. When you return to the menu, you can then refine your Xplodium for cash to purchase new guns, armor and powerups.
The game can be connected to your Facebook account, which allows you to recruit your friends' Bros to aid you in battle, thus replacing the default AI bro who is stuck with starting gear. Doing so also earns you bonuses. There are also daily challenges for rewards, asking that you Play Every Day.
Gun Bros provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Any weapon that is within the Special categories, including:
- The TK 99 Buzzsaw, which fires 3 homing buzzsaw blades at a time;
- The Machette mayhem, which fires machete like blades instead of the usual plasmas or bullets;
- The Shurikannon, which “scatters high-velocity, plasma-laced shurikens across the battlefield"
- The Deuce Dropper X90, which deploys an unlimited number of mines at any given time, the mines do though, have a limited lifetime, and will begin exploding after it is complete;
- The Parasite: which shoots semi-homing parasitical, scorpion-like creatures;
- The super scorcher and Ion Blaze, which are basically short-ranged flamethrower.
- Action Bomb: The T.O.O.L. suicide bombers. They've been tortured into insanity by their helmet video feeds endlessly looping romantic comedies.
- Action Girl: The gun wielding, bikini clad allies or “babes” on the planets Yeroc Sima can be “rescued”. In return, they will assist the players in dealing with the enemies for a certain period of time before leaving. Most of their weapons, while similar to the ones in store, are heavily modified to the point where each burst fired is enough to shred through multiple enemies at once.
- Attack Its Weak Point:
- Flame-wielding Mooks are heavily armored in the front, but vulnerable from behind.
- Similarly, the sluggish tank units, while heavily armored at the front, is vulnerable at the back.
- Most of the Crab type enemies will instantly flip for a few seconds upon being hit with any weapon, rendering them mostly useless. The only upside is that their armor could tank more than a few hits from low level weapons before finally going down, making them a somewhat useful pseudo-barrier for ranged T.O.O.L units earlier in the game.
- BFG:
- Your starting pistols, the Whippersnappers, are bigger then the Bros' heads and they just get bigger from there.
- The update added the Kraken missile launcher which seems to be the ultimate end all be all gun, which costs 1400 warbucks, which would take ages to earn through challenges, and if you were to buy warbucks for it, it would cost around $200. The description is epic, though."If annihilation had a portrait, it would be of you, holding this gun, screaming, as every living enemy within a mile as vaporized in an instant, leaving behind only smoldering boots, a T.O.O.L. helmet, and regret."
- Bash Brothers: You play as two brothers trying to stop evil aliens from conquering the galexy.
- Chainsaw Good: The Bros can use the a circular Buzzsaw weapon, while Haven's basic enemy, the Buzzkill, uses a chainsaw.
- Cool Shades: The Slick Shades, which combined with the rest of the Slick gear turns your Bro into a super spy.
- Crapsack World: literally any planet that is either overrun by zombies or taken over by T.O.O.L, with Yeroc Sima perhaps being a minor exception, with most of its oceans and greenery remaining mostly intact.
- Death from Above: You can call in various forms of support strikes, ranging from the "Shock and Awesome" air strike, to an orbital beam from F.R.A.G.G.E.D. HQ, to a full-on nuclear strike.
- Deflector Shield: The "Green Shield" power-up protects your bro by teleporting incoming fire into Another Dimension. Exactly which, they're not sure, but "they can't be happy about it."
- Double Entendre: The word tool is usually used to describe someone with low intelligence or lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used. Considering the fact that T.O.O.L is a galactic sized army which treats its soldiers like disposable “tools”, the acronym is not too surprising. Even on the battlefield, most of the units themselves, with a few exceptions, are not that intelligent either, as evident by them charging headfirst at the player instead of using cover, relying on suppressive fire or even bothering to cover their weakpoints. Case in point, the majority of said enemies, at least earlier on, are poorly armored mechanical or biological soldiers armed only a bladed weapon, a measly single-shot blaster or a suicide vest. Not surprisingly, using their superior number and the overwhelming firepower from higher end units are two of the few ways for them to actually defeat the players. It is fortunate that F.R.A.G.G.E.D for whatever reasons only send out 2 operatives at a time to deal with the infestation.
- Drivento Madness: The Kamikaze and its variants are subject to constant mental torture to the point where they would joyously commit suicide upon seeing the player. Whether they volunteer or are just prisoners being forced to become unwilling cannon-fodders is anyone’s guess.
- Elite Mook:
- Most of the enemies from the planet Ceres 2, with some exceptions, are just slightly reskinned enemies from Cerberus Prime with double the amount of health and increased damage output.
- The titular enemy and its variants can be considered as a spiritual successor to the normal Grunt; having somewhat similar behavioral pattern while possessing significantly enhanced speed, health and firepower.
- EMP: the Sphire on the planet Haven, upon interacted by the players, can generate a high-intensity EMP burst that manages to halve the speed of the T.O.O.L units while leaving the Bros mostly unaffected.
- Energy Weapon: Several guns, like most spread guns and the Energy Gauntlet weapon, as well as the newly added laser gun.
- Evolving Weapon: Guns acquire "mastery" as you use them, Leveling up three times total, each conferring and experience bonus and an increased chance to deal Critical Hits.
- Expy: Percy Gun sort of looks like a bald Hulk Hogan.
- Eyepatch of Power: The piratical "ARRR!" hat comes with one of these.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Bros can use the Super Scorcher flamethrower, while mooks like the Toaster and Toolbox make use of a similar weapon.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: T.O.O.L. grew from a band of criminals into an N.G.O. Superpower bent on galactic domination.
- Gatling Good:
- The XL Grinder, a five-barrel minigun. If that isn't enough, try the XXL Mulcher, two tri-barrel gatlings stuck together. Still need More Dakka? Then invest in the XXXL Liquifier- a whopping three tri-barrel gatlings in one mucho shooty package.
- An update added the Quad Blender, which is four goddamn gatlings in one. Cue the carnage.
- Wild Bill, one of the enemies on planet Yeroc Sima, also carries a minigun.
- Giant Mook: the ginormous Pus captain and Quad captain.
- Guns Akimbo: How the Bros use any pistols. They also do this with explosive crossbows and machete launchers.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Freakishly Rugged Advanced Genetics Galactic Enforcement Division (F.R.A.G.G.E.D.) versus the Tyranical Oppressors Of Life (T.O.O.L.).
- Heavily Armored Mook: The aforementioned Flame-wielding Mooks. Wait for them to try and flame you, then circle around and shoot them In the Back. Tankheads are slow yet extremely durable enemies with similar weakness.
- Healing Shiv: Healing explosives. Available in grenade, stack of plastic explosive, and nuke sizes.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: It's stated that the Bros never wear their standard-issue helmets. Armor is most definitely not useless, though, so you can avert this right off the bat by equipping one of many useful Cool Helmets.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Mostly involving the word "Bro", like "Brohawk" "Brofessional" and "Bro-Ops"
- Improvised Weapon: The Atlas rocket launcher was born when Francis ripped the main gun off a destroyed tank during one fierce battle, proceeding to fire it from his shoulder.
- Industrial World: planet Haven, a former mining colony overrun by T.O.O.L. The mechanical aesthetic applies to the enemies as well, as most of which also seems to be more mechanically-based compared to enemies from other worlds.
- Lethal Lava Land: Cerberus Prime, the first world you fight on.
- Made of Explodium: Ironically averted with Xplodium Ore. The barrels on Cerberus Prime? That's another story.
- Ludrcrous Gibs: Most shotguns, blade or launcher type weapons will reduce enemies to a pile of gore, blood and random body parts.
- Mobile Shrubbery: the Ghillie enemy from the planet Yeroc Sima, which in itself looks like a pine tree wielding a pair of pistols, can dig itself on the ground to evade the player’s gun fire.
- Mooks: The forces of T.O.O.L, whose troops are explicitly stated to be expendable.
- Mecha-Mooks: most of the enemies on the planet Haven can be considered as this.
- Ms. Fanservice: literally all of the female characters (including the zombies) in the game can be considered as this, who usually don rather revealing clothing. The fact that most of these characters are designed with Impossible Hourglass Figure with Curvesin Allthe Right Places does not help
- No-Damage Run: Clearing a wave without taking damage will increase your Xplodium multiplier. Clearing multiple waves this way can be very profitable.
- Nuclear Option: "When your back is against the wall, why settle for anything less?"
- Play Every Day: Daily "Bro-Ops" challenges. Invite your Bros to complete them, and you get more rewards. Also, you can get more coins refining coins longer then instantly. The ones that last longer (there are 10 min and 30 min ones, but then 24, 48, even 72 hours) get you the most coins. Buying Premium refineries using Warbucks lets you get more coin in less time.
- Reward from Nowhere: Each wave, a reward will appear somewhere on the map, indicated by a green question mark at the edge of the screen. It's usually an Xplodium crystal, but it can be an XP bonus or, rarely, a health boost.
- RPG Elements: You gain Experience Points and Character Levels to get more maximum health, while your guns become more likely to land a Critical Hit.
- Shouting Shooter: On the title screen, and in one trailer.
- Shout-Out:
- The "Sonic Broom" headpiece gives the Bros Guile's hair.
- A weapon called the Pulse Rifle makes mention that it's very good at taking out drooling E.T.s on derelict mining vessels.
- The description for a tri-barrel shotgun called The Boss notes that you will show them who's boss, like a boss.
- The WTF7000. Much like the gun it's named for, it's useful for taking out large groups of enemies.
- The "Stealth" armor set includes a pair of tricloptic goggles very reminiscent of Sam Fisher's. They confer useful stat boosts.
- AT WAT (based on its name and beetle like design) is an obvious reference to the AT TE from the Star Wars franchise.
- The Predator rifle, based on its name and description, can be considered a reference to the Predator franchise, or more specifically the laser-guided plasma cannon that the titular characters carry on their shoulder.
- Similarly, the enemy Wild Bill, which is an oversized human wearing military clothing, including a wide-brimmed hat, and carries a minigun. The name and physical appearance of the character is an obvious reference to Billy and Blaine in the Predator film, respectively.
- Silliness Switch: Gun Bros isn't a very serious game. That's before you start wearing a wedge of cheese on your head, or dress like a Pirate (complete with Pirate Parrot!), or Santa Claus, or a Masked Luchador, or any number of other outfits- all of which give you some kind of stat bonus, sometimes significantly so.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Most of the weapons in game are rather large cumbersome, even by the jacked-up, humongous Bros, as evident by most of their pistol sized weapons being larger than their heads. Now picture a bunch of your female allies that are barely one third the size of the Bros wielding said weapons.
- Smoking Is Cool: The Bros almost always have lit cigars, only a select few armor pieces remove them.
- Spread Shot: Beginning with the humble dual shot gun that can't shoot straight forward and increasing in both Dakka and ludicrousness to the seven-shot spread WTF7000, this game is not short on spread guns.
- Super Prototype: The Bros are currently F.R.A.G.G.E.D.'s only field agents.
- Super-Soldier: The Bros, being genetically enhanced and all.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Often, thanks to Exploding Barrels and a selection of rocket launchers available to the Bros.
- Take Over the World: T.O.O.L intends to conquer the galexy.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Much of the flavor text portrays the Bros as being improbably manly, as you've probably discerned by this point. Case in point, their favorite headgear- the Man-danna. "Shirtless" is a wearable item.
- Top-Heavy Guy: The Bros.
- Underwear of Power: The women, who fight in bikinis.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change:
- Bokor, which features a wide variety of zombies which become tougher the more waves the player survives through instead of the usual waves of T.O.O.L units.
- The enemies from the planet Yeroc Sima can be considered as this. Besides the usual change in terms of overall cosmetics, many enemies, including the lower-level ones have unique characteristics of their own such as: long-ranged sniping, camouflage, minigun suppressive fire or poison casting.* Universal Currency: Two. Coins can be obtained from refining Xplodium, while Warbucks must be earned from challenges. Many better items can only be purchased with Warbucks. Warbucks can be converted into coins, a rate of 500 coins to the buck. Both types can be purchased through the magic of micro-transactions.
- Walking Tank: Literally any type of enemy in the Tank class, with the exception of the skull tank, fits this description.
- World of Badass: The Bros are in good company, living in a cracked-out sci-fi galaxy populated by Space Samurai, Ninja, zombies, mercenaries, super spies, cowboys, pirates, deadly football players, superheroes, Some supersoldiers who dress like angels, a crew of work overseers who look like demons, Masked Luchadores, and goddamn Santa Claus. This is not even counting the Badass Army of Space Marines that F.R.A.G.G.E.D. is merely a tiny division of.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The planet Bokor is a planet-sized toxic waste dump crawling with the unruly dead. Unruly innocent dead, as described by the in-game briefing.