"I've never been particularly fond of violence. But these are bad people. Bad people that need to be stopped. So let's get crazy. Let's get weird. Let's get... well... bananas."
— Pedro
My Friend Pedro is an side-scrolling Run-and-Gun game heavily inspired by the Heroic Bloodshed genre, co-starring a mysterious masked Vigilante Man and his sidekick Pedro, a talking banana. Your goal is to kill the local mob, using dual-wielding, fancy parkour, and drug-fueled bullet time, all while your character descends into further madness from all those fancy drugs they took.
The game was developed by a Swedish one-man studio known as Dead Toast Entertainment. The original Adobe Flash game had its debut
in 2014. The remake for the PC and Nintendo Switch was released on June 20, 2019.
A television show adaptation will be written and exec-produced by Derek Kolstad (co-creator of John Wick).
This game provides examples of:
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: District Null reveals the game takes place during Christmas time.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Pedro, the title character.
- Anti-Villain: Pedro helped the vigilante erase his memories, and was tasked to kill him if he ever remembered them. Thus, he ends up being the game's reluctant final boss.
- The Atoner: The vigilante is revealed to be this, as he turns out to be a relative of the antagonists, and willingly gave himself amnesia in order to absolve himself of the guilt of killing them and to send a message to anyone who could follow in their footsteps after their deaths.
- Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Ricocheting bullets always converge on a target, regardless of the angle of the object they bounce off of.
- Bullet Time: The main focus of the game. Use bullet time to aim your shots while in the middle of parkour.
- Denser and Wackier: Compared to its Heroic Bloodshed ilk Hotline Miami, Katana ZERO, and RUINER.
- Ear Ache: The blood on the area at one end of Pedro as shown on the page image drops the disturbing implication that the vigilante erased his memory by jamming a banana far into his ear.
- Foreshadowing: There's some clues of the vigilante and the bosses of the game are in fact connected.
- Denny's hatred of fathers may seem to be a gag to make his Bad Santa theme work, but it turns out that the previous boss, Mitch, is said father.
- Denny realizes that the vigilante is his brother, but doesn't say any more due to an inconvenient platform squishing him.
- Free-Fall Fight: In 2-9, you chase Denny by jumping in a long pit while you are falling you are shooting down other enemies.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the launch trailer, there is one in form of a poster of Pedro saying "KILL THEM ALL".
- Gainax Ending:
- The original Flash game has the protagonist eat Pedro, which makes him spout butterfly wings, and fight against a gigantic, photorealistic Author Avatar. After the fight, the protagonist blows up and the words YOU WIN appear, followed by congratulations and credits.
- After the vigilante resists Pedro's final influence to kill himself, the Final Boss is a Battle in the Center of the Mind against Pedro. After imaginary Pedro is defeated, the vigilante unmasks himself... to reveal that he has Pedro's smiley face. Credits.
- Gun Fu/Guns Akimbo: The vigilante can perform some absolutely ridiculous tricks when he has two guns at once, such as twirling through the air and successfully ventilating several mooks standing on opposite sides.
- Guns Akimbo: The vigilante can dual-wield one-handed guns like handguns and uzis. They can also split their aim in order to target two different places at once.
- Imaginary Friend: Of the insane variety. Pedro is a product of the Vigilante's drugged-up mind and only he can see or hear him.
- I Regret Nothing: One of the quotes the mercenaries in District Null can say is the opposite of this trope before being added up to the Vigilante's many victims."I regret my questionable life choices!"
- Med Kit: These heal the protagonist a little bit in the flash game. The remake re-introduces them on Bananas difficulty.
- Missing Mom: While their father Mitch is shown, there is absolutely no mention of the Vigilante's, Denny's, and Ophelia's mother.
- Mirror Boss: Ophelia fights just like the protagonist, complete with spinning and diving around to avoid your attacks.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Internet, in this game, is a giant mechanical complex filled with pipes. Pedro thought it would have been more high-tech.
- One-Winged Angel: In the second phase of the fight with Pedro, Pedro unpeels himself to reveal a more horrifying-looking banana self as well as summon two giant handguns to shoot you with.
- Patricide: The vigilante kills his own father to stop his illegal butchering business, although he very badly deserved it.
- Pinball Projectile: Aiming at airborne frying pans or certain surfaces can turn your bullets into these.
- Press X to Not Die: Right before the final boss: Button mash to resist shooting yourself in the head.
- Regenerating Health: For the remake, and of the 'block' type. You have three blocks of health; you can only regenerate up to a single block's maximum health, unless you find a medkit. This is removed on Bananas difficulty.
- Sibling Murder: You end up killing your own brother, and then your own sister as part to put an end to your family's criminal activities.
- Silent Protagonist: The Vigilante doesn't talk. Kind of justified, since the only other people you meet in the game are the mobsters trying to kill you and Pedro does more than enough talking for the both of you.
- Tag Line: "Blood. Bullets. Bananas."
- Tomato in the Mirror: Just before the fight against Ophelia, she reveals that you are actually her brother, and Mitch and Denny were your father and brother respectively.
- The unmasked vigilante is revealed to be sporting the literal face of Pedro. Whether this is meant to be an ending gag, some kind of hint that Pedro has taken over his body, or an indication that Pedro himself is a projection of the protagonist's own psyche, is up for debate.
- The Reveal: After killing Ophiela, Pedro reveals that he was forced to lie because you were tired of always being morally torn between helping your family and stopping their criminal activities. After putting on a mask and forgetting everything in Mitch's butcher shop, because you could never knowingly kill your own family, you asked Pedro to help you kill yourself in case you found out. This "promise" ends up forcing Pedro to be the Final Boss, much to Pedro's sorrow.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: The Vigilante is the only one who can see and hear Pedro and as such also the only one who can visit his "special place".
- Trigger-Happy: Yeah, that's kind of the point of the game.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Rolling is a great way of moving fast while avoiding the enemy bullets. Plus, it looks plain cool.
- You Wake Up in a Room: The game starts with the Vigilante awakening in the cellar of a butchers' shop, with no memory of how they got there. Pedro suggests they might have done something to piss off the mob, which, seeing what you end up doing later in the game, is a very plausible theory. The truth is much more complicated.
