Nowadays it’s very common to play games that are made by thousands of developers who spent 5, 6, 7 years or more crafting those adventures. These titles are filled with massive worlds to explore, countless NPCs to engage with, deeply interconnected gameplay systems and so much more. It’s a miracle games like these release in the first place, and it shows you just how impressive gaming can be when there’s a strong shared vision within a team.
…or you can have a solo-developed title that’s so damn good it will make the industry wonder if they’ve been doing everything wrong.
DeadToast Entertainment is a development studio consisting of one person; Victor. You might not know the company name or its dev by name, but you probably have heard of their work. DeadToast Entertainment is responsible for My Friend Pedro, the award-winning game that offers a “violent ballet about friendship, imagination, and one man’s struggle to obliterate anyone in his path at the behest of a sentient banana.” It was crazy, over the top, strange, and an absolute blast from beginning to end.
Back to the grind
Victor poured everything he had into My Friend Pedro, and was rewarded with critical and commercial success. Creating that game also drove Victor to the brink, saying the experience burnt him out quite badly. The dev needed a reset from their 2019 efforts, so they took it easy for a few years to work on something that helped them embrace a better work/life balance. The end result of that is Shotgun Cop Man, and it’s one of the best games of 2025 that not nearly enough people are talking about.
Shotgun Cop Man is the perfect example of a game that uses a simple set of mechanics to do something really special. If you’ve played Super Meat Boy, then you already have a good idea of how Shotgun Cop Man functions. The goal of the game is to clear stages by reaching the exit, and you’ll only have to spend a handful of seconds, or perhaps a minute or two on each stage before it’s off to the next. Again, just like Super Meat Boy, you’ll be jumping your way through precarious situations to reach the goal, but Shotgun Cop Man changes this mechanic in one very important way.
Turns out the titular Shotgun Cop Man can’t jump. Instead of being able to leap into the air, SCM uses his trusty shotgun to propel himself into the air. All you have to do is aim your shotgun in the opposite direction of where you want to go and then fire. Want to leap straight up into the air? Point your shotgun at the floor and blast away. Want to jump across a chasm to your right? Aim your shotgun behind you and pull the trigger. It’s an extremely straightforward gameplay feature, but boy does it lend itself to some really impressive movement strategies, and much more importantly, it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.
Spray and pray
The gun fun doesn’t stop there, as SCM can also collect all sorts of sidearms to help him on his mission as well. While you start off with a basic pistol, there’s a wide variety of weapons to snag from fallen enemies. You can find uzis, machine guns, flamethrowers and much more. All of them will help you mow down the henchmen blocking the path to the level’s end, but just like the shotgun, they also help you maneuver. While your shotgun gives you a big blast in any direction, your sidearm can be used to basically hover in air until the clip runs out. (Both your shotgun and sidearm have unlimited ammo, but you have to touch the ground to initiate a reload) Combine the big blasts and mini-fire between your two weapons and you can see how movement in and of itself is supremely satisfying and incredibly open-ended.
Levels in Shotgun Cop Man are like a fever dream as you blast your way through them at a breakneck pace, turning enemies into bloody explosions every step. Sure, you can take a moment to stop and plan out your path ahead, but more often than not you shoot first and ask questions later. The combination of platforming through shooting and the momentum-based movement feels almost intoxicating, and it won’t be long before you find yourself deep in a flow state that you never want to leave.
What makes the adventure even better is the level progression in Shotgun Cop Man, which has been expertly crafted to pepper in unique elements as you get deeper into the game. The first few worlds are straightforward blasting and platforming, but you’ll eventually get to stages that have you doing a bit of puzzling, or working with a new ability. You might have to shoot blocks to open paths, pick up and toss bombs to break through walls, toss a cross-like weapon to take out swaths of enemies, shoot switches that open/close doors and so on. It’s pretty stunning to see the amount of twists and hooks Shotgun Cop Man offers on its base gameplay, and it all shows up with a flow that feels completely natural and keeps the experience truly engaging.
What a lovely room of death
Shotgun Cop Man is about as much pure fun as you can have in a game, and it honestly never lets up. There’s one aspect that takes the experience and cranks it up to 11 though, and not enough praise can be heaped on it.
The music in Shotgun Cop Man is one of the best examples of a soundtrack that expertly fits a game, and does so much to elevate every single aspect of the game. The music in Shotgun Cop Man is deep, dark, pounding, thumping and adrenaline-boosting in the best way possible. There is a constant beat to the action, and the entire approach to sound makes it feel like you’re working your way through the grittiest, grimiest underground night club you’ve ever seen. It’s an unrelenting soundtrack that is constantly pulsating and undulating, and it makes you feel absolutely insane. That may sound like the opposite of a good time, but seriously, the music in Shotgun Cop Man is pitch-perfect and easily deserves multiple nominations for “Soundtrack of the Year” when the game industry puts together its 2025 picks.
If you enjoyed My Friend Pedro, you need Shotgun Cop Man. If you like Super Meat Boy-style platformers, you need Shotgun Cop Man. If music is important to you and greatly influences your experience with games, you need Shotgun Cop Man. DeadToast Entertainment has somehow surpassed My Friend Pedro in every way to create something that feels so good to play it’s almost palpable. I really can’t explain the feelings I had while shooting my way through the madness, but I couldn’t get enough. Whether you’re on Switch or Switch 2 you need to set aside some time for Shotgun Cop Man, because it’s one hell of a ride.
