The Gal*Gun series of games are an interesting take on the on-rail shooter genre. Instead of shooting up zombies with military weapons, you’re instead hitting high school girls with your love gun in order to cure them from their lustful desires. It is an interesting concept and one that I enjoyed quite a bit when Gal*Gun: Double Peace released in the west in 2016. A new entry is now being released with Gal*Gun 2 for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4. Along with it, a new look and feel in terms of controls, but also maintaining that familiar craziness.

Gal*Gun 2 isn’t quite as on-rails as Double Peace was this time around. While you’re not given entirely free movement, there is a wider range available to you. You’re still moving from point to point like a traditional on-rail game, but you’re not locked onto one view. Instead, you’re now able to view all around you from the spot you’re on. There were moments of this in Double Peace, but this is like a more expanded version of it. So not entirely on-rails now, and more moving from one area to the next and clearing it all out around you before moving to the next spot. You’re now also equipped with a Demon Sweeper, which is a vacuum that you will use to suck up demons.

The mission structure is also the same mostly, with some differences. You do select which stage you want to go to next in your playthrough, but the experience isn’t as linear as it was in Double Peace. Doing story missions will progress the story, while doing side quests won’t. So you’re free to complete as many side missions as you’d like before moving on to the story. Completing levels will earn you points which will contribute to your overall point total. Reaching certain point amounts will earn you some rewards, so you can grind out side missions in order to up your total before progressing the story. In Double Peace, after a certain amount of missions, you will find yourself at the end of the story. For Gal*Gun 2, you’re given a time limit to complete the story missions, so you can take on as many missions as you’d like before the deadline.

THE GOOD: This all makes sense with how the story of Gal*Gun 2 is laid out. Instead of being another boy who is hit with a love shot and is now being chased by all the girls in the school, you’re more of a Demon Hunter this time around. You’ve become chosen to wield the Pheromone Goggles and Demon Sweeper, and are then tasked with exorcising the Demons that are possessing all the girls in the school. As a side effect for wearing the goggles though, every girl you come across will become very affectionate towards you. So you do find yourself in a similar situation, but it’s more about saving the school and less about finding your destined one. That’s not to say love isn’t waiting for you in the end though. Just like in Double Peace, there are multiple endings and it was pretty fun discovering the ways to earn them all. Story isn’t too mind-blowing, but I did enjoy my experience with it.

Taking a quick look at Gal*Gun 2, you can see that much has improved in terms of visuals from the last game. Certainly sharper looking and more colorful. If you’ve played Gal*Gun VR on PC, this looks to be the same engine. The level design is also pretty identical, showing that GGVR was most likely the base for this. While most of the environments and girls you encounter are the same as the ones you’ve seen in Double Peace. Seeing them in this improved look, gives them that fresh new feel. The game is also fully voiced again. Only in Japanese still, with no English voices.

While the main gameplay stuff is present, you’re not only just going through a level and clearing out all the girls, as there are now other mission types that will appear. There’s a defense style mission where you’ll need to protect one or multiple girls from oncoming Demons. If you’re protecting multiple girls, they may be in different spots, so you’ll have to manage yourself through that. Next is a scavenger hunt type mission where you’ll move around spots in an environment in order to find specific items that are hidden. Then there’s your boss fights and doki-doki field missions, which are similar to what you may have seen in Double Peace but with several differences in order to accommodate the new game mechanics.

One of my favorite additions to the gameplay though is probably the motion controls. Whether you play on Switch or PS4, you’ll have the option to enable motion controls. Given how more free moving the game is compared to Double Peace, I feel the motion controls offer the better experience. You reach your targets faster with it and it just has a more engaging feel too. It may not be for everyone, but I highly encourage players to at least give it a try. You can go full motion all the time or completely off, but I go with the default set up. That’s having a mixture of both, by having the motion stuff being enabled whenever you zoom your aim in, with stick aim being used when not zoomed in. Whichever you choose, I feel motion is essential to the gameplay experience.

THE BAD: With multiple endings in play, that does mean multiple playthroughs will be needed. That also means that playthroughs overall could be short. If you’re one who just likes to focus on the main story and avoid any side stuff, the experience won’t last very long. The game is structured in days, and you’re given quite a lot to do whatever. Once you’ve unlocked the conditions to view an ending though, you can choose to end it early. So, if you’re one who is just looking to complete the game once, then this game isn’t gonna last you long depending on how you choose to play things. That’s also not how you should play this game. This is a game that needs to played multiple times if you really want to experience everything. The problem though is that there will be a lot of replaying the same missions. So be prepared for a long repetitive journey as you set out to discover all the endings. I will say that a couple of the routes you go through will offer their own unique set of missions, so it is possible to have fresh playthrough experiences. If you want to see everything though, you’ll definitely be replaying the same stuff several times. There is a New Game+ mode at least, so you can carry over all your upgrades, collectibles, and points.

With Double Peace, the game was available for Vita and PS4. The Vita version though ran pretty bad in my experiences with it. With Gal*Gun 2 you have Switch and PS4. Once again, the PS4 is going to be the better version. It looks better and feels smoother too. That’s not to say the Switch version is bad though. I’ve actually played the Switch version the most and had a completely fine experience. Just be aware that it may not be as smooth of an experience. I’ve had the game actually crash on me a couple of times. Not sure if this is a Swich only issue since it’s where I spent most of my time, but I have yet to experience this in my playtime with the PS4. Also, I felt the motion can be a bit off on both systems. Like, it’s pretty easy to lose your centering with the motion, which is why I opted to have it only occur when zoomed in. Since I can re-center it by zooming out. I feel like having a dedicated centering button would’ve greatly helped.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Gal*Gun 2 is definitely an improved sequel to Double Peace. Many things are well-expanded upon and the newly added motion controls really enhances the experience. The story is still over-the-top and full of the craziness you’ve come to expect from a Gal*Gun game. Had a blast playing the game completely on Switch, but I will say the PS4 is the better platform. You’ll have a good time with either, and the game just as good an experience in handheld mode on Switch. While it does look and feel different, I think that Double Peace fans will find much enjoyment with this new entry. If you haven’t played a Gal*Gun game at all, you’re completely good with either DP or GG2 as your first. It may not be the type of game for everyone and that’s completely understandable. For those that don’t mind what the game is, I say you’ll be in a for a fun time.

*A PS4 review code was provided to us by the publisher. Also, an imported version was played on Nintendo Switch.*