To this day, it annoys me that almost no one has tried to take advantage of the Joy-Cons’ motion capabilities to come up with Wii-esque arcade titles, or most importantly, light gun experiences. Forever Entertainment was one of the very few exceptions when they published a remake of the original House of the Dead for the system a few years ago. That game and Gal Gun are basically the only examples currently available on the system, which is a shame; not even Nintendo bothered doing something akin to Sin & Punishment or Link’s Crossbow Training. I guess we have to accept any morsel thrown at us, like a bottle of dirty water in the middle of the desert. Case and point, Until the Last Bullet.

Until the Last Bullet is a very odd… thing. One half of it is actually a full-motion video movie with live action Polish actors trying their best not to laugh at the cheap props, sets and makeup which comprise your run-of-the-mill zombie outbreak story with COVID-19 elements to top things off. It’s not very interesting in this regard. I appreciate the work of those involved, but cheap zombie horror movies are a dime a dozen on the internet, and if I’m feeling like watching low budget crap that’s so bad it’s good, I’d rather stick to The VelociPastor or Moneyplane. The other half is what’s more interesting about it.

The other half is what we’re here for: gyro-supported, light gun-emulating, arcade shooter action. In essence, what you’re supposed to do is aim at FMV people dressed as dollar store zombies and shoot them with your pistol until you either die or the level ends. The visuals are so incredibly cheesy, so crap, so stupid, I want to believe that was an intentional decision. Each level is a literal background with FMV zombies just showing up onscreen, reminiscent of those crappy-but-endearing FMV shooters from the 90s. To top it off, some loud metal tunes covering each level with unnecessary, but oh-so-welcoming drips of adrenaline. The amount of times Until the Last Bullet reminded me of stuff like Mad Dog McCree was staggering.

Oddly enough, whilst the game is, at its core, quite bad, it’s mechanically decent. The gyro controls are solid. Aiming and shooting at a zombie felt simple and quite entertaining. It’s exactly the kind of light gun emulation I wish developers had taken more advantage of. Sadly, design-wise, this is a tremendous mess. I just didn’t care at all about the story. It tries to be way too serious when compared to the utter stupidity that is the gameplay itself. Sadly, Until the Last Bullet doesn’t manage to juggle tones as well as Yakuza does. It almost feels like I’m changing channels whenever I alternate between the game’s two halves.

Don’t get me wrong, Until the Last Bullet is far from being considered a good game. With the exception of admittedly having a good usage of the Joy-Cons’ gyro functionalities, this is a super low budgeted shooter that is so unbelievably crappy-looking it almost looks endearing. But this is what makes it oddly charming in some twisted kind of way. It feels honest in its crappiness. It’s like some really small team really wanted to make an homage to the terrible FMV shooters from the early 90s with what little resources they had at their disposable. I didn’t care at all about its boring live action cutscenes, but there’s some occasional fun to be had with its cheesy gameplay sections. Especially with a beer, or a friend, or both.

 

Graphics: 3.5 The game looks really bad in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way during gameplay. The FMV bits clearly showcase they were made with the most minuscule of budgets.	Gameplay: 7.0 It uses the Nintendo Switch’s gyroscope to emulate an arcade light gun. It’s not deep, but it works.
Sound: 6.0 The entirety of the game is voiced in Polish, so I cannot particularly understand what they are saying. That being said, the gameplay sections feature some out-of-the-blue hard rock riffs that aren’t half-bad.	Fun Factor: 5.5 Don’t get me wrong, this is not a very good or polished game, but it’s so endearing in its stupidity you can’t help but smile at it.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Until the Last Bullet is available now on Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Until the Last Bullet was provided by the publisher.