Oh, hey! You must be the new recruit I’ve been hearing about. Welcome to hell, soldier. Out here, we’re just trying to do an honest job and protect our line so we can go home to our families. Do your part and you’ll get along nicely out here. Oh, there’s the siren. Alright, enough chit chat! Battle stations! Welcome to Guns Up!

Guns Up! is a pretty interesting little game. On first glance, you’d probably expect it to be a handheld or mobile phone game, but it fits surprisingly well on a console. The graphics aren’t anything too crazy in terms of design or character model, but the game has a heavy cartoony look. Personally, I felt game looked perfect with little soldiers running at each other and trying to blow each other up in a cute little forest. It really felt like I was directing an animation of a cartoon war battle. You can even customize backdrops like fire pits or torches to add to the adorable background. I don’t know about your guys, but my soldiers loved the little fire pit next to the tree for story time.

Cartoony antics could never be complete without a matching soundtrack, but let’s save that discussion for cartoons, shall we? The soundtrack of Guns Up! fits the theme of the game perfectly, in my opinion. The tracks have a very heroic feel, like a sendoff for troops going to battle. The tone changes slightly in battle to a faster tone, but you’ll still recognize the heroic tune behind it all. The sound of gunfire and explosions usually tends to overpower the track in the background, so you probably won’t be focused on it too much anyway.

Guns Up! is a side-scrolling strategy game where players assume the role of general to destroy the enemy’s forces. Your job is to direct your resources appropriately and help your troops achieve victory. This objective isn’t difficult to achieve, and the game starts a tutorial if it’s your first time playing. In a match, you’ll either be on the invading side or the base defense side. There isn’t much difference between either side’s play style, but the objective changes. If you’re invading, your goal is to bring down the enemy base. If you’re defending, you want to repel the invaders and keep your base intact. It’s a pretty simple objective, but you have to strategize well or suffer a crushing defeat. From the Main Menu, you’ll have access to your Depot, your Inventory, Missions, your Barracks and the choice to go to War. Your Depot allows you to customize characters and purchase card packs, gold, bundles, and different boosts. Your Inventory allows you to use the items you’ve purchased, while the Missions tab lets you track challenges. The Barracks allows you to power up your troops with upgrades and the War tab is to engage in combat. Time to hit that strategizing table, though.

Guns Up! isn’t very hard to grasp in terms of controls. You’ll have a top down view of the map and can move the camera using the Right Analog Stick. If you’re invading, your base will be a moving truck. You’ll be given two rows of commands to select an action to perform. You can summon troops from the bottom row by selecting the desired troop and pressing the (X) button or send in special commands to perform from the top row. Your summoned units will pour out of this truck and march along the road, stopping only to attack something. A counter in the bottom right will show how many units you currently have on the field in the bottom right and you cannot exceed this number. It’s a good idea to keep a good mix of troops on the field to cover your bases. Troops cost a certain amount of munitions to summon and you can get more by killing targets on the battlefield. If you run out, you won’t be able to summon more troops and you better pray that your truck can finish everything off if you run out of units. The battle doesn’t end until either your transport truck or the enemy base is destroyed, so be sure to issue the proper commands.

If you fancy a challenge, Guns Up! has you covered. Players will be able to complete multiple challenges which they can view from the Missions tab of the Main Menu. These challenges have a timer showing how long you have to complete them. The timer can be viewed on the right of the screen. Running out of time, completing missions, or skipping them will change the list and allow players to try new challenges. Keep in mind that skipping challenges will cost a certain amount of gold. Challenges yield rewards to the player which, of course, will vary from challenge to challenge. You could get new objects to barricade your base with or munitions for your troops. You don’t have to think too much about the challenges since you’ll complete most of them while simply playing the game, but it is nice to have something to track.

The pride and joy of Guns Up! is the multiplayer. You’ll mostly be invading other players since that’s the only mode available until level 5. From the Main Menu, just select the War tab and jump right in. When you go to the Player versus Player tab, you’ll see a list of people you can invade. You can see a preview of the player’s base before you invade so that you’ll know what you’re up against and can choose a different player if one seems too daunting of a challenge for you currently. Always pick your battles carefully.

As with most multiplayer games, difficulty will vary based on the player’s skill. While this is true to an extent in Guns Up!, there is a way to track difficulty from match to match. When you go to start up a match and select an opponent, they will have a difficulty symbol next to their name which will have three skulls in it. The more skulls that are lit up, the harder that match will be for you. The opponent’s base preparations will affect how hard the match up will be, and opponents with a more upgraded base with obviously be pretty tough to take down. Make sure your own troops are up to par as well. Even bases with no stars might prove a challenge merely by how the player has organized their defenses. It's not about what tools you have access to, but how you use those tools that decides whether or not you'll obtain victory.

Guns Up! isn’t a mechanically demanding or intensive game at all, but you do need a little bit of strategy to make the best use of some of the Special abilities. Specials are located toward the bottom of the screen in the middle above your troop selection. There’s a variety of Specials, such as missile barrages or decoys, and you can pick them up by defeating enemy troops. You can also start a match with a few already in hand. You have to give the green light on when to use them and when used properly, they deal massive damage to the enemy forces. They can also be used poorly, resulting in your own forces taking a big hit in some cases. To use a Special, simply hover over it with the D-pad and select it with the (X) button. You’ll then need to select where to place it by using the Right Analog Stick and confirm your placement with the (X) button. Remember to make your choices carefully, or else you might end up crippling your forces.

Base defense is a pretty important aspect of Guns Up!. People can invade your base in an attempt to destroy it for their own profit. You’ll get a pop up notifying you whenever someone is trying to invade you when you’re sitting on the base screen and you can choose whether or not you’ll defend. If you do defend, you’ll be tasked with setting up for the invasion. You’re able to set a plethora of different obstacles to defend your base with, such as sniper towers and barricades. Troops will endlessly spawn from a tent which is placed wherever you choose. You can also customize your base whenever you’re not doing anything by simply moving your Right Analog Stick on the base screen to move the camera around. You’ll unlock new defenses for your base as you level up and will be able to make your base the fortress it should be.

Guns Up! is a fun little game which takes very little effort on your part to play. You don’t have to do much to get started and it’s pretty easy to get sucked into wanting to customize your base and build an army to conquer other players. The game also isn’t too difficult, so anyone can jump in and play. Also, it’s free to play for PlayStation Plus members (with in-game purchases available). What more could you ask for?