Shotgun Cop Man review: there is no jump button, so you shoot the floor

Nobody paid us for this review, and the game did not come from the developer.

Every action game you grew up with had a jump button. Shotgun Cop Man took it away and handed you a shotgun instead. Aim at the floor, fire, and the recoil throws you into the air.

One person made it

DeadToast Entertainment is one developer, Victor Ågren, the same person behind My Friend Pedro. Devolver Digital published it, and it arrived on May 1, 2025.

The gun is the jump

On the store page the studio puts it plainly: your weapons are your wings, and every shot propels you forward. Point down and you rise. Point behind you and you cross the room. The shotgun blast that kills the demon in front of you is the same blast that carries you over the pit, so aiming stops being about the enemy and starts being about where you want your body to land. Nothing about it feels like a platformer. It feels like steering.

You carry a second weapon that the level hands you, a machine gun or a sniper rifle or a minigun, and each one pushes you a different distance. Picking one up changes how you move, not only how you shoot.

Built for one more try

There are over 150 levels, and Gamereactor timed them at thirty seconds to two minutes each. Clear one and the game asks for three more things: no damage, under the time limit, every enemy dead. Do all three at once and the level is finally, properly beaten.

That is the arcade loop with the quarters taken out. A run is short enough that failing costs you nothing but pride, and the medals hang there daring you to do the same thirty seconds cleaner. If you ever stood at a cabinet thinking one more credit, you already know this feeling.

Playing it today

It looks nothing like the games it descends from. The art is clean and cartoonish, not pixel work, and the whole thing runs at a speed that would have melted a 1980s board. What carries over is the shape of the thing: short levels, a score to beat, a skill you can feel yourself acquiring.

Nine chapters, a boss at the end of each, and a level editor if you want to build the run that finally breaks you.