I could go on and on at length about the various reasons why this game is brilliant but you really need only 2 words to convince you. Gun stacking. Nothing quite says ‘awesome’ like a shotgun attached to a chainsaw attached to a rocket launcher with a couple of lasers added on for fun. While you are digesting that hefty chunk of delicious epic perhaps you would like those other reasons too.

Let’s get something straight here: if you are looking for realism then this is not the game for you. But if you want to play a game with ridiculously over-the-top gun slinging action coupled with hordes of equally crazy enemies then you might just want to take a further look. For those that have played previous games in the ‘Serious Sam’ series then you’ll probably get what I mean by that but for those that haven’t – one of your foes is a stack of pancakes slathered in maple syrup with vuvuzelas sticking out the side (aptly called a vuvuzelator). Nuff said.

However what previous players of Serious Sam may not expect is the fact that this is not developer Croteam’s first person shooter they have grown to love, rather an indie game developed by Mommy’s Best Games and endorsed by Croteam. Never fear though as these guys have taken all the zany humour and exaggerated gore that makes Serious Sam such an oxymoron, and eliminated that z-axis with style to bring Sam into glorious 2D. You’ll find that Sam is just as fantastically chaotic in a sidescrolling shooter as he was when made of rendered polygons.

The story and setting are in line with previous games in the series. Sam must travel through various eras of history defeating swarms of enemies in an attempt to prevent the annihilation of humanity in the future by an evil alien known as Mental. Not that it’s important in a game like this. I can assure you that you will not be picking up this game because of its ingenious and gripping plotline. The aesthetics are bright, colourful and with lots of gore so nothing to complain about there. Nothing quite beats the satisfying squelch of jumping on an enemy corpse (or even stacking them up to reach hidden areas).

Nope, in Serious Sam Double D it’s all about GUNS!!! And the pluralisation is important there because one gun is never enough! Through a system known as gun stacking, Double D makes it possible to fire up to 6 weapons all at the same time! Finding more weapons in secret areas makes it possible to further increase your firepower to ridiculous new levels. And you’re going to need it because you’ll be coming up against an armada of enemies trying to tear poor Sam to pieces. If that wasn’t enough the game also sports humongous and highly lethal bosses that must be felled to progress through the game. Controls are pitch perfect for a game of this style though you’ll often find yourself swinging the cursor round in circles to defeat the enemies teleporting in from all around you. Once you become aware of the tendency of the enemy to suddenly surround you however, the aiming will become less of a problem rather the frantic jumping to avoid headless kamikaze soldiers.

This game will keep you occupied for a fair amount of time too. With 18 levels and a further 12 bonus games it’ll take a while to complete them alone. Throw in the unlockable golden guns and a ton of ridiculous and often completely pointless (try and find “The Useless Machine”) secrets and you’ve lost a couple days of your life. The game can be quite challenging too: even on the humble ‘normal’ difficulty I found myself brushing with death a couple of times in the first few levels let alone the latter portion of the game.

Personally I think this game is great fun and more than worth the mere £5.99 on Steam. But it all boils down to one thing… do you want to see a man in t-shirt and jeans blowing to living daylights out of a stack of ferocious pancakes with a large stack of guns? Better yet do you want to be that man? If yes then this game is for you. If no then why not, it’s awesome. Check out the developer’s site here and also give the trailer below a look too.

Rating: A