Gato Roboto – Review (PC)

When you’re asked who your favorite rollie pollie protagonist in a 2D Metroidvania game is you probably say Samus from the Metroid series. That’s completely understandable. Not just because that’s an incredibly narrow question and there aren’t many games that fit the bill, but also because Samus is damn awesome. Yet, with the release of Doinksoft’s Gato Roboto, Samus now has some major competition in the form of a small cat named Kiki.

As Kiki, you’re tasked with delving deep into a seemingly abandoned research facility in order to free your master from the wreckage of your ship. It’s obviously not an Odyssey caliber story, but it fits the humor and absurdity of this world incredibly well. You’ll often hear references to teenage humor like 420, 69, and an offhand mustache reference or two. This really brings home the feeling that this isn’t a world to be taken seriously if the cat piloting a mech suit hadn’t tipped you off already.

But the story of Gato Roboto isn’t its real draw. That award has to be given to its fantastic gameplay. The controls feel responsive and accurate, allowing you to dash across stages launching rockets and decimating robots and animals alike. Every kill and bit of damage taken feels earned by either your platforming skill and ingenuity or lack thereof.

Yet, sadly, this isn’t true while in boss fights. In most other Metroidvanias the bosses feel proportionate to the rest of the world, but that’s not present in Gato Roboto. At times it feels like the disparity in difficulty between boss fights and the rest of the stage is massive. This is especially true when you’re forced to trade your standard and upgradable mech suit out for the submarine. While exploration is encouraged, due to the upgrades you can find throughout levels, this point becomes moot when you exchange your suit for a submarine that’s completely bare of any upgrades. Luckily, you have an entire level to learn the ins and outs of this new vehicle before taking on the boss. But this doesn’t help shake the feeling that you’re taking a big step back combat wise.

I feel like the ramp up in difficulty wouldn’t be as egregious if after getting my ass handed to me by a boss I didn’t have to sit through the same few lines of dialogue. Of course, you can just smash the A button (if playing with an XBOX controller) to skip through the dialogue. But it doesn’t make it any less annoying.

However, discouraging these battles might be completely overshadowed by my love for Gato Roboto’s beautiful pixel art. Each and every sprite and level feels hand-crafted. This is a hard trait to find in a world of procedurally generated Metroidvanias. If I’m being honest, I love these character designs so much (especially Kiki’s) that if I ever meet the amazing creator behind them I’m morally obligated to pledge my life to them.

Gato Roboto is an absolutely great game. That doesn’t mean it’s without flaws, but the few that are present are easily overshadowed by the brilliant pixel art, often refreshing humor, and fun gameplay. Even stages that are often the downfall of a Metroidvania such as a water level or chase sequence are done incredibly well. The roughly four hours it took me to beat Gato Roboto are easily worth the $8 price point if not so much more.

Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.

Gato Roboto was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company’s PR firm, but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion