Gato Roboto is a cute little metroidvania. While it doesn't offer much for the veterans of such games, aside from the stellar gameplay, I think it is a perfect compact sized adventure for the people who wanted to try the genre, but was intimidated by huge maps, tons of secrets and backtracking and lots of hours needed to complete the game. Gato hits all the marks on the "good metroidvania" checklist, but you only need a couple of hours to 100% it.
Visuals are nice, sound could be better, but, most importantly, gameplay is highly enjoyable. I finished the game in a couple of sittings and I wish there was more.
I am suspect to talk about games of the genre "metroidvania", since it is my favorite. However, Roboto Cat adds even more love to this perfect axis.
Here, do not expect anything complex (and with that I'm not stating that the difficulty is simple). It is clear that Gato Roboto serves as a lovely kind of initiation for those who are not accustomed to metroidvanias, but do not fail to contemplate admirers of the genre, who will undoubtedly fall in love with the title.
Although short (completing the game takes about six hours), every second deposited in it is a smile. It's not just because the protagonist is a kitten (who in this world may not love kittens?), But because the light mechanics and visuals that honor Metroid II: Samus Returns, from the infamous Game Boy (either by the layout of the screen, or by the style artistic in black and white) refers to a good and uncompromising time, where the feeling we had was to put the cartridge in the video game, turn on the player and play. That simple.
With a story that does not take itself seriously and highly fluid gameplay (even better if you use a joystick), Gato Roboto It is one of those games that you will definitely have no regrets for having acquired. At the very least you will find it pleasant and unforgettable.
It's yet another nice addition to GOG's catalog, to be played by anyone who loves video games, and to thrill older gamers with their gentleness and simplicity.
When i jumped into the game, i really liked it. Visualy the game is initialy very appealing, really appreciated the option to change color palette through collectibles. Mechanics are intuitive, the game has nice smooth animations and running around in the cat suit is fast and fun.
Unfortunately, because of couple of things the game loses it's charm towards the end, and while (thankfully) the game is not long, it manages to get quite a bit repetitive. Enemies are not challenging at all with the exception of few bosses and you can fly through the game without breaking a sweat. The bosses in this game are where the challenge in this game lies and that challenge they provide, isn't the experience i was expecting the game that calls itself a metroidvania tiltle to deliver. Bosses variety is lackluster, they mostly lack interesting mechanics (with an exception or two) and the game doesn't really require player to use the abilities aquired throughout the game to overcome the challenge, just make it infinitely easier.
While gameplay has it's flaws the game definetely deliveres in the visual and audio department, the game looks pretty, is readable and sounds just right, although it fails to provide a sense of exploration and changing enviroment. It's pretty understandable for a game that doesn't use color to create distinguishable enviroment, but i feel like there are plenty of ways to create it even without color or throughout music (which rarely changes). The fact that it's hard to tell if developers wanted to make the game enviroment to change through the whole gameplay, or they just made not so good to do so, either way, that's not good.
In conclusion, is the game worth playing? I think so, it's a fun little project and definetely worth the already small price it's asking for. Retro fans are gonna have a blast, and cat lovers gonna have it too. But for the reasons i gave earlier, calling it a mini-metroidvania would be much more fitting for the game.
That's my opinion
This is a cute little platformer that runs on everything that has enough power to produce a picture. It has has less than a dozen levels which can be conpleted in roughly four to eight hours.
During most of the game you control a kitty piloting a Mech--which is exactly as much fun as it sounds. However, you may also exit your Mech and control the agile kitty directly to fit through narrow passages or scale walls. At times you futhermore pilot a submarine.
As the abobe suggests the game comes with a good helping of solid humor, and the levels provide some good degree of variety that require you to actually make use of your abilities--inside your Mech and outside.
The game has a moderate difficulty level that never gets frustrating with frequent save points. Apart from bosses and some powerups, there are few things that require too much finger acrobatics. However, it is worthwile to reconfigure the buttons on your keyboard (esp. on Laptops) regardless.
The "puzzles" are simple and straight forward. But while it is obvious what you need to do, to actually do it requires is still difficult enough that the game never suffers from it.
If you ever played "A game with a kitty" and liked it, this is going to be right up your alley as these two games scratch the same itch: Both hit the soft spot of any metroidvania fan with a heart for a witty kitty and purrfect (short and sweet) entertainment. Plus, at the price, this kitty is totally worth it.
I love the sound, visuals (which tap my Spectrum nostalgia vein), and cuteness of this game. I wanted to keep playing it. It runs smoothly and quickly. It gets nearly everything right. I was really looking forward to unlocking new colour palettes to try out!
The only issue for me is that it doesn't explain a few things (e.g. how you drop off some platforms to the ones below, and how to rocket jump). The latter is also a control issue. After a few hours, I still wasn't sure exactly how to do the rocket jump. The game doesn't explain it, just says you can do it. The controls seemed different dependinf on if you were facing a wall [L/R, fire + jump, x2], or stood still [down and jump and fire and repeat and hope you get the timing right - but if you are on some platforms down and jump makes you drop down to the lower level, which can be maddening!], or moving [diagonal and some combo of the above]. I could eventually do some of the jumps 50% of the time, and get across many screens, but when I reached my fourth boss (lava mouse) I just couldn't defeat the second phase because I couldn't get the jumps often enough. And there was no other way to go at that point. I wished there had been a simpler control, e.g. press jump a second time while in the air and Gato automatically rockets down and jumps higher, something like that. My first computer was an Atari 2600 so I have played a lot of games, but I just couldn't get the exact combo and the timing for this right. Blame me, maybe, but if progress in a game depends on a split-second complex combination of movements, explain what those movements are!
Am I glad I bought it? Yes. All the positives still stand, even if I need to uninstall for now. Maybe next time I install it the moves will click more, and I'll get to see the other palettes. This game brought a smile to my face, and that's something!
