Cleverly, these collectibles also serve a practical purpose as the currency for upgrading your blaster. Still, if black and white isn’t to your taste, you’ll find cartridges hidden around the world which unlock alternative colour palettes. They’re perfectly functional and inoffensive, but the stylistic choice is arguably becoming a little overused in the indie space. In fact, “minimal” is a fitting way to describe the utilitarian black and white graphics too. Gary is always on hand for pep talks and never leaves home without a full pack of Dreamies. Plentiful save points also help to ensure that any frustration is minimal. Some boss battles also left my fingers in a twist when attempting to jump, aim, shoot, jump again and dash all in one fluid motion, but the challenge level is generally quite forgiving.
Back in the relative safety of the mech, weapons pack a satisfying kick and movement is swift, but the controls can feel a little loose at times. Sans-mech, Kiki is vulnerable to one-shot kills, but despite the increased jeopardy, bounding around and scampering up walls in cat-form is tremendous fun and provides some of the game’s most enjoyable moments. There isn’t an immense arsenal of weaponry on offer, for instance, but you will collect upgrades and augmentations to beef up your attacks and allow traversal to previously inaccessible areas. Gato Roboto features all the tropes and trappings one would expect from a metroidvania, albeit in simplified form. If there’s not already a meme about a cat on a treadmill, there really needs to be. It’s a gleefully silly story, but one that’s told with enough heart and humour to remain genuinely entertaining throughout. Kiki isn’t all alone though, thanks to a radio collar allowing for communication with Gary and, more importantly, a conveniently placed mech suit that thankfully doesn’t require opposable thumbs to operate. With Gary unable to free himself from the wreckage, he sends you off to venture beyond the crash site and figure out a way home. In Gato Roboto you take control of Kiki, the pet cat of a pilot named Gary, whose spacecraft has crash landed on an alien planet. Sounds like a sure-fire way to coax me back into one of the most prevalent genres on Nintendo Switch. In comes Gato Roboto then, marketed as a “meowtroidvania” and featuring a feline protagonist in a mech suit. One thing I am a massive fan of however, is cats. Though I’ve fallen in love with the likes of Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge, the honeymoon feeling tends to wear off when the world reveals itself to be dauntingly massive, yet oppressively claustrophobic. I’d like to start this review with a shocking confession: I’m not a massive fan of metroidvanias.
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