Gato Roboto (2019)

A nostalgia filled throwback to the Game Boy and awesome 2D platformers featuring super cute characters and a great soundtrack! If you love classic games or pixel graphics this is a must play!

While the game itself is fairly solid mechanically, when it’s firing on all cylinders and working its hardest to bring you the best it has to offer, it is merely okay. Unfortunately, most of the time the experience is pretty lackluster, and ultimately its problem is that it doesn’t do anything new – despite its quirky premise, it feels uninspired. It feels less like the euphoria of a cat café, and more like tending a litter box.

Gato Roboto has some wonderful aesthetic choices and innovative boss fights, but the awfully short length and generic enemy design hamper an otherwise quirky title.

Devolver Digital is hitting it out of the park this year with their indie game lineup, adding Doinksoft's Gato Roboto to its growing list of must-play games. This adorable game, which they have cleverly referred to as a "meowtroidvania" is a fantastic, albeit short, experience that distills the genre down to its core, delivering a bite-sized adventure that feels right at home on Nintendo Switch.

Gato Roboto is far from purrfect. The boss fights are a delight, challenging me every step of the way and rewarding me for patience and determination. Everything else, though, is just a bit too safe and unoriginal. From familiar environments to basic upgrades and uninventive gameplay, Gato Roboto is an okay, standard Metroid-style game. In a world where so many titles fall into that genre, though, you can easily find something similar to play that has a bit more originality to it.