by Stephen Deck
Review written by Stephen Deck; originally published 6/4/2019 on Teacher by Day, Gamer by Night
“Do you trust me?” It all started with a text. When I read it, I thought, “Yes, flake, I trust you, but that question in isolation creeps me out…What do you want?” He then said “Download Gato Roboto on Switch. You’ll love it.” By this point in our friendship, he knows my gaming tastes pretty well, so I took his advice and immediately downloaded the game and fired it up. I was a bit put off my visual style at first – it looked like Undertale, and I loathe that game from overexposure the same way I came to loath Five Nights at Freddy’s – but I stuck with it because of the weight flake’s recommendations carry with me. I’m extremely glad I did, too, as the game turned out to be a short but extremely rewarding experience.
Gato Roboto is basically a bite-sized Metroid clone…if Samus Aran were a small cat. Forewarning – I hate cats, and my specific word choice will reflect this prejudice. A space marine type dude was on a patrol mission and picked up a security signal from an abandoned research facility, so he went to investigate. Because cats suck, his pet cat steps on the control panel and causes the ship to crash, pinning the pilot and leaving him unable to perform his investigation. As any logical person would in this situation, he sends his pet cat – who has a radio in her collar, for some reason – to find a mech suit and complete the investigation in his place. From there, you play as the stupid ass cat in a dope ass mech suit and try to determine the source of the security signal.
When I say that this is a Metroid clone, I meant that in just about every way from gaining rockets to supplement your regular blaster down to having to shoot doors in order to open them. “Metroid clone” is not meant as a pejorative, though, as doinksoft took most of the things that made the original Metroid great and replicated it…but cuter. Gato Roboto is an extremely short game – my playthrough clocked in at just over three and a half hours, and that’s with spending around 45 minutes on one boss – but holy crap, is it good. It’s absolutely worth the price of admission. I downloaded it at the tail end of the release sale for just under $7, but even at the regular price of $8, it’s totally worth the asking price.
Visually, the game is extremely simplistic. The visual style is monochrome pixel art reminiscent of 8-bit games from the 80s, but a nice touch is the ability to unlock additional color filters by finding cassettes hidden throughout the game. I never used any of these filters personally being rather partial to sharp contrast the black/white color scheme gives, but you can unlock filters like a softer grey/white, a bubblegum pink and white, a green and white, etc. It’s nothing that changes anything other than the color, but it’s definitely a nice little bit of customization and an incentive to explore a bit. Exploration is, after all, the bread and butter of Metroid style games.
The game’s soundtrack is extremely fitting for the setting, keeping a somewhat but not overwhelmingly dark and ominous feel but staying in the background, never stealing the spotlight from the action. During the boss fights, I often completely blocked out the music despite having my soundbar turned on. That may sound like a criticism, but I mean it as high praise; a game’s music should, in my opinion, be like garnish, there to accentuate the game’s tone and action but never taking center stage, and the fact that I found myself blocking out the music entirely during high-intensity scenes indicates that the balance was struck perfectly there. Be it in a boss battle or casual exploration, the focus is always kept on the gameplay with music to provide accompaniment and nothing more.
Gato Roboto is an extremely short experience, and while a three to four hour time to beat may seem unduly short to some and serve as a turn-off, I must recommend that those people reconsider. Yes, it’s a very short game, but it’s also an extremely affordable game, and most importantly, it’s an extremely enjoyable game. This is the perfect game to fire up and play through on a flight, a train ride, or a morning commute (assuming you’re not driving on your commute; I do not condone playing Switch while driving). The game is fairly generous with save point placement, so dying and losing an hour of progress isn’t a concern. The only frustration I found in that regard was having to go through the dialogue for each and every boss attempt, but for that to be my biggest complaint is a pretty big accolade for the game. Whether you play on Steam or on Switch (pssssst, play on Switch), make sure you check out Gato Roboto. If you’re a fan of old school Metroid, I can promise that you won’t be disappointed.
