Welcome to our review of Gato Roboto, a game available now on Xbox Game Pass and well worth your time!
Pounce inside of your cozy armored mech and set off on a dangerous trek through an alien underworld full of irritable creatures and treacherous obstacles in a valiant effort to save your stranded captain and his crashed spaceship. Tiptoe outside the friendly confines of your technological marvel and follow your feline instincts through tight tunnels and mysterious waterways to scavenge for new weapons and gear. Adventure awaits the most curious of cats in Gato Roboto!
Explore the underground labyrinth of a deep-space outpost and uncover the dastardly deeds that unfolded before your arrival. Blast and dash your way through enemies and obstacles in an agile mech suit to face the guardians stationed precariously throughout the base.
Cautiously venture outside the mech and risk all nine lives to explore areas inaccessible to your bulky, mechanical armor. Discover secrets abound and gather new weapons and items to help open up new areas on your journey through dozens of handcrafted environments.
As the screenshots show, this game is just 2 colors and it just works. Gato Roboto is one heck of a game and I loved the two hours I played so far. I do intend to spend more time playing this game and in the days after this review, expect to see it pop up on our official mixer account too!
What I like about it? It is a Metroidvania where a cat is the main hero of the game. The premise might be silly, but it just works. Some awkward puns about cats hating water aside, this game is actually a very decent Metroidvania with a low amount of backtracking but with a very easy map to help guide you!
At the time of writing this review, I had purposely gone through all the possible backtracking of the first level of floors, to get a proper idea of what this game was all about. Not intending to even write a review, but decided to do so because I want to give this game some more exposure. It is fun to play and if you got Game Pass, give this game a try!
So far, I got three ways of playing. As the cat itself, who can run up walls. Something I figured out no less than three times. I did it by luck the first time, then figured it out that it was possible and the third time, I had been in the robot for a while and completely forgot how to really work my “cat” moves.
As you progress through the story and levels, you will slowly but surely upgrade your basic mecha to add more health and bigger and better weapons. I have not been able to self damage the mecha, but I clearly do not have all the guns yet. The basic gun has limited range but others like the missile have not. On the flip side, however, that same missile has a temperature limit, allowing for two shots but then it needs to cool off.
The timing when getting into a boss fight is important here as those bosses are a lot harder than you’d think. Nothing impossible, just more intense and proper timing is everything here. Same for all the jumping as you can not get into the water with your mecha, but the cat can. The cat, however, can only be hit once.
Another method I got, a little submarine with currently only a basic gun. That does the entire 360 degrees in moving and it did get some taking used to. The maneuverability for the mecha compared to the full freedom of the submarine. So very different and it adds a whole new level to the game.
During your gameplay, and this is in my humble opinion quite useless, you can find skins for the game, making it black and yellow, or more mellow colors. I admit I love the original colors the most and well, some may like it, but I did not.
In conclusion, Gato Roboto is a great game, it plays well 99% of the time. While some jumps are hard and certain parts really got on my nerves, I do feel this game is a must-play, especially now that all Game Pass users can just download and play!
