Gato Roboto

I'm surprised about the nearly overwhelmingly positive rating of Gato Roboto. It's a cute black and white metroidvania about a cat exploring a weird research facility in a robot suit. You essentially have two forms. As a cat, you can climb walls and swim, as well as fit through smaller passages, but as a robot, you can blast through some loose terrain, open doors, and beat enemies, as well as take a few hits from them. Exiting your robot leaves it standing there, forcing you to either come back for it, or to find a save point, usually. Aside from regular enemies, there are also a few boss fights and some rooms with permanent power-ups.

There's nothing wrong with Gato Roboto, but it's just about the most basic metroidvania you could think of. Map exploration is straightforward, enemies are on the easy side, there are no fancy mechanics, just jumping and shooting. I suppose the only non-standard ability is the possibility to have two forms. On top of that, the game's short, only about 4 hours, split into 4 (or 5) areas, with each area taking about 40-60 minutes.

Ultimately, I felt more-or-less sated while playing it, but once I put it down, I didn't feel like I had had fun. Again, there's nothing wrong with the game, and so it never displeased me, but it's just rather unambitious. I suppose if you just want a metroidvania to kill an evening's worth of time, this is a fine pick, but it's a bit too plain for my tastes and so I can't personally recommend it.