
You come across many blocked or unaccessible paths at the start, which you can return to later after gaining the required weapons or abilities. The world is made up of a number of environments, each one with its own theme, and with rooms within each environment. Similar to Super Nintendo classic Super Metroid, you begin the game where you first embarked on to the planet from your spaceship, and you will pass by here on a few occasions as you progress and open up more and more of the world. You spend most of your time in the mech suit, although you can get out when you want and spend time outside the suit to go places the suit can’t go (such as small confines or water) or to pilot other machines. You start with a basic gun and gain more weapons, abilities and extensions to your health bar through collectibles and upgrades found through exploration, many of which are optional. But once you find your mech suit, you’re able to take some damage, as well as deal some out. However you don’t have an attack, and you are vulnerable as you might expect a cat left alone on an alien planet would be. Kiki can jump and bound about the screen at speed, as well as being able to swim (after overcoming your initial fear, naturally as you’re a cat) and run up certain vertical surfaces Super Mario 3D World style. During Gary’s plea for help, he tells you there should be a pilotable security mech somewhere, so you need to set off to look for it. After the crash Gary is badly injured and trapped inside the ship, so you must go and find help. The action starts after the ship captain, Gary, crashes the spaceship you’re both traveling in onto a small planet discovered during a routine patrol. This however is from Oregon-based developer doinksoft and Texan publisher Devolver Digital, who have released what they call a Meowtroidvania. Backtracking? Yes, it has all the required ingredients needed and the same which Nintendo has used themselves in their classic Metroid series. Start with no power ups and gather them as you progress? Check. Your spaceship crashes on a mysterious alien planet? Check. Gato Roboto is one of the most metroid-y metroidvanias yet on Switch.

Most metroidvanias on Switch are ports which is no bad thing, but this latest addition to the Switch’s library is brand new, releasing at the same time as on Steam which makes a nice change. This might be as you’d expect from the console manufacturer who first played host to both game series which give their name to the genre. The Switch has built quite a library of metroidvania experiences in its first 2 years.
