Kunai from the TurtleBlaze studios, presents himself as a metroidvania full of action, movements and samurai weapons that make the player quickly feel like a real badass.
The plot is set in a post-apocalyptic and post-human world, full of robots made of garbage.
A group of robots that resists the regime, ruled by malicious robots that have been infected with viruses, wakes up the protagonist, Tabby, the only hope of overcoming the affront to the well-being of the population. The character played by the player has the soul of a warrior within him, but the face of an iPad.
Although the protagonist is always silent, he is far from being expressionless. As he jumps, runs and uses one of his weapons, Tabby presents a variety of different facial expressions. The lack of a life bar is represented with the symbol of lack of energy that gives it a somewhat comic touch.
The humorous moments also present in the writing of this title offer an additional charm to all the present history and that give some laughs.
Regarding gameplay, it features a shorter variety of weapons.
Initially the player sees himself only with a katana as the main weapon in his quest to overthrow the regime and help the resistant group to survive the adversities of this confrontation. This weapon provides the ability to take down enemies as well as a defensive strand, as it allows you to deflect the shots fired by the bad guys.
It is clear that throughout the game new weapons and game mechanics will be presented, however, the main one all of them is the use of “katana” and “kunai”. A ninja weapon consisting of an iron blade with a large hole in its base.
Once this ability is unlocked, the game mechanics become very clear. The player will have at his disposal two “kunai”, each referring to one of the triggers, left and right. So, it is possible to launch this weapon to help with faster locomotion or to reach higher points, a little bit like the spiderman webs work. A mechanics well implemented, intuitive and quite fun.
The remaining weapons allow the player to inflict damage, but mostly serve to make way for places that were previously inaccessible.
The “shuriken” can be used to power certain switches and allows you to stun enemies. The sub machine guns, which are two machine guns that do little damage but fire a large number of bullets that allow the player, with the help of the jump, to reach more distant places. Finally, the “rocket launcher” that will be used to destroy rocks. It also allows the player to jump higher and knock down enemies faster, as it inflicts a lot of damage.
Kunai is a very expressive metroidvania, with a touch of retro, either in its type of mechanics, or for its graphic style that resembles the color palette of a Game Boy Color. The feeling of mastering the main mechanics of the use of “kunai” is quite satisfactory and a very fluid control of everything that happens on the screen give this title a good hours of fun, however, the variety of weapons leaves a little to Wish. For those who like to complete the games 100%, there are plenty of “secret” boxes with accessories that allow you to change Tabby’s appearance.
You can also read this review in Portuguese at Meus Jogos.
