Kunai does so much with so little. From the minimalist art style to the polished grappling mechanic, it’s hard not to recommend this entry to fans of the metroidvania genre, or anyone looking for a fresh offering on the Nintendo Switch.
Repeating my review from the PC version, this game is just amazing in pretty much every way (graphically, animation-wise, humor, tone, game feel, etc.), the movement mechanics are simple enough for anyone to pick up but are complex enough to take a while to master. The bosses are very creative and all involve some sort of movement mechanic and are decently challenging. My only gripe with the game it’s that it’s way too short, hopefully there’ll be some DLC down the line, I would gladly pay for it! Great job Turtleblaze and crew!
If you are a fan of robot ninja action or you’re just looking for the next Neo-classic Metroivania title with a hint of Bionic Commando thrown in for good measure, KUNAI delivers a very satisfying experience.
While Kunai might not stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Ori or Hollow Knight, there’s much to love, including fantastic controls, rewarding secrets, and zesty facial expressions. This little tablet has a lot of heart, and a lot of hats.
Indie games in the Metroidvania genre are pretty common, but Kunai manages to stands out with exceptionally fluid combat, a wonderful Game Boy Color aesthetic, and swinging around on your kunai. The swinging mechanic is the star of the show here, even if the design of your limited arsenal shows some clear thought went into making every weapon meaningful. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to figure out where you're supposed to go at times, backtracking in Kunai is a bit of a pain, and the level design doesn't offer as many branching paths as its competition. But it's worth playing through the game's short runtime and this is a great foundation for a sequel.
Kunai is an expressive, stylish and retro-tinged metroidvania that kept me engaged the entire time I played it. The feeling of slowly mastering the rope-kunai and being able to flawlessly swing around environments and flank enemies was incredibly satisfying. I only wish the rest of your abilities in the game had the same kind of skill ceiling to reach, because without any cool reasons to deflect bullets, why bother having the ability to do so in the first place?
A competent Metroidvania with some attractive visuals and fun gimmicks, but they can’t hide the fact that the game underneath is far less inspired than it first seems.
This is worth the money it was. Now, I will say, I got between 5-10 hours of gameplay, but got an extra couple hours trying to find all the hats.
The gameplay was as smooth as taking a knife of butter and spreading it across really warm toast. It was smooth. In fact, and I’m not saying I don’t like Celeste but it has way smoother gameplay compared to Celeste.
The story was interesting but it had a major plot twist near the end. The game felt like a metroidvania where you get weaponry and use it for obstacles earlier in the game. Also I do absolutely recommend finding the minimal in the forest map, it’ll be used throughout the game and help you save tons of time looking for where you need to go. Getting hats was worth my time. I normally don’t look for secrets in games but these hats... they kinda look a bit badass to wear. You feel like a pro wearing these hats. They are scattered around the map but some places are pretty smart hiding places for the hats.
I had some problems with the game:
1. Sometimes the music got a bit tedious like the First time I got onto the airship. And the same boss music was used in the last boss, I kinda wish there was more effort put into the final boss music because it didn’t really feel like a final boss with the basic boss music playing in the background
2. If your last save was in another map and you died, you would travel all the back to that last map which can be annoying sometimes
3. Once I completed the game, upgraded my katana to max and everything else maxed out, I had no use for my money, I just wish I could use my money on more things you know?
4. Ok, this isn’t a complaint but the RPG becomes atrociously OP when you fully max it out. But on the other side, it’s fun to RPG jump to get through areas quicker and it does tons of damage
Some examples of what I liked in game:
1. Smooth gameplay and platforming using the Kunai as grappling hooks
2. Once you fully max the SMGs our, you can use shoot them downwards to look like you are in the game Downwell
3. There are funny references in the game, read the dialogue to people in Robopolis and you will understand what I mean
4. Finding chests were actually worth finding even if I found them on accident
5. I had to find the items to everything, find the minimal, find the WiFi box to access the shop, find the weapons, find the hats
6. The color palette that was used in the simplistic design of everything.
7. The satisfaction of killing an enemy with the Katana doing a down katana slash
Overall, I say this was totally worth the $17 or so it costs. I thank the devs a lot for making such a fun game to play! -Elias Roa
kunai has its flaws, sometimes unclear mission objectives and a lot of backtracking, but in the end its not a long game and its great controls, fun powers and hard difficulty made me a fan of the game (with some rage quitting aside)
Kunai es un buen juego de acción exploración con mecánicas de movimiento divertidas, originales y muy conseguidas. El problema es que Kunai es un metroidvania y no un juego de acción-aventura, y dentro de este genero falla en un punto clave, revisitar escenarios no es divertido en kunai: faltan interconexiones entre escenarios o algún medio de teletransporte, y realmente volver a recorrer escenarios antiguos con nuevas habilidades, cosa no necesaria pero que es gran parte del atractivo del genero, resulta más un tedio que otra cosa. Además, la visión global de los escenarios acaba estando muy desconectada, lo que lleva más a continuar esta imagen. Realmente creo que se equivocaron bien en el diseño de niveles (o del mundo más bien), bien en el genero del juego. A pesar de ello los controles son una gozada y es muy disfrutable para las poquitas horas de duración que ofrece. Eso sí, la dificultad del juego es bastante baja excepto algún pico absurdo de dificultad (aunque nada excesivamente desafiante) como por ejemplo el propio jefe final... en general bastante desbalanceado también en este aspecto.
El estilo artístico también me tira bastante para atrás, pero eso es ya cuestión de gustos.
SummaryA traumatic event has shaken the balance of the world. Human life has been almost wiped out by the evil A.I. Lemonkus. Robots roam free across the earth. You take control of Tabby, a killer robot infused with the soul of an ancient warrior. A NINJA METROIDVANIA. Start out with nothing, progress and increase in strength by killing enemy r...