Kunai

 

Release: 2020

Developer: Turtle Blaze

Publisher: The Arcade Crew

This is going to be a very slapshot review. I played this game over a year ago but forgot to write it up. I believe I hundred percented this game, but I did it through the Prime Games launcher so I don't know about achievements nor time played.

I remember having pretty mixed feelings about this game. I think the platforming was really good in particular. I liked the movement in the game and how fluid everything controlled. I remember the combat feeling nice and chunky, added screen shake where appropriate. I remember thinking the story was kind of bad, but that tends to be how metroidvanias are usually with the story being very secondary.

I do remember strongly disliking how zoomed in the camera was in this game. It made the game feel claustrophobic in a weird way, in a stark contrast with how free the movement felt. When backtracking through an area I would fly freely, but going through the first time I was very cautious about how to proceed because I didn't want to fall into a pit or fling myself into an enemy. I think that the more freedom of movement a game has, the more you should be able to see of the game. Maybe that's also why I haven't really been gripped by Diablo games in the past? I'm not sure.

This game was very critically lauded, but it didn't feel as strong to me as it apparently did to a lot of the professional reviewers. I guess that means it was a matter of taste! Anyway, I don't feel comfortable giving this one a numerical score since it's been so long since I played, but I don't know that I would recommend this game. It wasn't bad, but there are so many other, stronger titles in the genre that would receive my recommendation over this game.