Kunai

Kunai gets its hooks into you when Tabby starts turning a pair of kunai into a way across the world rather than just weapons. Swinging off surfaces gives its 2D platforming a lively, improvised rhythm, and the connected map rewards you for noticing a suspicious route instead of marching straight toward the next objective.

That momentum carries a lean robot-uprising adventure with sharp pixel scenery and enough combat to keep exploration from becoming a sightseeing tour. Some backtracking is part of the deal, and dense industrial areas can blur together visually, but the movement is fun enough to make another pass through an old route feel like an opportunity rather than homework.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour of Kunai makes a strong case for its premise: you are a tablet-headed robot with two kunai, and getting anywhere feels more satisfying when you can latch onto a surface and swing toward it. Tabby is not merely crossing rooms from left to right. The grappling turns platforming into a chain of small decisions about where to hook, when to release, and whether an inviting side path is worth chasing.

Its connected exploration is what separates it from a more linear action-platformer. New weapons and abilities open routes that were previously out of reach, so you will revisit familiar spaces and uncover secrets along the way. That structure can become frustrating if you dislike retracing steps, but it works here because returning with more mobility changes how you read an old stretch of terrain. Routes that once looked like dead ends start looking like invitations.

Combat mixes sword attacks and ranged options against hostile robots, with the kunai keeping movement central even when a fight breaks out. The result has some of the acrobatic blade-combat energy of Strider 2, but the rhythm is different. Rather than pushing through staged arcade challenges, you are picking your way through a larger world, looking for the next opening and making your own route through it.

Graphics

The pixel art uses a compact, color-limited look to good effect. In the industrial areas, pale gray and lavender machinery, terminals, and small tablet-screen robots sit beneath massive machinery, while a red vertical beam and red sword trails cut through the subdued blue-gray surroundings. Those lavender factory shapes can blend into one another, though, making parts of the background flatter than they should be.

Outdoor scenes fare better. Tabby stands out against cream-white skies, a huge golden sun, gray bamboo, and golden foliage, with cream explosion clouds and bits of brown debris punctuating a fight. The tablet face gives the hero a simple comic expression, even in the middle of a slash.

Story

Tabby enters a broken Earth where the evil AI Lemonkus has nearly wiped out humanity and robots now roam the planet. An ancient warrior’s soul inside this tablet-headed robot is an enjoyably strange starting point, and it fits a game that mixes ninja movement with a mechanical post-apocalypse.

The resistance supplies the reason to keep moving through the fallen city, airships, artificial deserts, and other hostile territory. Friendly and hostile robots, including Earl, Chief, and Lemonkus, give the journey a cast beyond faceless targets, while the central conflict stays focused on stopping the robot uprising.

This is a clean, direct framework for an exploration game, not a story that needs to carry every moment on its own. It does enough to give each newly opened route a purpose, then wisely lets the movement and discovery take the foreground.

Overall Experience

Kunai is easy to recommend if a metroidvania lives or dies for you on how good it feels to move through it. The hook-and-swing platforming supplies that essential pleasure, and the gradual spread of new routes gives the world a satisfying sense of unfolding. You can find more about TurtleBlaze’s game in the official KUNAI press kit.

The tradeoff is familiar: secrets and unlocks ask you to revisit older territory, and not every industrial room is equally clear to look at. If you want a straight, stage-by-stage action game, the detours may test your patience. If you enjoy realizing that an earlier obstacle has become reachable because your own toolkit has grown, the payoff is worth the occasional retrace.

At its best, Kunai makes navigation feel like action instead of downtime. Its combat and robot-rebellion setup are solid support, but the real reason to play is the moment you spot a distant surface, throw a kunai, and turn a tricky route into a clean swing forward.