Katanaut Review

Back in the 1990s, there was a show on UK telly called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Thanks to a moral panic campaign in the 1980s, there were some interesting decisions about what should and shouldn't be broadcast, and for some reason, ninjas were chosen to represent far too much violence. The fact that the film came out with the correct name in the same year that we got the renamed cartoon was even more unusual. Whilst there was no formal “ban” on the word, the British Board of Film Classification advised against it, and would cast a stringent eye on anything aimed at children which featured martial arts. Of course, the upshot of this is that anyone who grew up in the late ‘80s or ‘90s probably thought ninjas were the coolest thing ever — banning something really helps increase its popularity! So for me, as someone who did indeed grow up in the ‘90s, the only thing that could make ninjas cooler is ninjas in space. 

Katanaut isn't just ninjas in space, however; it's ninjas meets Dead Cells… in space. That's not to say that the game is derivative or doesn't have its own thing, but this stylish hack-and-slash roguelite is frankly one of the most enjoyable games I've played since Motion Twin's 2018 magnum opus. There's clearly inspiration from a number of different sources in play, all of which have been smashed together with precision and love in a way that you rarely see.

The premise is fairly simple: you are one of the last few survivors from a terrible accident aboard your spaceship. There are aliens everywhere, and you need to kill them all, whilst avoiding your own untimely demise. Fortunately, when the baddies do get the better of you (and make no mistake: they will), death isn’t the handicap it used to be in the olden days, and you can return to life with some of your memories and weaponry intact. Like you might expect in a game of this kind, most of your progress is lost with each death, but currency earned in your playthroughs allows you to purchase upgrades to grow more powerful with every resurrection.

 Those upgrades are particularly intricate, and make for a very customisable experience. There are three types of damage: Kinetic, Aether, and Combat. Your Katana usually deals Combat damage, but there are a couple of special ones which use Aether and Kinetic. You have two skill slots you can earn through collectables and purchases, which can be any of the three damage types, depending on which you pick. These skills are either an additional attack or a passive buff.

There’s also a secondary weapon, which is either a gun or another bladed weapon, and these also have varying damage types. Finally, there are perks, which are usually static buffs like a percentage chance to regain health or ammo. One I really enjoyed was the “Drone Buddy”, which puts a little robot alongside you to take down enemies on your behalf. He doesn’t do loads of damage, but he slowly chips away at everything he sees, and it helps a tonne when things get hectic. 

Through each playthrough, you can collect syringes that boost specific damage types, increase your ammo, or raise your crit chance for that run only. There are only so many of these in any one run, so you have to balance what damage types to use with what power-ups to use. I found it easiest to try and focus on one damage type for all of my skills, then pump all my syringes into combat and one other stat, as opposed to trying to balance all three types. How you choose to do this will be entirely down to your preference, and it’s another thing that makes Katanaut simple to play but complex to master. There’s no one perfect build, just the one that you like the most. 

The art style is the kind of modern pixel-art that has become synonymous with the genre, with a fair amount of slightly eldritch horror and a variety of visceral enemies to destroy. One thing you can’t fail to notice with Katanaut is the sheer amount of gore and blood. There’s a sense of Mortal Kombat at play here, and whilst it’s probably not necessary, it’s awfully good at feeding back just how many mobs you’ve sliced and diced your way through. It’s certainly fitting for one of the first games to be published under the revised Aklaim banner!

The true test of any roguelike, of course, is in the combat. With a game that is designed to be fast-paced and frenetic, it has to feel right. If you’re going to be dying a lot, then it can’t ever feel cheap. Too many of Katanaut’s peers have left me feeling that, in fact, I wouldn’t have died if the controls were slightly more responsive, or if a particular animation didn’t take quite so long, for example. That’s not the case here, as whilst I did indeed snuff it an inordinate amount, it never felt like the reason was anything more than simply biting off more than I could chew. 

Something that I found a bit different was the inclusion of a stamina mechanic. You can’t just keep jabbing at the fire button, because everything you do costs stamina, and whilst it regenerates fast, it is still possible to run out. Initially, I found this a bit of an odd choice for a game so blazingly fast, but once I got used to the idea that I can’t just spam attacks and hope for the best, I managed to become pretty good at never running out. It’s another layer of tactics that needs mastering.

If there is any criticism I could possibly level at Katanaut, it’s that it’s unapologetically tricky. This is, as with many in the roguelike genre, a very hard game. I’d racked up well in excess of 20 hours of gameplay by the point where I finally downed the first boss. At the time of writing, I’m yet to get the second one much past the 50% mark! This didn’t bother me anywhere near as much as I thought it would, as you get really quickly back into another game, and the partially procedurally generated levels are just different enough that they don’t get too repetitive. 

When all is said and done, there’s loads to love about Katanaut and not that much to dislike. If the worst thing I can say about a game is that it’s a bit hard, then that’s pretty good in my books. And I haven’t even mentioned that it does have a ship’s cat, which you can pet! It’s the most fun I’ve had with a roguelike since Dead Cells, and I already know that I’ll be hooked on this for weeks trying to unlock every secret.