Kunai Reviews
Kunai is a wonderful game that I am sure rewards a high level of mastery over its mechanics. It looks great, sounds amazing, and plays quite well for the most part. However, the bugs I encountered and some of the lackluster designs throughout the game often made me either sleepy-bored or frustrated at being killed by events largely out of my control. It feels clunky at some points and I believe needs just a bit more refining but it is a great game underneath it all.
Classic components come together to form a stellar slashing platformer, with the titular kunai providing a particularly high note.
Kunai is an impressive 2D action game. It follows the classic Metroidvania design, which offers a great adventure of exploration. But this is just a taste that won't last long.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
As the name suggests, 'Kunai' is a wire-action game using the item of the same name. Fast-paced movement, crazy explosives, spectacular combat system are all in the right balance for the gamer to carry on the thrill until the end. While it's described as another Metro-Vania type of genre, the action packed gameplay is as close to be an action genre, without the boring character leveling process. Various boss-fights, storyline and the pixel art style adds up as a positive value to the game.
Review in Korean | Read full review
From the opening moments to the end credits, everything about Kunai just oozes charm and its movement mechanics make it a joy to play. An absolute must-play.
Kunai knows grappling hooks are cool, so it gives you two of them. But beyond its best feature, it's an indie adventure that falls just a bit short of its excellent peers.
Kunai is the next great Metroidvania on Switch. It could easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Ori and the Blind Forest and The Messenger, especially in how effortless moving around and traversing the world is. This is as close to a must-play as I can recommend. You're a tablet who plays like Spider-Man, and everything looks beautiful. Kunai is excellent.
Despite some tedious backtracking, Kunai's fast-paced combat and satisfying platforming are accentuated by smart level designs that make it a blast to play.
Kunai is a cutesy Metroidvania title with lots of action, enjoyable gameplay and is a hell of a fun time. Sadly, the game ends way too soon, as I found myself lusting for more. A solid attempt by Turtleblaze and I'll be looking forward to their next project.
Kunai is a classic yet breathless metroidvania game, which capitalize on its strong action and fun narration. The sympathic Tabby and its variety of expressions is a bless to see, but the art direction suffers from its unflaterring minimalism, and endless boss patterns that grows on frustration.
Review in French | Read full review
Ultimately, Kunai is a competent and attractive Metroidvania title let down by uninspired game design, underutilized mechanics, and some bugs. Still, this isn't a bad effort by TurtleBlaze. In fact, I think a sequel that learns from this game's mistakes could be a blast.
While it lacks the visual flair and storytelling of genre hits like Hollow Knight, Kunai is undoubtedly among my list of top games for 2020. It's polished, it's funny, and best of all, it's a great time for hours on end.
While it does lean a bit on the easy side, kids will love this. Kunai could easily be a defacto entry level metroidvania to introduce to children.
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 really makes a name for itself. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, action-packed adventure where you can pull off some sweet parkour moves all the while wielding Ninja weapons, I highly recommend checking out Kunai.
If humanity truly is destined to fall, at least a cute tablet with a sword will avenge us.
Kunai does plenty of things right, but doesn't really try to stand out from the crowd in any way.
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?
If you're looking for a classic "metroidvania" with ninja abilities, that's just what Kunai offers: explore levels, kill enemies, push switches, get new abilities, kill bosses, get to new areas... and start all over again. All with a great Game Boy visual style, but in the end, it feels a pretty conventional game.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Maybe it's a little unfair to propose that Kunai's weaker spots are a result of the high bar games preceding it have set.