Zankinzoken

I won a key for this on IndieGala and it's not too bad I guess, viewed from that perspective. It's one of those that's neither a thumbs up or thumbs down for me, but I don't feel mean-spirited enough to thumb it down.
It has vibes of an older-gen (PS2-era) game in its simplicity and game design and basically finds you trudging a mech around a foggy, monotonous orange landscape, collecting repair packs, whilst dealing with hostile creatures as they appear by way of either your sword, pistol or rifle (the latter two with limited ammo). Initially, there's some fun here (for a while at least) as you make your way to a gate, dodging and fighting these creatures (unfortunately the same 2 types) and getting to know your weapons, but then you're tasked with backtracking to find 3 more keys elsewhere to open the said gate. I've got as far as finding the 4 keys and defeating a new sword-wielding mech to gain access to the base but died whilst navigating my way around corridor-spanning laser beams and fending off more mechs. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the interest in repeating the same stuff, fighting the same creatures all over again just to try and get a bit further - the core gameplay isn't rewarding enough to make me enjoy the replaying. It's repetitive and hard to tell if you're hitting an enemy with your sword. There's a certain arcadey old-school charm to this though which might appeal to those more willing to give some time to it but I'm not sure how much there is here to hold attention for long.
It runs smoothly and looks okay but I needed to frame-limit it to 60fps externally to stop my GPU maxing out as there's no in-game options at all, for anything - no keybinds, no graphics or audio settings, no nothing. There were times a bit more maneuverability would have been welcome as I encountered some issues where I'd get stuck in bits of the land that dipped down and found myself wishing for a jump or upwards jet button to help me get out of such sticky situations. Otherwise, the keyboard and mouse controls were fine and responsive but the information outlining these at the beginning really needs to be visible longer, or ideally allow the user to close it manually after reading it fully as it gleefully vanishes, expecting you be a speed reader.
I don't know how much more of the game there is beyond what I've experienced but I hope it offers more variety than what I've sampled. That said, it's cheap (89p at the mo) and might offer some entertainment for a short while at least, especially for those willing to persevere or those that fancy something decidedly retro-flavoured.

It's clear that this is early access but it's pretty great. The title music alone was worth the purchase!!!!! I'm not going to spoil it for you but you'll be very surprised when you find all 4 keys! I know I was. 10 out of 10 would robot ninja again.

Epic Soundtrack, Bad@ss Weapons. There is a real KEY to winning! I could listen to that soundtrack all day though! Really left my brain in a real fun fog!