Metal Unit

Metal Unit is a fast-paced 2D side-scrolling action platformer with roguelike elements, set in a futuristic sci-fi world overrun by monstrous alien invaders. Players assume the role of Joanna, a powerful mecha-suited warrior fighting to reclaim Earth through procedurally generated levels, customizable loadouts, and intense combat. Featuring anime-inspired visuals, diverse weapon upgrades, and challenging gameplay, the title blends rogue-lite progression with explosive mecha battles across ever-changing alien landscapes.

Metal Unit: A Mecha Roguelite Caught Between Ambition and Execution

Introduction

In 2020, amidst a roguelite renaissance spearheaded by giants like Hades and Dead Cells, indie developer JellySnow Studio unleashed Metal Unit—a frenetic side-scroller blending mecha anime theatrics, punishing roguelite progression, and a tragic tale of sibling betrayal. Piloting the M-Unit 11 battlesuit, players embody Joanna, a soldier hunting her sister-turned-traitor while Earth buckles under alien and ancient horrors. While its pixel-art spectacle and customizable combat dazzle, Metal Unit struggles to reconcile its narrative ambitions with procedural repetition and uneven design. This review dissects its triumphs and stumbles, arguing that beneath its anime veneer lies a mechanically solid but thematically uneven experiment in genre fusion.

Development History & Context

Studio Vision and Constraints
JellySnow Studio, a small team spanning Korea and Canada, conceived Metal Unit as a love letter to classics like Metal Slug and Rogue Legacy. Sponsored via TumblBug crowdfunding, the game debuted in Early Access in February 2020, leveraging Steam’s platform to iterate based on player feedback. The developers prioritized “risk-reward dungeon crawling” and “meaningful player choices,” inspired by Darkest Dungeon’s branching consequences. However, technological limitations of Unity Engine’s 2D tools led to janky physics and asset-loading hiccups, particularly in the Switch port (2021).

The 2020 Gaming Landscape
Metal Unit launched into a crowded indie arena where roguelites demanded freshness to survive. Its anime aesthetic—bolstered by veteran artist Taehoon Kim (Magical Otoge Ciel)—provided niche appeal, but mechanics needed to compete with genre titans. Post-launch, JellySnow delayed its full release to Q4 2020, refining systems like the synthesis shop and adding narrative cinematics—a response to critiques of its disjointed story. Despite winning Bu:Star 2019’s Grand Prize, Metal Unit remained a cult curio, overshadowed by flashier contemporaries.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Plot and Characters: A Flawed Epic
Metal Unit’s lore brims with potential: Earth besieged by alien “Parasites” and subterranean ancients, with humanity’s last hope resting on pilots of sentient battlesuits. Protagonist Joanna’s quest—to capture her sister Mica, who defected to the aliens—frames a story of familial guilt and ideological rupture. Dialogue choices (e.g., sparing enemies or allying with factions) ostensibly shape outcomes, but these rarely transcend superficial branching, culminating in a rushed, disjointed finale.

Themes and Shortcomings
Beneath its mecha spectacle, the game grapples with corruption, cyclical violence, and the cost of survival. Joanna’s comrades, like the jaded veteran Gwen and idealist engineer Falcon, embody differing responses to apocalypse. Yet, character arcs drown in exposition-heavy logs and stiff cutscenes. Mica’s betrayal, revealed via fragmented logs, lacks emotional weight, reducing her to a macguffin. Metal Unit’s narrative ambition outstrips its execution, failing to leverage roguelite structure for thematic resonance (e.g., Hades’ familial reconciliation through repetition).

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Core Loop: Combat as Catharsis
At its best, Metal Unit delivers blistering combat. Joanna chains melee strikes, projectile barrages (ranging from plasma rifles to homing missiles), and sub-weapons like gravity grenades into Devil May Cry-esque combos. Dash-canceling and aerial mobility afford fluid evasion, while “Ultimate” skills—unlocked via Attack on Titan-style limb targeting—offer screen-clearing pyrokinetic bursts.

Roguelite Progression: Hindered by RNG
Death converts equipped gear into “Research Points” to permanently unlock weapons or passive buffs (e.g., health regeneration). Yet, the synthesis system—fusing items for randomized upgrades—feels punitive due to steep resource costs and low rarity yields. Inventory management frustrates: with only four slots (melee, ranged, armor, drone), players discard loot constantly, undermining the “adaptive playstyle” promise.

Critique of Systems
The “Assist Mode”—tailoring difficulty via damage sliders—saves Metal Unit from irrelevance for casual players but highlights balance issues. Challenge runs demand meta-knowledge of enemy patterns, yet procedural generation often spawns unfair room layouts (e.g., frost levels with instant-death pits). While weapon diversity impresses (50+ options, including whip swords and tesla coils), many feel redundant, with marginal stat differences.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Visual Design: Pixel Splendor Meets Inconsistency
Taehoon Kim’s anime-inspired sprites dazzle: Joanna’s M-Unit flashes neon-lit detail, while bosses—like the spider-mech “Arachnid Overlord”—evoke Neon Genesis Evangelion’s biomechanical horror. Environments, however, fluctuate wildly. Post-apocalyptic cities parallax beautifully, but volcanic and tundra biomes reuse assets, diluting their identity. Cutscenes blend pixel art with static manga panels—a stylistic clash that jars immersion.

Soundtrack and Atmosphere
Composer Heedo Woo melds synthwave and orchestral tension, with Scott Buckley’s The Encounter underscoring boss fights. Yet, audio mixing drowns out melodies in cacophonous firefights, and recycled enemy death crunches grate over time. Voice acting, limited to Joanna’s battle cries, feels half-baked—a missed opportunity for character depth.

Reception & Legacy

Launch and Critical Divide
Metal Unit garnered mixed reviews: praised for combat (Video Chums: “tight action-packed gameplay”) but lambasted for narrative incoherence (ScreenRant: “lacks fundamentals”). Critics noted control discomfort on Switch (Noisy Pixel: “uncomfortable over time”), while Steam players lauded its value (86% positive). Commercially, it found modest success—Super Rare Games’ Switch physical edition sold out its 4,000-unit run—but failed to breakout beyond niche circles.

Industry Influence
Though not revolutionary, Metal Unit influenced indie hybrids like 30XX, proving anime aesthetics and roguelite mechanics could coexist. Its Assist Mode became a blueprint for accessibility in hardcore genres, echoed in Elden Ring’s summons. However, JellySnow’s subsequent projects (Schwarzerblitz) avoided roguelites, suggesting lessons learned from Metal Unit’s systemic overreach.

Conclusion

Metal Unit is a conflicted gem—a game of exhilarating highs and baffling lows. Its combat thrills with customization depth, and its pixel-art vision channels ’90s mecha nostalgia with flair. Yet, undercooked storytelling, inconsistent progression, and technical stumbles prevent it from joining roguelite royalty. For genre devotees, it remains a worthy adrenaline shot, especially at budget pricing; for others, it’s a cautionary tale of ambition outpacing execution. In video game history, Metal Unit stands as a poignant footnote—a testament to indie passion straining against the limits of scope.