Haiku, the Robot is out soon and it’s worth a look for metroidvania fans

Steam first on April 28, then Switch down the line

I don’t need three lines! If I had to sum up Haiku, the Robot in a single word, I’d stick with “comfy.” This retro-style metroidvania from Mister Morris Games is launching on April 28 for Steam — with a Nintendo Switch version planned down the road — and it looks comfy, like the kind of familiar experience that’ll do exactly what it needs to do.

The game’s creator, Jordan Morris, just announced the PC date with a new trailer.

The color palette, protagonist’s dash ability, and potential for playstyle customization with the “chip” system are all doing it for me. A game without humans sounds nice, doesn’t it?

“On your journey, you will pick up different pieces of the story enshrouding the mysterious explosion that happened 200 years ago and how machines came to life,” said Morris.

“All the abilities have been designed to work with and without each other, leading to different combinations and methods of traversal. You choose how you want to tackle certain challenges. Countless hours have been spent iterating on the feel and responsiveness of the controls in order to ensure that the game feels great to play.”

While the Steam release is imminent, it’s been a journey — Haiku, the Robot was funded, at least in part, through a modest Kickstarter. The original plan was to get the game out in October 2021, though Morris (smartly) ended delaying it and didn’t publicly commit to a new date until now to avoid extra stress. As for the Switch version, a simultaneous release “was too much work for one person,” so that’ll be out… later! Don’t rush it.

“Bug fixing on both platforms would have probably killed me haha,” said the creator.