There’s nothing that can quite get my blood pumping and interest piqued than the promise of a new twin-stick roguelike to put through the paces. Sometimes they’ll trend more towards arcade action, and sometimes more simply towards making your life miserable, but in general they can be a lot of fun. Metal Mind, while it doesn’t break a great deal of original ground, still delivers the action where it counts, and is a good time if you don’t mind some frustration along the way.

The hook here reminds me a bit of another robo-shooter from back in the earlier days called NeuroVoider, with you playing as a robot who is able to pick up and change out some of its core components as you go through each run. While it would be obvious to focus mostly on hoping for new weapons, there are times where changing out more fundamental parts like your chassis can have the most vital effects. Part of this is tied to the fact that with heavy weapon use tends to come a build-up of heat, something that can normally be a challenge to manage, but when you’re under pressure from multiple enemies or bosses it’s even harder to be mindful of. In those cases, some improved efficiency or ability to better deal with heat can mean the difference between overheated death and success, so keep that in mind.

What may break some more casual shooting fans is that the challenge level here is generally pretty brutal, and the fact that collecting the proper currency to unlock some more permanent relief is tougher than usual, and that sting will tend to linger longer than most as well. One contributor to this is that it just feels more common to get stuck with junkier gear on your average run than the norm, so you’ll more often need to be able to gut things out further into your run in the hopes of getting some relief than normal. Another challenge is that on the whole extra health and armor tend to be scarce, so you’ll really need to put effort into playing a bit more defensively rather than going in guns blazing and hoping to get topped up later.

All of this comes together to make for a somewhat novel, and certainly difficult shooting experience. If you’re a fan of the likes of Enter the Gungeon, there are some touches in the control and the design that will feel familiar, and that isn’t a bad thing. In particular, the ability to warp around pretty easily as you explore is appreciated as it’s a great time saver. Just be sure to get as comfortable as you can and then prepare for some pain, because this robotic world is a tougher-than-usual nut to crack.