Not all robots are relentless killing machines bent on eradicating our human race of meatbags off the earth we befoul. No, some are quite sweet and cute little workers – servants really – who’s shoddy state of repair and ill-equippedness make it impossible for us to refuse them the job of protecting the huge motherhonking cannon we put on the moon that can put a whole in the earth big enough to fly the death star through. “We were totally going to lace that space station with auto-cannons, but then Blitz just looked at us with those painted on puppy dog eyes and our hearts just melted.” And then the space pirates invaded, because that’s what space pirates do.
This is your predicament in RoboBlitz, the clever 3D puzzle/platformer from Naked Sky Entertainment that’s now available on Xbox Live Arcade. As Blitz, one of only two working robots on the aforementioned be-cannoned space station, and the only one who can move. Your buddy Karl has no legs, or even a ball like you do, so he stays back in the repair bay working on upgrades and giving you tips as you move your way through the eighteen different task-oriented levels slowly bringing the cannon back online to blast the space pirates out of the sky.
Domo Arigato…
Who says that downloadable Xbox Live Arcade games have to be simple looking or simple playing? “Casual” games are for your mom. RoboBlitz is built off of the Unreal 3 engine, so it looks and runs amazing, even if the art assets that it’s built upon are a little bit pedestrian. It’s not quite the visual feast of, say, the movie Robots, but it also is devoid of the annoyingly overacted voice over work of Robin Williams, but that seems like a plus in our books.
RoboBlitz is also powered by a very advanced physics engine, which not just makes things fly around and fall realistically, it’s also what most of the games animations and puzzles are built off of. As you travel to each of the space stations different areas to fix and/or turn systems back on, you’ll often use physics based puzzles (dropping boxes on levers, stacking stuff, etc.) to complete your objectives.
You Had To Get All Newtonian On Us
All of Blitz’s movements are physics based too, which keeps in the overall theme of the game but at time can turn frustration. You’ll often get your arms hung up in a rafter, or occasionally trapped between platforms, especially when you start flinging yourself about with your electric rappelling wire. We never found a completely controller throwing moment, but did set the 360 controller down rather firmly once or twice with a stern snort. We once even tore tissues.
It’s all the variety of RoboBlitz’s levels and challenges that make the game so endearing and completely worth the 1200 microsoft points it cost to download. Even the bosses you face upon completing each of the three levels in each area are fun old school puzzle bosses that don’t depend solely on you finding a weak point, but often involve discovering how you can use the environment to foil the evil NOEDs. Sure, your weapons are cool, but it takes brains to beat this game.
XBLAwesome
RoboBlitz is a great example of what Xbox Live Arcade can do beyond porting arcade classics. Not only do they offer you a great game at a reasonable price, but you get all the benefits of the Xbox 360 like achievement list and (promised) downloadable content. Now if there were only an online multiplayer component to RoboBlitz, it would be almost perfect. Instead we’ll just play it over and over to get all the achievements. I wonder if there’s a robot we can hire to do that for us?
Review by: Tom Price
Video produced by: Michael Benson
