Robot Rampage

Developer: Origin8
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1

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Origin 8, the makers of Robot Rampage, have a good thing going in the App Store. For those of you who haven't played the Sentinel series tower defense games yet, you are really missing out. Robot Rampage though is not a tower defense game, it is instead a 2D side scroller in the same vein as Zombieville USA.

Instead of being lame and having you play as the humans in charge of defeating the invading aliens, Robot Rampage pits you, the invading robot, against all the pitiful little humans with their pitiful little weapons. As you walk through the city, it is up to you to blow up all the buildings as well as the human military that come at you. The game progresses by having you blow up city block after city block, with the goal of blowing up as many city blocks at you can without getting yourself blown up.

The combat system is quite simple. You can either punch things, stomp on things, or shoot your laser. The more attacks you use, the more your bonus blaster goes up, eventually letting you unleash a wave of energy that blows everything up on the screen. As you progress through the levels, different enemy units come at you, from foot soldiers (not the Ninja Turtle kind) to fighter jets.

The real winner here is the graphics. The goal of the game is to put you in charge of your own B-movie robot rampage, and the graphics sure don't let you down. The robot moves around with perfect motion, while the humans look amazing while they attack you.The real treat is using your laser, which somehow looks like it is actually going to hurt someone. The laser lights up in such a way that it almost looks like some sort of real motion blast coming out of the B-movie robot. Needless to say, I was thoroughly impressed with the graphics.

Unfortunately, the game isn't perfect. Even though there is all sorts of mayhem and carnage going on, you'll eventually get to a point that you just don't care anymore. With no breaks in the game, replaying over and over just seems rather unpleasant. The game could really use some kind of level system where you could possibly spend money on health and maybe some upgrades. Everything just becomes a bit stale after a few levels.

Overall, I'd say that Robot Rampage is an extremely well made game that is lacking the required depth to make it a must have game. Think of it as the iPhone gaming version of Star Wars: Episode 1, but without all the annoying characters. Sure, it's extremely pretty, but there is just not enough depth there to really make you come back for more.