Roboto Review

Remember platform games? Simple sidescrolling, coin-gobbling, jumping over obstacles and hitting baddies on the head type games. Well, if a console-quality platformer adapted for touchscreen sounds good know Roboto is on the App Store.

Gamers control a teen-aged robot in pursuit of his love interest across 30 levels. The simple story is silly although gorgeously played out in animated sequences between levels. Mario wanted to save a princess, our protagonist wants to shred his hoverboard and get a date with a hot metallic babe. It’s cute.

A slider controls movement and two buttons, one for jumping, one for firing complete the control scheme.

Players take the robot for a ride on his hovering skateboard, along extreme tracks where he can show off his moves over ramps, lifts and while taking partial flight. He pulls off some cool gravity-bending stunts by climbing walls and skating at full speed upside-down.

The graphics are superb examples of cell-shaded animation, as are the cinematics. The soundtrack is enjoyable, if a quasi-punk theme with no real bite doesn’t offend, and the challenges come fast and furious.

Roboto has several mini-games to vary the pace, but the controls are the show-stoppers.  The slider is where it should be and fingers land on the jump and fire “buttons” on both iPad and iPhone with comfort.

Boss battles are original and challenging and Roboto is Game Center and Openfeint enabled for leaderboards. And of course there are upgradeable weapons that fire with precision, or enemies can by bonked on the brain in classic platforming tradition.

Maneuvering from level to level is a bit odd - it requires almost a mini-game of its own, with more scrolling and jumping just to get in the right level's door, and can be off-putting. But there’s not much else to pick on here.

Roboto is slick, familiar and simultaneously fresh, and gamers old and new will welcome the sidescrolling action gaming fun.