‘Harder than Bruce Lee dipped in adamantium’. Those were the initial impressions of Robolt – the latest platform run ‘n gun from the lovely folks at Eastasiasoft, and developed by Gamelike Games.
After a few runs, the adamantium turned to Play-Doh, but Bruce was still in there. It’s quite a hard game, don’t you know. First, because enemies are randomly generated, and some runs are more challenging than others. The second element is the visuals: they’re gaudy.
So, you play a robot named Robbie and dash through four different biomes, taking down the mechs and finishing off each world’s boss. There’s no story or set-up here, but you don’t need one as it’s a direct hands-on experience.
Robolt Review (PS5)
Robolt is a side-scrolling pixel art adventure where you spawn into one of four stages per biome, blasting through to reach the exit. There’s no fancy welcome as blink, and you’re dead. Armed with a poxy blaster, Robbie must collect computer chips scattered across each stage to upgrade their abilities.
Without any guidance other than some pixel art icons, you take a jump and invest in their abilities ranging from a better gun (with bonus missiles), a triple jump, and more health. Sure, a weapon that does more damage may take off the edge, as would a health buffer, but the jump is the game changer.
Robolt’s double jump is excellent, but the triple jump is awesome. As each stage has random enemies, unless you’re collecting the chips or building up a body count, you can effectively speedrun a stage with little effort. It’s fun but shortcuts gameplay massively, though it’s welcome for some boss battles, as fighting through a stage again is painful.
AI, Eye
That’s not all that’s painful. Those gaudy visuals? Try playing a pixel art side-scrolling with parallax scrolling, where enemies and environmental hazards blend into one another. Robolt is like revisiting Zool Remastered and probably not best on a small screen, i.e. the Nintendo Switch version.
On top of that, though the pace is very speedy, deaths can be frequent through some frustrating mechanics. Like many platform sections, you can pull down and jump to drop a level, but there were so many instances where this was automated, and Robbie would fall on spikes or into a chainsaw wheel without warning.
Even some of the boss battles feel entirely random. It’s not that they’re overpowered (they’re actually quite easy), but the battle will often depend on how the enemies spawn, i.e. whether there are some enemies above or below attacking while you’re concentrating on the boss.
Verdict
With a total of 16 stages, Robolt is a relatively short affair. The initial experience was a little harsh, but it soon picks up with the upgrades, and Robbie can be a little overpowered with that jump mechanic. Still, it’s a fun action platformer once you give it a chance, just remember to blink frequently.
