Xbox Indie Review: Return All Robots

There’s nothing quite as nerve-wrecking as your first day on the job. You double-check to make sure your lime-green hair is slicked back, you make sure your white lab coat is wrinkle-free and devoid of pesky coffee stains, and you arrive at the Ethical Robots and Experimentation lab on time. And then you discover that there’s been a catastrophic accident and the oh-so expensive and oh-so unintelligent robots are in peril!

Of course, it’s up to the intern to save the day (and the robots), which thankfully is a heck of a lot more fun than you’d expect rescuing brain-dead robots would be. It’s an interesting puzzle game with a bizarre and catchy soundtrack and some fresh mechanics and level design.

The lab is in total disarray when the intern arrives on the scene. Random sections are ablaze, but most of the staff seems oddly content to stand around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the intern to do something. The lab acts as a hub between groups of levels, and it gives the intern the opportunity to have mostly one-sided conversations with the eccentric staff. “Why am I smiling when everything is on fire?” inquires one observant co-worker. Yeah, it’s that kind of snarky game, where pushing the A button next to most objects will yield a fairly humorous quip.

The actual action takes place on a grid-like levels like Bomberman, with a few scattered obstacles and hazards, and a number of red and blue robots. The red robots have gone bonkers and cannot be salvaged, while there is still hope that the blue ones could turn a tidy profit. The goal is simple enough: guide the blue robots to a teleporter and ensure those wacky red ones don’t enter the teleporter or come in contact with a blue robot or the intern. The title is actually quite misleading; you’ll quickly be faced with a game-over screen if you try and save all the robots!

The robots aren’t too keen on exploring their personal freedom and just stand in place awaiting orders to move. They’ll shift directions so that they’re always facing the intern, no matter where he moves on the stage. Hit the magic button and all of the robots will merrily march straight ahead until they collide with a barrier or reach a teleporter. As I mentioned before, the robots could be outsmarted by a dandelion, so it’s pretty simple to confound their pathetic robot logic. If the intern is positioned diagonally next to one, there’s a good chance it will get confused and won’t march when the button is pushed.

It might sound a bit complicated in writing (or perhaps I did a subpar job of describing it), but it’s a fairly simplistic system that has quite a bit of depth. Since all of the robots move every time the button is pressed, you have to plan out each move ahead of time. The levels mix up the different obstacles, hazards and quantities of robots, and it’s a lot of fun figuring out different ways to get the robots to the exit. Sometimes it seemed best to destroy the crimson robots first by luring them into boiling-lava, while other levels seemed to present an opportunity to avoid the red ones entirely and focus on saving the blues. It did require a bit of trial and error to figure out how to perfect each level, and I kind of felt like a velociraptor  ramming its head against the cage testing for weaknesses. Sooner or later, I’d always figure out a way to escape.

The game does a great job of mixing up the formula so that it doesn’t feel too repetitive as well. Each area features a scientist who has his/her own theory as to whom is to blame for the disaster – of course, they’re totally not to blame – and each area introduces its own little wrinkle. For example, one area allows the intern to deploy the cyber turtle, a indestructible half-robot, half-amphibian creation whose somber features make it seem like it would steer itself into the inferno if it would end its mechanical misery.

The soundtrack is a diverse mix of tunes that range from jazzy elevator music to motivational 80s rock. They fit the cheesy, humorous mood of the game perfectly, and are quirky and memorable. Soundtracks sometimes tend to be an afterthought in indie games and low-budget projects, but the music in Return All Robots really helped bring me into the game.

The combination of the fantastic soundtrack, novel puzzle mechanics and overall sense of humor really allowed Return All Robots to click with me. Definitely pick it up if you’re looking for a fun little puzzle game to mess around with and aren’t looking for something too serious.

Rating:

Visit the Xbox Live Marketplace to add a free demo of Return all Robots to your Xbox 360 download queue.

Return all Robots was provided for review by Space Whale Studios. It is available for 240 MS points ($3)

By Mike Wall at February 11, 2011.

About Mike Wall

Mike grew up and lives near Philadelphia and has been intrigued with games ever since his parents preached that they rotted his brain. He studied journalism at Penn State and got his master's degree in secondary education before realizing that not even summers off would make that job palatable. He now works in marketing and is trying to find time to continue writing a book about zombies, aliens, vampires, the end of the world, and a talking cat.