Monday, December 14, 2015

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters



When gaming meets B-movie!

Oh no, evil Reptilons are hell-bent on destroying us and have taken hold of Planet X. They've enslaved the human population and forced them to build a robot army for an invasion. Jake and Duke are two heroes with a simple plan: destroy as many robots as possible, trash the computers, rescue every cute girl and save the day.

Robot Monsters is played in a fashion similar to other 3D isometric games; imagine a pinch Buck Rogers mixed with a dollop of Gauntlet and you get the idea. The goal is to rescue the humans, without forgetting those held in stasis pods! Along the way are traps designed for us soft fleshy humans: sharp spikes, rotating chunks of metal, and electric floor panels.

All this is going on whilst Planet X constantly spawns new enemy robots. Yes, the alien hoard is relentless so you better be quick on the trigger otherwise you will be overrun. It's insane, so let's check out some screenshots of the intro...







Grab a raygun and fight back!

We have a weapon which is a great tool for quick kills. But, refrain from overuse otherwise, it is less effective... Thankfully, it can be charged by collecting the green blobs that a dead robot might leave behind. There are also bombs - hit the shift key and they detonate killing anything within your vicinity. Even the captives so, be careful.

A canal stage appears after a few levels which offer extra bonuses but aren't essential to your overall progress and I wasn't too eager about it anyhow. The big Reptilon boss will first seem an impossible opponent but there is a cunning way to avoid it by using a few bombs and a little joystick waggling!! Just ask me if you need any help.

I know, I know, you wanna see some more screenshots from the intro. Well, you're in luck...






Next-Gen aesthetics!

Well, yes and no. Back in the day, I remember being blown away by the comical artwork, which still looks great. In-game, I love the isometric 3D styles which I think is perfect, and the entire environment has superb attention to detail. The alien hoard is varied and looks excellent - my favourite being the biscuit-looking lot. They're not biscuits of course, but I think they're cute! And that's this game to a tea, it's different and loves to be different. It works perfectly.

The audio is a blast with cool, zappy effects and gorgeous chip music. Click the arrow and listen for yourself...


Don't run away. Come back, there are girls to be rescued and robots to destroy!


The CryptO'pinion?

You know folks, I have really enjoyed playing this great game again after all these years. This is one of those shooters that is stuffed to the brim with originality and frantic metallic mayhem. Running around shooting everything is totally demented and all done with a comical personality using great characters. This is superb gameplay at its finest.

It's just as much fun to play today as it was back in 1990. An iconic 16-Bit shooter and I love it to bits!!


DOWNLOAD for hard disk and floppy

2 comments:

  1. Coudln't agree more! Everything clicks in this game port for the ST, music, animations (love how the characters gets sucked in the transport pipes at the end of each level), it plays great, and as you said the overall ambiance is a killer.

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