Robbotto is an arcade-style action game in which you play as Robb and/or Otto, two maintenance robots. Your ship has gone haywire and you need to stun and deactivate all the rogue robots. Despite the simple plot, Robbotto offers an overall enjoyable experience to players. Beneath the disarmingly charming vintage graphics lies a game that is both challenging and addictive.

Developer: JMJ Interactive

Publisher: JMJ Interactive

3 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $9.99

In many ways, Robbotto is an homage to the simple quarter-guzzling arcade games of my childhood. Instantly, the adorable 8-bit graphics and simple electronic music brought me back to the sights and sounds of my local arcade. Tinges of nostalgia went beyond surface-level aesthetics, seemingly influencing every last one of Robbotto’s design decisions.

This connection can be seen from the start menu to the gameplay and beyond. Much like the icons in the corner of Pac-Man, which served to indicate how many attempts I had left until I’d have to cough up more quarters, Robbotto starts with three hearts in the top left corner. Despite starting with limited lives, the game carries on arcade tradition by allowing you to earn more. When I skillfully was able to reach 25,000 points without dying, the game gifted me a free 1up. This old-school style permeates the game; it even has a high-score menu reminiscent of the past. All of these aspects filled me with a sense of nostalgia which carried on as I played the game.

Despite my love of arcade classics, I am clearly not the best at them.

The first level is simple enough. There are three robots that you must stun and deactivate while navigating a large platform located between two smaller ones. As the game progresses, more platforms and enemies are added. Then, new types of enemies show up, as well as boss battles every ten stages. Despite the game’s simple linear structure, it manages to hold your attention. Instead of getting too frustrated when I died, I would quickly push “continue” knowing that I could do better the next time.

Level 1 is simple enough, but the game quickly becomes more challenging.

Part of what helped me not get frustrated with the frequent deaths was the game’s cleverly-implemented difficulty settings. There is a normal, hard, and extreme mode. Given that I’ve never had the best timing and precision as a gamer, I chose normal mode, which granted me unlimited (and much needed) continues. For those seeking more of a challenge, hard mode grants players 5 continues and extreme mode grants players none. I cannot help but appreciate a game that knows its own difficulty and makes an effort to include less-than-skillful players, while still maintaining the challenge for arcade pros (like me, of course).

Players who meet Robbotto‘s challenge are rewarded. You are granted achievements when you beat each mode, which can be found in the main menu. In addition, skillful players can unlock “Boss Rush” mode. At the time of writing this, I have only made it to level 42 of 100, so I have yet to unlock this mode. To my understanding, Boss Rush is a timed mode for players who want to fight through the challenging boss levels as quickly as possible.

In addition to these modes, the game also has local co-op. Despite having double the players, I found this mode to be even more challenging. This is because only one robot can stun opponents, while the other can only deactivate stunned opponents. Given that robots which aren’t deactivated quickly enough come back to life, co-op is quite challenging. It requires players to communicate, act fast, and coordinate their movements. I found this mode enjoyable. However, its difficulty meant that even when there were two of us, at times it was more fun to play single player and hand over the controller when someone died.

The coordination required in co-op mode made even a simple level like this difficult.

It is very easy for arcade-style games to become repetitive and, quite frankly, boring. However, this is not the case with Robbotto. As you progress, different enemies show up. These include four-legged robots that rush toward you, robots that fix deactivated robotics, laser-shooting spinning gears, and more. In addition, the levels are constantly changing. Some levels require players to utilize the level itself in order to succeed. This was especially true in “endless” levels, where when you go off-screen on the right, you reappear on the left side There are also levels with electric fields that can harm both friend and foe alike. Other levels have translucent platforms which enemy lasers can shoot through. The challenges just keep coming in Robbotto.

Despite being level 39, the combination of different enemy types keeps the game feeling fresh.

My biggest complaint with Robbotto is its start menu. You can only have one save game at a time, which I learned the hard way. Despite a warning at the bottom of the screen, I did not notice this at first and lost all my progress by accidentally pressing “1 player game” instead of “continue”. It would be a lie to say having to replay over 20 levels wasn’t irritating, however cautious players will avoid my mistakes. That said, it would be nice to have multiple saves, especially if you want to experiment with different difficulty levels. Currently, that is not an option, unless you want to lose all progress in your current save.

The only other minor issue I ran into was that there are a handful of small glitches. These are mostly weird enemy movements and slight screen jitters. However, I found one particularly frustrating glitch on level 30. This glitch caused Robb to get caught underneath a platform with no way to escape. In order to continue, I had to save, quit, and restart the level, all the while carefully avoiding getting caught underneath the platform again. The developer has been contacted about this bug and I hope it gets patched in the near future. [Author Note: the developer is addressing this, and other glitches, in a patch!]

Where is my robot? Well, he is stuck off-screen because I got pushed down by the moving platform.

Robbotto isn’t a genre-changing game. However, it is very fun. The variety of modes and difficulties, as well as 100 unique levels, make it a game with a lot of replay value. Though at the time of writing I have only made it to level 42, I’ve easily had over 3 hours of playtime. Given that I still have over 50 levels to play through, Robbotto feels massive for an arcade-style game. This will be especially true when I reach a level of skill where I can make it through co-op with an equally talented friend. At only $9.99, Robbotto is an absolute bargain for anyone wanting to get their arcade fix.

Not into arcade-style games, but looking for some fun co-op? Consider checking out Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes or Super Volley Blast. Have a suggestion for a nostalgia-filled game you think I’d like? Please join our Discord and tag me @Pechorin19! If you’ve enjoyed this review and want to see us to continue producing quality content without advertisements, consider becoming a Patron or buying us a coffee.