Atomic Robo-Kid

[Melf]

Among the plethora of shmups available on the Genesis is Atomic Robo-Kid, a game that has received heavy criticism over the years. Guess what? It's about to receive some more. Sega-16 sat down with the game, and came away...less than impressed, to say the least. Our write up (http://www.sega-16.com/2006/03/atomic-robo-kid/) has all the details, so check it out, if you can tear yourself away from Robo's beady little eyes long enough to click the link.

[David J.]

Hey, I like the game. I think I'm the only one

I remember when I first saw the box art to this game when I was seven or eight, around 1995 and I laughed. At the time the first Genesis games really held my intrest because, they where well... old. And I never saw a lot of them.

[Joe Redifer]

I remember looking at pictures of this game before the Genesis was released (or right around the same time). My thoughts were "OMG looook at teh grafx OMG they look like real good or sumthin! They look like R-Type grfx only a bit better and I like R-Type OMG teh Genesis roxOrZ teh TurboGrafx sux and Nintendo is teh crap OMG teh GENESIS OWNZ!"

Then about 8 or 10 months later the game was finally released. I don't know if it was that long, but it was a long time later. I rented the game and became very angry. It was nothing like a real shooter! I could turn around and go up and down at will! This was unacceptable. The graphics weren't as good as I had remembered and the sound was pathetic, so I returned the game to the rental store and set it on fire (the store, not the game... though I assume the game burned as well). A few store employees died but I'm sure they understood. They rebuilt the store the next day and from then on Atomic Robo-Kid was not allowed within for any reason. The store still stands to this day (though it really, really really sucks now.)

[JFLY]

Is the PC Engine version any better?

[Joe Redifer]

It'd probably be worse since the PC Engine only has one background layer.

[Flash1087]

Man oh man, do I wanna play this!

Why?

GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT. I paid $20 for Spy Fiction on the PS2, after all.

[j_factor]

Is Spy Fiction really that bad?

[Flash1087]

Is Spy Fiction really that bad?

Yes. Yes it is.

Let me make a diagram:

Fun is on the left, Spy Fiction on the right, public humilation would be about in the middle

[]---------------------------------[]--------------------------------------[]

That's how far away Spy Fiction is from fun, and what a gap it has from other non-fun activities.

[winona]

Hah!

I played this game on emu after reading the review thinking that it couldnt possible be that bad.

I got to act 7 without dying one on my 1st try thinking that the difficulty level was a load of crap. Then i got to the maze with securo-o-bots all over the place.

First they took meby surprise and i lost my neat 3 way shot. Then it was essentially game over since I couldnt get in a position to shoot anything before I was insta killed by the turrets. ) Lost something like 8 lifes. And never even got close to completing the act.

[janus]

Surely it can't be as bad as Atomic Runner?!

[j_factor]

Atomic Runner wasn't bad. If it weren't for the one-hit kills, it'd have been really good.

[janus]

It was annoying having to press a button to turn round though. I didn't like having to do that in Ranger X either. It just felt awkward (although Ranger X made up for it by being AWESOME).

[j_factor]

Did you expect to be able to turn around with mind control, or what?

[Melf]

I think he meant being able to just use the D-Pad to turn around, and I tend to agree. Having to press a button to do so in combat could really be distracting sometimes, until you got used to it.

[janus]

Hah yeah, I meant having to press the A button to turn. It could be tough to keep up at times, especially since it was always scrolling.

[j_factor]

But if you turned around with the d-pad, you wouldn't be able to move around and face the same direction, which is important for this game.

[PC509]

This was one of my first Genesis games. I loved it and hated it at the same time. It was ok game play wise, got frustrated after a while... Pissed me off in the end... Graphics were ok. But, it didn't make me want to come back and play it again and again.

[Kirby2000]

Never had any problem with Atomic Robo Kid MD. First, I had enjoyed the arcade game. Second I liked the quirky graphics, and that poor C3-PO-esque droid was quite charismatic for me.

All of the criticisms aimed at the game in the review were valid. But the cramped environments, those respawning monsters, the cramped environments (Did I mention those?) made the game original. In brief, clearly not so bad to play, and scoring huge kudos for having some personality.

Oh, and I can't grasp how Curse, for instance, can get a better note than ARK. Just can't get my head around it. Blows my mind. (etc....)

PS : I'll admit that much: the enclosed laser fights that put you against another small robot, well, they sucked. They sucked in the arcade version, and they did in the PC-Engine version, and they do here, too. No denying that.

[Benjamin]

Never had any problem with Atomic Robo Kid MD. First, I had enjoyed the arcade game. Second I liked the quirky graphics, and that poor C3-PO-esque droid was quite charismatic for me.

All of the criticisms aimed at the game in the review were valid. But the cramped environments, those respawning monsters, the cramped environments (Did I mention those?) made the game original. In brief, clearly not so bad to play, and scoring huge kudos for having some personality.

I agree, I like the game, enough to grab the Japanese MegaDrive version for the art and color book, too. :) It's still not one I'd recommend to people though since there's really not much going for it now. Some of the boss encounters and turrent placements do make me wonder though if the game was designed as a quarter muncher, and those traits were not removed from the console versions.

As far as the button press to turn, that's needed for strafing in what is a free roaming shooter. Defender, Fantasy Zone, and other free roaming shooters would have to do similar if they allowed an ability to move backwards and continue to fire as well. It's been used in other games, too, such as Granada, and nothing something unique to the game. I think that's part of the appeal to me -- there are so few shooters that utilize that strafing style gameplay, and the ability to move around a non-forced scrolling game is a nice change of pace.

[The Coop]

It's not as bad or hard as this review makes it out to be. The weapon power ups are random, but once you clear the screen, you can easily just sit in place and keep shooting the pod until you get the power up you want (or at least a decent one). The respawning enemies are a pain, but I've played NES Konami games and Ninja Gaiden, so that's nothing new.

However, there are a few points in the review I'd pick to pick at...

- The review says there's no real room to move in the boss fights. There's plenty of maneuvering room around even the biggest bosses. All you have to do is lure them around and be patient. Stick close to the bosses, because if you get farther away, the boss speeds up to catch you until it's back within a certain range of you. Since the bosses follow you, just treat them like the tracking enemies in many other shmups and lure them out of your way to attack.

- The review says you loose all your weapons when you die. I've played and damn near beat this game on Hard (beaten Normal), and you don't loose all your weapons... only the one you were using. So if you have the three-way, fission, missile and five-way guns, and you die using the missile, you still keep the rest.

- Dying does not = screwed. Now, I'm no pro at games, but I beat the final two bosses with nothing but the basic weapon you start with, so I don't know what you were doing wrong Melf :lol:

- Are you sure this game has marginal speed increases? I ask this because I've gotten several speed ups in a row, but when you pick up that first one, that's as fast as you go. Unless the merchant (who I've not gotten) gives you partial speed ups, it's normal speed to hyperdrive (borderline too fast) with one pick up.


I don't know. Maybe the game has different gameplay mechanics in other versions, but I played the US version here, and some of what you wrote is very different from what I saw and experienced.

Anyway, score-wise, I'd give it about a 6, with most of those points coming off due to the respawning enemies. That gets annoying after a while.

[goldenband]

^Cosign this. I just beat the game on Hard mode, and overall I like it quite a bit, though occasionally it did make me want to snap my controller in two!

I'm not too bothered by the respawning enemies which, like The Coop said, are hardly any worse than the stuff perpetrated by many well-respected NES titles. The boss fights are more frustrating, especially the heat-seeking missiles which aren't affected by the arena walls, but once you get a feel for the right way to bait the bosses into position, they can be beaten. It's challenging, but by no means impossible. Similarly, once you learn the level layout and what to expect, a lot of unpleasant surprises become totally manageable.

(I'm thinking especially of the vertical drop in Act 5, I think, where you're greeted by a row of cannons at the bottom of a pit. It seems impossible to deal with them at first, but if you fall down, rather than fly down, you can typically take them all out before they shoot you.)

There are also a few weird bugs in the game that drag things down, some of them related to the walking vs. flying thing which doesn't seem very well thought-out. The shootout stages are a neat idea, but a bit lacking in execution. And some of the music feels half-complete, as if the bassline or other parts are missing. (Yes, I'm playing on real hardware.)

But otherwise I like the game a lot, and really enjoy the way it mixes strategic play (how do I position this shot without opening myself up to counterfire?) and aggressive play where you just charge through at full tilt. The latter is made possible in part by the fact that touching enemies doesn't kill you (except for bosses), which is a nice change. Also, I used a controller with autofire, which helps.

Anyway, I think 6/10 is about right for this one: not a great game, but still worthwhile. I'm going to have to play through Atomic Robo-Kid Special for the PC Engine, which I actually played (via emulation) long before I ever tried the Genesis game. One big difference is that in ARKS, you have a life bar, and touching enemies hurts you! The music seems fancier, too, and it's allegedly a lot closer to the arcade game. I'd also like to try the C64 version.

By the way, does anyone have a manual scan in PDF? I only have the loose cart.

[Sega Genesis]

I think that this game is fun and unique. I still have not been able to beat it.

[Curryman123]

Can anyone tell me if this is better than the PCE version?

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

I've heard that the PC Engine is easier than the SEGA Genesis version. I believe that the PC Engine version has a life gauge while the Genesis version has instant deaths, making the game progressively harder. Hopefully someone else can verify this statement.

[Curryman123]

yeah...someone needs to confirm.

[Benjamin]

The PC Engine version, Atomic Robo Kid Special, does have a health bar which makes the game much easier. Basic hits tend to do very little damage, too, with the bar letting players absorb about six to ten hits before dying.

The Genesis/MD version is just like the arcade with the one-hit kills. Personally, I don't think that's too bad. It's more the stupid respawning enemies which make the game a pain. I still love it, though.