Atomic Robo-Kid

[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 lose all your weapons when you die. I've played and damn near beat this game on Hard (beaten Normal), and you don't lose 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

- 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.

[StarMist]

It's not as bad or hard as this review makes it out to be.

Indeed it's not even close.

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

So would I Melf. Long story short I'm going to scribble them out for myself in order to expel some of these gaming thoughts from my head, and then you'll be welcome to them if you want them. Not that I'm implying ARK is of Zero Wing's order.

Now, I'm no pro at games

Bullshit.

, 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

Actually I think that may be the only way to do so, the game ranks hard for your having any weapons but the default. -- Also I observed no gameplay difference for difficulty settings, just the highly meaningless # lives/credits, are you sure it exists?

- 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 didn't notice any loss of speed for dying either. Didn't see the merchant myself.

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.

I wondered the same thing too.

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.

Actually I didn't even have trouble with them. What deducts from the score is the ranking, that cheap quartersucking programming copout. And the hideous Robo-Kid himself. Maybe 5/10 from me.

[Barone]

This was a mediocre game on the arcade but this mediocre port also butchered some of the good points of the game... The soundtrack, with the exception of Stage 1, doesn't hold a candle to the original version.
When you grap the power-ups/weapons there's no description of them at all... On the arcade, the names already appear with some sense on the items and when you got them you have a full description of what they were. Heck, there's not even a counter for the 30 seconds auto-fire power-up. Even the A500 version by Activision is far superior in this aspect...

This and Uchū Senkan Gomorrah are the only games from UPL that I like since they had some bizarre theme and a unique atmosphere IMO. This port lost most of the original atmosphere, sadly.
Uchū Senkan Gomorrah had a far more faithful port on the MD IMO. Some people say that UPL directly contributed with Gommorah's port.
Atomic Robo-Kid on the MD lacks always, at least, one layer of parallax and the blackgrounds are mostly static; unlike the original. The Gomorrah port OTOH has some extra parallax and most of the details/animations.
The enemies lost a ton of animation in this Atomic Robo-Kid conversion while Uchū Senkan Gomorrah retains most of it...

However, I still find the MD port far better than the PCE one, since the MD version gameplay is far closer to the arcade, as the backgrounds are. The lack of the far background layer during the boss fights on the MD was a huge let down to me since it reminds me the 8-Bit games like the SMS and NES ports of Fantasy Zone.
I find Uchū Senkan Gomorrah a much bette rgame but Atomic Robo-kid has its good moments... A "console mode" with a health bar would help the MD version to lower the frustation factor of the original game but retaining the original collision mechanism unlike the PCE version.

About the regional differences, the only one that I noticed is that the Japanese version doesn't have text on the intro screens, which sucks. But when you die, in both versions, you just lose the weapon that you're using unlike the review says.


MD version awesome longplay (this guy only uses real ahrdware AFAIK):




The X68000 version seems to be far superior:

[Kamahl]

Shame they lazied out so much on the Amiga version... well they left the parallax scrolling... that's good I suppose.