Developer: UPL Co., Ltd. Publisher: Treco Released: 1990 Genre: Shooter
I enjoy a good shooter. Since the Atari 2600 days the genre has been one of my favorites. Up until bullet hell took over I still enjoyed them. But even I have my limits. Atomic Robo-Kid was an early arcade port that I avoided for some odd reason. Considering the Genesis was starving for content in its first year you would think I would be willing to give anything a try. But it just did not look appealing. Playing it years later did not change my opinion ultimately. Atomic Robo-Kid is an interesting game in some respects that suffers due to its arcade design.
A blast of cosmic radiation bombards Earth colony Terra-12. The radiation mutates all remaining life but that is the least of the colony’s problems. Giant alien invaders known as governors invade and begin laying waste to any remaining life. The colony’s last hope lies in Atomic Robo-Kid, the most advanced in a series of androids designed for battle.
As a scrolling shooter Atomic Robo-Kid is a little different. You are a short stumpy little robot that controls like a platform character on the ground. At any time you can fly and freely roam around the level. Technically you move faster when you walk but that is almost never an option. There are a large number of weapons and like Thunder Force II you can keep an inventory to switch at any time. These are an eclectic bunch, from your typical laser and wide beam to an exploding shot. There is a shield and shield power-up but the game is incredibly stingy with both which is bad because you desperately need them.
Atomic Robo-Kid is a free roaming shooter that allows you to “explore” the levels to find the exit. I say explore in quotes because in truth there is usually only one path. Sometimes they branch but it is usually a dead end. The pacing of the game is all over the place. Some levels are a straight path to the exit but are littered with enemies. Others offer some degree of freedom and are slower paced. I say slower paced when the entire game is slow and the best course of action is to always inch your way forward due to the insane challenge.
The difficulty in Atomic Robo-Kid is off the charts. Even though you can bump into enemies they are aggressive and almost always shoot on sight. They come in large packs and multiple waves making them hard to deal with. Enemies respawn if you backtrack even slightly which makes it worse. You die in single hit, which is a hard pill to swallow especially as you are a large target. If you have a full stock of weapons switching depending on the situation does lighten the challenge a bit but not by much. The boss battles are where it goes off the charts. Fighting massive bosses in an enclosed arena is exciting. But the fact that they can (and will) easily crush you to death makes them frustrating. That basically sums up the game.
What makes Atomic Robo-Kid frustrating beyond all the issues I have outlined is that it could have been a great game. The developers removed the annoying time limit in each level which is a much needed quality of life improvement. If they had gone a step further and give you a small life bar or something along those lines you could stop and enjoy the gameplay. There is a lot to like about Atomic Robo-Kid when it is not getting on your nerves. For its time the game was pretty unique in the genre with its mechanics. There is a lot of variety among its plentiful stages and exploring the levels is fun. Even the one or two boss battles that don’t suffer crippling flaws can be exciting. But for every good point there are an equal number that bring it down.
It is a damn shame that Atomic Robo-Kid is such a maddening game as it looks great. The sprites are large and expressive and full of detail. The game tosses around a ton of sprites with no slowdown. Most levels feature multiple levels of parallax scrolling and the game takes you to a wide range of environments over the course of its nineteen levels. The most impressive aspect is its near screen sized bosses. On the whole this version matches up pretty well against the arcade, which is especially impressive for an early title.
In Conclusion
I like Atomic Robo-Kid somewhat but it is a frustrating experience. For every good element there is another that works against it. It has its moments but you have to tolerate a lot to enjoy it. In my opinion Atomic Robo-Kid is not worth it, despite its good points.
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