Topic: Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! DX (Switch) Review

[lolmonade]

Now if only Mr. Robot could think outside the box.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47252/dont-die-mr-robot-dx-switch-review

Don’t Die Mr. Robot! is an unassuming but silly arcade game.  You control a very happy looking Mr. Robot (who more honestly would be described as “Mr. Cube” or maybe “Happy Box”) navigating a 2D plane, dodging various waves of enemies on screen in order to survive as long as possible. His main attack consists of moving across fruit that pops up on screen and somehow creates an expanding explosion that kills enemies. Multipliers and bonuses are available if you explode multiple fruits, destroy multiple enemies, or barely skirt by an oncoming enemy without getting hit.

It plays out like a mixture of Centipede, Pac-Man, and Asteroids.  Various enemies with different movement patterns progressively come in more heavily and quickly, making slipping past a wave of enemies by the skin of your cube tense and rewarding. Timing the fruit pickups to explode at the right time is satisfying when you capture several enemies in the blast, and they drop coins you collect for various items that can be purchased for an in-game shop – most of which being cosmetic.  If a basic arcade mode isn’t enough, a string of challenges levels is also available with each having a specific goal (collecting x number of coins, destroying y enemies, etc.).  There isn’t a great variety of modes or challenges, so longevity for you will depend entirely on whether you like what these two modes have to offer.

Visually, the character design is simple.  Not as if done deliberately, but more in a “when I was five years old I would have drawn these monsters in my notebook at school” look.  Despite that, the screen pops due to bright colors and thick lines used in drawing everything, resulting in the look growing on me the longer I played.  Another challenge with its look is how busy the screen gets as you continue to play.  It’s populated with gridlines and a large counter in the background, moving characters, oodles of fruit, explosions coming from said fruit, and big point multiplier notifications at a steady clip. In practice, it’s exhausting to keep some of it from distracting you, and I think would have been better served to lose a few pieces of flair.

Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! is soundly made with simple enough gameplay to draw you in and provide some brief entertainment in any given run.  If attempting to improve your high score with each run interests you, it may be worth a look for you.  For me, while the fundamentals were there and keeps Mr. Robot from an untimely death, a lack of variety and polish keeps him from making it out unscathed.