This puzzle-adventure game draws inspiration from the original Legend of Zelda and Wii Play. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=23234 There has been a dearth of games starring characters sporting afros. One of the few titles to have such a protagonist, Afro Samurai, did not have a Wii release. The fine folks at Fugazo will finally satiate the demand for big hair on Wii with their upcoming WiiWare game, Frobot.
The story takes place in the year 1 AH (after humans) with the world on the verge of destruction by the evil Microshaft corporation. In the game, the titular character must rescue his five robot girlfriends who have been kidnapped by Microshaft. After rescuing each girlfriend, Frobot gains a special ability (like a speed dash) which will help him on his quest.
Andrew Lum, the CEO of Fugazo, cites the dungeons from the very first Legend of Zelda as a great source of inspiration. As in the NES Zelda, players view the action from a top-down view. Frobot has a very cartoon-like visual style that, while pleasing enough to the eye, doesn't seem to be pushing too many polygons. The controls, on the other hand, are extremely reminiscent of the "Tanks" portion of Wii Play. The Nunchuk's analog stick is used for movement, while Frobot's assortment of weaponry can be aimed by pointing the Wii Remote at the desired target.
The single-player game will contain twenty-five levels spread across five different environments. Each stage is basically a mini-dungeon with the ultimate goal of activating a transporter that will send Frobot to the next area. Many elements of the stages will seem instantly familiar to Zelda fans. To move from room to room, it was necessary to destroy evil robots, find keys, and activate switches. Walls that can be blown up with Frobot's mines will have visible cracks in them. In addition, one of Frobot's defensive abilities is just like Link's Mirror Shield, allowing him to bounce away energy attacks. Other weapons that Frobot will have at his disposable include lasers, and a disco ball that must be carefully guided by the Wii Remote's cursor. Guiding the disco ball through a maze in one puzzle felt very intuitive. Another puzzle, that demonstrated the game's physics, had me using a catapult to launch a box onto a moving platform that was on the other side of a chasm. Once the box was on the platform, I had to wait for the exact moment when swinging a nearby crane would knock the cube onto a switch. This puzzle was inventive, but also a bit frustrating because it was difficult to judge the exact timing.
One aspect of the game that I found a bit strange was the absence of a map. Lum explained that the numbers of rooms in a single stage will not be too large, making it easy for players to remember most of a stage's layout.
The game will also include a multiplayer mode where players can deathmatch with one another using the game's wacky and sometimes not-so-wacky weapons. There will be ten multiplayer stages in all, with five unlocked by expertly playing the single-player mode. While I didn't play a lot of the multiplayer, one criticism I have is that the stages seemed cramped with few hiding spots.
Many of the puzzles I saw had unique solutions and will certainly cause a few brains to be stumped. Frobot has the potential to be a funky good time when it is released later this summer.
Check out a Frobot music video below.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Frobot (Read 1412 times)
