Like many gamers, I enjoy a challenge. But I also know my limits: the time trials on the original Crash Bandicoot in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, the Asylum Demon in the original Dark Souls (yes, the first major boss), the monster truck levels in Stuntman, the list goes on. And unfortunately, there is now a new game to add to that list in the form of Robotry!. See, once I hit a certain point it leaves me weak, sweaty and agitated, and will likely do the same for you. But get over the frustration and you may well find a fun – yet challenging – platformer.

Robotry! is a unique physics-based platformer where you must navigate your square robot head through a series of levels set on unique planets. So far, so simple. How you navigate though is where the difficulty comes in as attached to your head are two mechanical arms. These are controlled individually by the thumbsticks. The left thumbstick is for the arm labelled ‘L’ and funnily enough, the right thumbstick is for the one labelled ‘R’. Already I have sweaty palms just thinking about it.

I say physics-based, but this is a very liberal use of the term physics. Half the battle in Robotry! is trying to work out which way to turn the analogue sticks in order to get any sort of momentum, or even just the right directions sometimes.

In Robotry!, you play as a rogue robot that finds itself lost at the bottom of an unusual spaceship. You must clamber out. Complete this and your globetrotting adventure begins as you travel to these varied worlds, helping out the locals by completing the levels. And as far as level design goes, Robotry! does away with your generic settings for platformers and adds a little bit of originality. One world will have you chasing down a team of gangsters in a wild west setting that runs on apple juice. Another will have you helping out at a spa by pushing the round, rotund frogs into the bathing water.

Accompanying you are these little jelly-bean looking aliens called Heebos. Whether these are your creators is lore that Robotry! doesn’t want to concern you with, but they are helpful enough anyways. They can provide you tips on what to do and also can be found hidden away in the game’s numerous secret and hidden areas.

Don’t let these cute, cartoony graphics – and rather splendid soundtrack – lull you into a false sense of security though. Robotry! is one tough cookie. Not even the fact that you can customise your robot head with a variety of toppers should distract you. In fact, the more you progress, the more customization options you unlock. These can be bought with the crystals you find dotted throughout the levels, and you don’t need to venture too far off the beaten track in order to find them. The other collectible – chips – are rewarded for discovering those ultra-hard to reach secret areas and in turn unlock new areas in the hub world.

Things start off simple enough as you are only given one arm to control. However, it isn’t long before you are given a second arm, which makes things simpler in the first instance as you have more appendages to work with, but then the level design ramps up significantly.

Soon after gaining a second arm, new mechanics are thrown at you to test your skills even further. Ropes to climb, gaps to jump across, walls to climb, even cars to drive; it isn’t long before your traversal skills are tested to the max.

If all that wasn’t enough, how about throwing local cooperative play into the mix? For Robotry! this comes in two methods: a traditional method allowing up to four players to control their own robot, or an absolutely chaotic mode where players control an appendage each. Seriously, give this a try and it will break friendships faster than if you were even playing Overcooked!.

But secretly, it’s still pretty good fun in the early levels. It just makes the harder levels even harder.

If things get too hard though, there is an option to skip a level and you can return to it at any point once you unlock the hub area. For me, my absolute nemesis was trying to swing around on the ropes, and these are introduced early on. Later levels proved to be less frustrating, so you may find yourself in a similar position and come back later with some extra skillage.

It is evident that Robotry! is missing a comma, as in “Robo, try again!”. Yet stick with Robotry! and you will get a lot out of it. But there is no shame in admitting defeat either; it can be an obscenely hard game in places. The difficulty curve is there to ease you into the trickier levels however when new mechanics are introduced, and none of the mechanics overstay their welcome. It is well paced and the variety of locations are unique and not just a retread of similar locations from every other platformer. 

Just don’t let the cartoonish visuals try and convince you otherwise; Robotry! really is a different beast.

Stretch out for Robotry! on the Xbox Store

• SEO Powered Content & PR Distribution. Get Amplified Today.
• Platoblockchain. Web3 Metaverse Intelligence. Knowledge Amplified. Access Here.
• Source: https://www.thexboxhub.com/robotry-review/