Review: I, Robot (Switch) - Another Psychedelic Success For Llamasoft & Atari
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)If you looked at the title of Atari’s latest release and thought, 'The Will Smith movie?', don’t worry. I, Robot has nothing to do with the 2004 sci-fi film, nor the original Isaac Asimov short stories upon which it was based. Instead, this is a Llamasoft-developed remake of the 1984 arcade title I, Robot from Dave Theurer (Missile Command, Tempest), a game famous for its pioneering use of 3D polygonal visuals, yet one that also commercially failed upon launch, with fewer than 1000 units manufactured.
It’s the perfect game, then, for Llamasoft’s Jeff Minter, a developer who is often keen to give lesser-known titles a revival, modernising them for current platforms while still retaining their original spirit. Llamasoft’s previous game, Akka Arrh, was very much the same deal, with Minter and development partner Ivan “Giles” Zorzin revamping an ‘80s arcade game that never made it beyond the prototyping stage.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
Oddly enough, I, Robot probably shares more in common with George Orwell’s 1984 than it does with Asimov’s short stories. The remake, like the original, sees you navigating your way across maze-like structures to remove the tiles from every inch of space. As you’re doing this, the ever-watchful eye of Big Brother has its gaze constantly fixed upon you, periodically attacking by opening wide and turning red. When it does this, you need to keep your feet firmly on the ground, as jumping will result in instant death.
Jumping, however, is vital to completing many of the 55 levels, and you do so by simply moving to the edge of a tile and pushing forwards. The game lets you know if this is possible by indicating a dotted line between the tiles, making the action much easier to parse against the wild, psychedelic background – but more on that later.
It’s not just Big Brother you’ll have to contend with, though. Many of the levels contain a variety of obstacles and enemies that get in your way. Black orbs float around the stage, snakes slither across tiles, birds glide from the back of the stage to the front… It’s a lot, and although you do have a projectile weapon for defence, simply avoiding the enemies is often preferable to maintain your score.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Speaking of which, removing tiles adds a multiplier until you reach a maximum of 300 points per tile. Dying resets your multiplier, but the game also encourages you to keep moving where possible, chipping away at your multiplier slowly if you stay stationary for too long. When you’re first getting to grips with things, your focus will be on simply staying alive, but as you become more adept, you’ll start looking at ways in which to complete each level in the most efficient way, keeping your enemies at bay while building the maximum possible score.
For example, when you reach that 300-point limit, you become invincible, and your character radiates a multicoloured aura. This means you're essentially free to navigate the levels without worrying about the enemies that might be lurking or, indeed, Big Brother itself. Again, however, you'll need to work to maintain this by directly running into enemies, Pac-Man-style. Working out the right path to take, maintaining invincibility, and keeping that 300-point multiplier going until the end is the key to — as Minter puts it — "rinsing" the level.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
In between each stage, you’ll enter a tunnel of sorts that transports you from one maze to the next, and it’s about the closest we’ll probably ever get to a new Tempest game. Here, you’ll need to fire toward incoming ‘tetras’ while making sure that nothing hits you. It’s a great way to keep momentum going and add to your score, as destroying all tetras automatically nets you 50,000 points. If you fail to do this, simply staying alive will add an extra life, so there's good incentive to make sure you nail these sections as best you can.
Finally, every four or five levels introduces an Arena stage. These are open spaces in which you have complete freedom to move around at will, but you’ll have enemies coming at you from all directions. Shooting them is completely automatic, so all you need to worry about is moving and positioning yourself correctly to ensure you’re targeting the right enemies (you can hold down 'A' to 'hold your breath', releasing to let out a wide-reaching wave of bullets). Defeating them results in small explosions that uncover the immediate surrounding tiles, so completing the level is a case of reaching a certain percentage of tiles uncovered. Think of it like a weird arcade take on Splatoon, and you’re on the right track.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Truth be told, when we played through the first couple of levels, we couldn’t help but think that I, Robot was perhaps a bit too weird, even for a Minter game. Yet there’s something about the methodical removal of the tiles mixed with the more fast-paced, Tempest-inspired gameplay that kept us hopelessly hooked. When you get into a rhythm and start increasing your score exponentially, it’s a remarkably engaging and rewarding experience; one that can stand proudly on Switch alongside Tempest 4000 and Akka Arrh.
We can’t sign off without talking about the presentation, one of the most attractive aspects of Llamasoft’s titles for many fans. In short, it’s probably the most wildly psychedelic Minter release yet. You’ve got pulsing, kaleidoscopic patterns in the background, seemingly random words popping up as you start nailing your score (bangin’! rizz! proper!), and colourful effects that burst from the screen to signify the completion of a level.
I, Robot uses procedural music, adding abstract tunes that increase in intensity alongside your score, along with auditory effects that will be instantly familiar if you’ve played Tempest 4000 and Akka Arrh. These have become almost synonymous with the developer's games at this point, and frankly, it would feel a bit odd if they weren’t there.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
That said, we understand that it might prove a bit too much for some players, and it seems Llamasoft is aware of this. You can remove the psychedelic background patterns in the main menu to something that resembles the far reaches of space, bringing the visuals a bit closer in line with the original.
On the flip side, if you enjoy the wilder presentation, you can also head into the Ungame mode, another callback to the arcade original that lets you mess around with the parameters of the lightsynth patterns at will. It’s a cool little extra, but not one we felt compelled to play around with for longer than a few minutes.
One final note on performance: for the most part, it's absolutely rock solid throughout, with barely a dip in the 60fps frame rate. However, if we put the Switch in sleep mode without closing the game down, reloading would occasionally cause it to slow down exponentially. Following a pre-launch patch, we've not been able to replicate it, though, so hopefully it's totally eliminated in the launch version.
Conclusion
I, Robot is a weird game, but one that feels effortlessly engaging and rewarding once it gets its hooks into you. The psychedelic presentation can be a bit tough to parse at first, but you can remove a lot of it via the options, and once you get to grips with the gameplay and what each level is asking of you, I, Robot reveals an incredible amount of depth that you'll spend hours uncovering as you work to increase your score. This isn't a remake we were particularly begging to see, but it's one we're very thankful for.
Gameplay that's irresistibly addictive once it clicksDeceptively deep when you start focusing on score-buildingThat classic 'Jeff Minter' aestheticExcellent procedural music and sound effectsYou can remove the psychedelic background if it's a bit much
It takes a few moments to really 'get' what's going onThe 'Ungame' mode is cool, but won't hold your attention
Great 8/10
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