One of my favourite experiences on the PlayStation Vita was Don’t Die Mr Robot. It was a simple premise that felt rooted in the fundamental 80’s style arcade classics that felt just as visceral and addictive today as it could have done if it had been released 30 years earlier. Transitioning from a top-down 2D arcade game to a 3D one is tricky but developer Infinite State Games has chosen a very wise path of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The surprise but welcome sequel is every bit as fantastic as the original.
There are two things you need to think about when playing 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot. Rule one is to avoid every enemy. If they touch you, you’ll die and most game modes are a one hit death. Each level provides a playing field for you to move Mr Robot around to squeeze in between either procedurally generated levels or handcrafted challenge levels depending on the mode you are in. Enemies will fly in from all directions and you’ll need eyes on the back of your head to pre-plan movements and avoid everything. Rule two is to collect fruit. Fruit triggers a blast bomb radius when collected that kills enemies in its path, scoring you points and dropping coins for buying customisation for Mr Robot.
Fruit bombs are the key risk vs reward for 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot because if you can chain up fruit bombs, you get a score multiplier for each bomb you trigger for each enemy you kill. That means you’ll want to avoid collecting fruit until it’s really clear you are in trouble, or a large squad of enemies are in the range of a blast wave – and then you’ll want to trigger them. Of course, with the large volume of enemies and traps coming at you, staying that idealistic isn’t an option and so you’ll often have to run into your carefully held-off barrier wave of fruit and trigger it early. Then there is a giant munching dustbin enemy that will happily waddle across the level eating all the fruit you’ve held off from using. There is so much to consider around just two simple gameplay rules, this arcade classic in waiting delivers a lot of fast-paced action for its buck.
Arcade Mode gives procedurally generated levels for you to survive as long as possible, with one hit killing you off and putting your score on the online leaderboard. Lime Attack is a time attack mode where only limes are available to collect and you have just under three minutes to score as many points as possible. Here, instead of dying when hit, you’ll lose 10% of your score. Chill Out mode offers a slower-paced version of the game on a beach. Cosy. Then there is a clever 50-stage Remix Mode, offering a variety of handcrafted level layouts and enemy arrangements for you to tackle. In Remix it’s not always about getting top scores, it might be collecting X amount of fruit, or killing X amount of enemies in a single blast wave. Each level has a bronze, silver, gold and platinum goal to aim for, unlocking a trophy in the process and those trophies are converted to points to unlock more of those 50 stages. It is a meaty offering that really ramps up the challenge and teaches you all kinds of clever ways to play.
The 3D element of this sequel is also totally optional. If left alone, sometimes the game’s camera will spin around slowly, which I didn’t like. I took control of it with the right analogue stick to put it where I wanted the camera to be, and sometimes that meant bringing it all the way up to the ceiling to evoke the original top-down view. I found this helpful when trying to score points for grazing enemies, which becomes necessary if you want to trouble the big scores. Having that flexibility is crucial to making Mr Robot feel so visceral to play.
There are very few comments I have that are negative. I did run into a few temporary game freezes in Remix mode when loading levels but that has reduced dramatically in the day 2 patch. Leaderboards work perfectly, the cosmetics are silly but entirely optional. I’d like to see more leaderboard options for bringing some of the excellent stage designs from Remix mode into Arcade mode to beef out the main replayability of the game but that’s really the only thing that is missing. I’d even recommend this score attack friendly game for pass and play multiplayer sessions. Jot down your scores and the winner gets a beer or an extra pizza slice.
The precise controls, excellent game mechanics, controllable camera and fast-paced risk vs reward decision-making gameplay make 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot obscenely fun to play. I found myself in a hit restart frenzy as I chased to stay in the top 10 on the leaderboards and aiming for platinum in all the Remix levels. This is arcade perfection and deserves all the plaudits and attention. Don’t sleep on this – it reminds me of why the formative years of gaming relied on excellent game mechanics and hooks to keep you coming back for me. Gaming at its finest.
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