Robotron: 2084 (Xbox 360)

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
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Overall score: 7.4 (3.5 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 12/19/2005
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 12/16/2005

If it's not the most frantic game ever created, Robotron: 2084 is definitely in the top five of all time. The 1982 arcade game was one of the many classic games from that era to bear the Williams Electronics name. That name now belongs to Midway, a company that has been resurfacing the gems hidden in its back catalog via various retrospective compilations for the past several years. Robotron is one of the games that have fared pretty well in these collections, but with the scoreboards and online competition that the Xbox 360 version of the game provides, this Xbox Live Arcade download is at least as good as the original arcade hit.

The robots have turned on their human masters, and now you've got to clean up the mess.

Like most arcade games, Robotron has a bit of backstory to it that hardly matters. You play as a supercharged human up against waves and waves of robots. You must blast all of these robots while collecting members of the last human family before they're pulverized by indestructible, human-stomping hulks. What this translates to is a wave-based system. Each wave is packed full of robots, and you must shoot them all to proceed to the next wave. Collecting humans gives you bonus points, which eventually earn you extra lives. The original arcade game was played with two joysticks, one for movement in all eight directions and one for shooting in those eight directions. This meant you could move in one direction while shooting in another. Since you start every single wave in the center of the screen, surrounded on all sides, being able to shoot all over the place in absolutely key. You can use the Xbox 360's dual analog joysticks to handle the game, but this method is rather sloppy, since you can only be moving or shooting in eight directions. Using the D pad to move and the four face buttons as a second D pad for firing is the more comfortable and more responsive method of control.

It's easy to understand how to control Robotron, but mere understanding doesn't prepare you for the onscreen action, especially in the later waves. This game gets very hard very quickly and practically requires ice-cold nerves if you want to excel. The waves also vary a bit. Most of your enemies will be the standard grunts, which go down with one shot. But some waves also contain enemy generators, like sphereoids (yes, the game still spells spheroids incorrectly) and quarks, which generate enforcers and tanks, respectively. Since both of these enemies can shoot back at you, they're some of the most dangerous enemies you'll face. Also, every fifth wave is a brain wave, where large walking brain robotrons stalk humans and reprogram them into missiles that attempt to take you out. There isn't a ton of enemy variety, but it's a great mix that forces you to constantly make adjustments to your tactics from wave to wave. Of course, by the time you hit the 10th wave or so, the difficulty ramps up to a point that will probably push away some players. This was, of course, an addictive arcade game designed to free you of any quarters that may have been on your person. The addictive nature of the game is something that carries over to many of the other Robotron-like games on Xbox Live Arcade. The frantic pacing and difficulty of the game, however, are unlike any of the other similar games available on Microsoft's download service. Put another way, the first 15 waves of Robotron make the first 750,000 points of Geometry Wars feel like lying out under an umbrella and being fed peeled grapes like some sort of fancy lad.

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