"Old maid gets a facelift." Or "Fans not disappointed!"
How many of you don’t know that this game is a remake of an old classic? That’s the problem with youth today, blah blah blah. This game was never a favorite of mine, way back when. Why? Well, it was really, really hard. I got my ass kicked constantly. There was just too much shit going on in that game. Robotron 64 is more of the same, and no, I’m not any better at it almost 20 years later.
I’m not sure these remakes of old games are good ideas. I mean, how many of today’s young gamers care about old games? I’m an old gamer and I don’t care to play many old games. Sure I can like the game play of some of the old games (see my editorial on this website called "The Way Games Used To Be" but don’t think for a minute that my Atari 2600 or Colecovision is taking precedent over my PlayStation or N64. Hey, even my Saturn is relegated to hiding in a box (along with my SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, NES etc.) My point is, I want NEW gaming experiences. I want to go FORWARD. Making a 3D version of an old game, doesn’t change the fact that it’s OLD GAMEPLAY. And that is precisely the problem with Robotron 64.
Before I go any further and rag on Robotron let me take a sec and describe the gameplay. You are one lone guy who is in a square shaped area. This area doesn’t scroll. You can see everything in the whole area if you choose to. There are tons of Robots surrounding you that want you dead. Not only must you shoot all of the enemies but also save the remaining humans (which oddly enough are not pictured in the instruction manual...) You can find powerups that will speed up your player, increase your firepower and of course, give you temporary shields or 1 ups. Pretty standard gaming fare. Once you destroy all of the enemies and save as many humans s possible, you go onto the next level, which is harder and faster. Sound like a big bag of fun after playing Mario 64 or Goldeneye? Nope.
Graphically this game is nothing to look at. Very simplistic polygons in action here. If they made this a REAL update and put you in a 3D world, with detailed polygons, some really good action with updated gameplay mechanics like jumping (hey that might be fun!) then maybe this game could have been a contender. As it stands, this game is like Frankenstein’s Monster; It was created simply for the sake of creating it. It should have stayed dead.
Now, I’ll play the Devil’s Advocate. If you were a fan of the original, and you own an N4 and you really want to play this game again, then you’ll be in heaven! It’s a great port and it really retains all of the action of the original. Fans will not be disappointed.
So there you have it. You’ll probably like it if you got off on the original. I didn’t think much of it, but so what? Make your own mind up!
Final Analysis: