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 filmNor the Original Isaac Asimov Short Stories Upon which it was based. Instead, this is a llamasoft-deploped 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 Feer than 1000 units Manufactured.
It’s the Perfect Game, Then, For Llamasoft’s Jeff Mintera developer who is often keen to give lesser-known titles a revival, modernization them for current platforms while still retaining their original spirit. Llamasoft’s Previous Game, Akka Arrhwas 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.
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, see you navigating your way across maze-like structures to remove the tiles from every inch of space. If you are doing this, the ever-watchful eye of Big Brother has its gaze constantly fixed upon you, periodically attacking at opening wide and turning save. 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 complete many of the 55 levels, and you do so by simply moving to the edge of a tile and pushing forward. The game let 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 continue 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 Slether 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 defense, simply avoiding the enemies is often preferable to maintain your score.
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 first get 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.
For example, when you reach that 300-point limit, you become invincible, and your character radiates a multicolored aura. This means you are essentially free to navigate the levels without worrying about the enemies that might be lurking or, indeed, big brother himself. Again, however, you will need to work to maintain this by directly running into enemies, Pac-man-styles. 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.
In between each stage, you will 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 will 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 just as 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 complete automatic, so all you need to worry about is moving and positioning yourselves correctly to ensure you are targeting the right enemies (you can hold down ‘a’ to ‘hold your brain’, releasing to let out a wide-real. Defeating them results in small explosions that uncover the immediate surrounding tiles, so complete the level is a case of reaching a certain percentage of tiles uncovered. Think of it like a weird arcade tasks on Splashand you’re on the right track.
Truth be told, when we played through the first couple of levels, we could not 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 gamplay that kept us hopelesly 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, seamingly random words popping up as you start nailing your score (Bangin ‘! Rizz! Proper!), and colorful effects that burst from the screen to signify the complete.
I, robot uses procedural music, adding abstract tunes that increases 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 there.
That said, we understand that it might provide 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 wilderness presentation, you can also head into the ungame fashion, 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 notes 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 tow fashion without closing the game down, reloading would occasionally cause it to slow down exponentially. Following a pre-launch patch, we’ve not leg able to replicate it, though, so hopefully it’s totally eliminated in the launch version.
