1984 Atarisoft (UK)
by Paul Holmes
Talk about a hard game... 'Robotron 2084' is a demented fast shoot 'em up.
When I got started I really was excited, level 1 is easy enough, but rapidly frustration showed its ugly face from the start of level 2. There are too many things happening at once, too many enemies early on and the game gets confusing.
Programmers at this stage didn't understand that players need to emerse themselves in the game first by playing some easy levels and then moving on to the almost impossible ones, not the other way around. Of course, in the arcade classic, there is a reason for being so fast: money money!!
But for the spectrum version, I think they should have slowed things down a notch.
Still a great game, specially for the fast action fanatics, but not the best for stress relieving. Ouch!
Review by YOR on 19 Feb 2020 (Rating: 2)
Do you know, I don't think I had ever played Robotron on the Spectrum before. And I have to say it was a massive disappointment. It is a well written game, certainly in terms of graphics and presentation anyway, but the execution in the gameplay is well off. For starters, from level two onwards there is a considerable degree of lag while playing the game which spoils the fun. In the arcade game pressing a button constitutes to the direction of which he fires, up he shoots up etc, here he autofires which just adds to the chaos for me. It's also too easy to be hit by an enemy in this game, and as such I have not got past screen three in any of my attempts. What a massive disappointment, I was really looking forward to playing this and now I wish I hadn't.
