Review: Shoot Many Robots (XBLA)

Do you hate robots as much as I do (no offense to our eventual robotic overlords, I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for your efficient and logical operations)? Do you love an incredibly diverse and face-humpingly (it’s a word now, deal with it) hilarious variety of weapons and equipment? Do you appreciate well designed shoot’em up mechanics? Do you get a gamegasm for fair and fun arcade style multiplayer? If you answered yes to any of these (and it should be yes to all of them), then perhaps you would like to hear more about Shoot Many Robots, a robot shoot’em up developed by Demiurge and published by Ubisoft.

To me, Shoot Many Robots has one strength: its strong shoot’em up mechanics. And its multiplayer experience. Two strengths: its strong shoot’em up mechanics, and its multiplayer experience. And its diverse selection of weapons and equipment. Three strengths: its strong shoot’em up mechanics, its multiplayer experience, and its diverse selection of weapons and equipment. And its humor. FOUR STRENGTHS: its strong shoot’em up mechanics, its multiplayer experience, its diverse selection of weapons and equipment, and its humor.

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Shoot Many Robots’ shoot’em up mechanics are the main gameplay draw of this title. In keeping with its genre, and its title, the game provides you with a well balanced, but ample force of robots to destroy in any way you see fit. With an unlimited ammo main weapon, a limited ammo heavy weapon, and the always unlimited power of your furious fists, you can always find the right tool for the job. There are two different types of levels, normal and survival. The normal levels feature progression from one end to the other, while survival levels feature multiple waves of enemies within a smaller, compact area. The three levels of difficulty (Normal, Hard, and Insane) each contain different levels, which have to be unlocked by earning stars on early levels. So not only do you have three different levels of difficulty to play through, you have three different levels of difficulty with unique stages to each difficulty to play through.

As fun and entertaining as playing the game on your own is, its even better when played with a full party of friends. Up to four players can get together and fight their way through the robot hordes. The game features partial drop-in. If you have an opening in your group, another player can jump in, but they have to wait until the current level is complete before they are able to join the action. The greatest thing, in my mind, about the multiplayer experience is the loot. Instead of being the kind of game that forces friends to argue over stolen loot, each loot drop creates one loot item for each player, color coded for visibility.

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I think the last two go hand in hand. Shoot Many Robots’ ridiculously wide variety of weapons and equipment carry quite a lot of humor in them. My currently equipped headgear, for example, is Penny-Arcade’s wildly inappropriate, and therefore wildly popular home juicer, Fruit Fucker. Aside from giving me a +12% damage bonus to all weapons, and a 2X Penetration bonus (I’m fairly positive this bonus has absolutely no effect on gameplay), Fruit Fucker lives up to part of its name, and humps my head from all directions incessantly. You are able to equip a main weapon, a second weapon (or bonus equipment if you want to sacrifice your secondary weapon slot), a hat, shirt, and pants. The three clothing equipment slots contain various bonus and abilities, from sliding to hovering, and from additional beer slots for health regen and additional character bonuses. The combinations are myriad, and can ensure that every player can equip to focus on different classes of play. Range, tanking, speed, and more can all be given as much focus as the player wants simply by choosing equipment.

Shoot Many Robots is available today and yesterday, for 800MSP and $9.99, on XBLA and PSN, respectively. With Shoot Many Robots, Demiurge has created a very entertaining, albeit far too hillbilly, robot shoot’em up with only a few flaws, which can all easily be ignored. If you are at all a fan of shoot’em up titles, Shoot Many Robots will undoubtedly become a prized member of your collection.