Tiny Robots: Test your tilting precision in this massively entertaining fixed screen shooter.
Greedy alien robots have invaded your home planet trying to take away the seeds of life. It’s your task as the small unassuming robot to stand up and fight back in order to save the seeds from their metallic claws. On first glance tiny robots bring back the the classic fixed screen shooter into the spotlight, giving it an aesthetically pleasing make over on the way. Find out what we at AGR thought of it below.
Gameplay: Fixed screen shooters were synonymous with video gaming back in the 80s and early nighties. With the super retro classic Space Invaders and slightly more advanced Galaga, you would not be able to go to a video game arcade without seeing these. Times have changed however and the simplistic fixed screen shooter gameplay is no longer as popular as it once was. So it nice to see it make a revamp return on Android.
Much like the classic shooters your character is placed at the bottom of screen and fires upwards automatically. Enemies come raining down from the sky and move from side to side progressing closer to you each time they hit the side of the screen. Sound Familiar? Your aim to pass the level is to the kill all the enemies on the screen, protect the “seeds of life” and finally the obvious one, not die. The game certainly follows the unwritten “rule of three” where you have three lives, three seeds of life and required to collect three attachments to use your super weapon. This actually works quite well as it makes it nice and simple allowing you to focus on the gameplay.
You control your tiny robot using your phone’s accelerometer which surprisingly worked quite well after a few minutes of getting used to it. The movement of your robot is very smooth giving you a great feeling of control and precision which is certainly needed as the levels progress. There are several different types of powerups that are dropped from your enemies, from the double shoot, 3 way split shoot, machine gun and rocket launcher. All of these require you to change the way you move in order to use them effectively. The most satisfying power up however is the super rail gun which requires you to collect 3 attachments. Once activated the big vertical beam shoots through all targets, sending your enemies to the ground. Great stuff!
Tiny Robots features four stages, each with 15 levels, making a total of 60 levels. The level difficulty is paced just right as it allows you to get accustomed with the controls before it throws anything nasty at you. Enemies come in different shape and sizes, all well designed and recognisable allowing you to react accordingly to their signature attack pattern. The most annoying one is the shelled octopus robot where it is impervious to your attacks when it hides in its shell, something which it tends to do for too long, it has caused me to fail many levels. There are even bosses at regular level intervals splitting up the gameplay nicely.
The hand drawn graphics are very nice if not beautiful and the game runs very smoothly even on the modest HTC Desire. Disappointingly there is some slow down when the adverts refresh which does spoil the flow. The adverts can be removed however with any purchase at the in game shop. The synthesised music is catchy and well suited to robot visuals however it does get repetitive especially since the track doesn’t change for different stages.
Verdict: 4.5/5 Tiny Robots is a well presented and polished shooter which updates the 1980s genre to the 21st century mobile platform. This challenging and addictive accelerometer game will have you coming back time and time again. Tiny Robots – tiny on robots big on gameplay. Free on Android, definitely worth a try.
Tiny Robots Promotional Video
Tips from Android Games Review
- The tilting controls work best when sitting up. So if you are playing this game on the sofa or in bed, try to stay upright
- Charge up your beam by touch holding onto the screen. It’s only effective to do this when there are multiple rows of enemies since the charged up beam goes through enemies.
- Try to anticipate the movement of your enemies. If they are moving right then stay a little to their right in order to allow time for your bullets to hit them
- Remember to protect your seeds of life, don’t just focus on your shooting the main pack
- Don’t immediately pick up power ups if it’s not necessary. If the screen is empty then you can wait a little longer for the screen to fill up with enemies before you pick them up.
- Don’t wait too long to pick up your power ups as they will disappear if left for too long.
Developers: RUNNERGAMES
Tiny Robots QR Code
(Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play)
