Build and customize robots out of everyday parts like boxing gloves and disco balls, and then pit them against each other in top down action stages in Robot Revenge Squad.  It’s available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

After a brief interactive tutorial, you’ll enter a main hub where you can upgrade your parts via a skill tree.  So for instance, you start out with a pirate sword as a melee weapon, but you can upgrade it to a boxing glove if you have enough points.  Then you must equip your upgrades at another section of the hub.  And when you are ready to start a mission, just go over to the rocket and pick one.

Gameplay in the levels kind of reminds me of a mix of Pokémon Rumble Blast and Gauntlet.  You view the action in a top down perspective, and can move in any direction with the control stick.  You use your main attack with the R shoulder button, and secondary attacks with the L shoulder button and X button.  Usually your main attack is a melee weapon, like the sword, and your other weapon is a long distance attack.  The X button activates your head weapon, like a disco ball which makes the enemies freeze for a bit so you can attack them.  You can also dash out of the way.  Special weapons take energy, but you can get that energy back by using your main weapon.

The game has a whole bunch of problems that kept me from enjoying it, though.  Your main attack is downright useless, especially since other enemies can just wail on you as you miss.  It’s not fun to defeat enemies this way, but if you bypass them, they’ll eventually gang up on you and make it impossible to progress.  Especially when you have to pause to play an annoying mini game to activate a switch or gate or something.  You get three lives and after that you must start the level over again.  The text in the levels is also too small.  Up to four can play local or online, and I imagine it might be more fun to play that way, like a beat ‘em up in the arcade.  But otherwise, I didn’t find this one that much fun.

Kid Factor:

Robo Revenge Squad is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  You hit other robots with silly weapons and they explode when defeated, but that’s it.  Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews