Robo Legend Review

You are Robo, a robotic mercenary brought to an alien world with a teleporter. A mysterious robot has brought you here to save this home, Gear Town, from the army of bad bots that are attacking. In Robo Legend, you will make decisions that will determine the future of Gear Town and all its residents; you can save them, or you can become a villain and help to obliterate them.

Robo Legend is an adorable pixel-art twin-stick shooter that is also an RPG. I initially tried to play using my controller as that is my preferred gaming method; it didn't work and required using a keyboard and mouse. Most of you are like, "Clearly that's how you usually play twin-stick shooters." I'm stubborn; what can I say? If you are used to gaming with a keyboard and mouse, you already know how to control Robo. To move around, you use WASD, or you can use the directional arrows; then, to shoot, click the target you want to fire at. 

The mysterious robot who brought you here drops you into the "deadly Northern Swamplands." You will have to fight your way through, solving little puzzles and destroying the enemy bots coming after you to find your way to Gear Town. If you want to save your progress anytime, you can pause the game using the escape key. It's nice that you don't have to find save points in the game that you have to reach to record your progress.

Once you get to Gear Town, which feels like it's right from an old western movie, you will meet some of the residents along with the scientist who brought you here, Rod. He tells you about Voidbot, the villainous robot that is taking over all the biomes. He is collecting resources to create his robot army and super weapons to take over all the towns that stand in his way on his quest for global domination. You get to choose if you want to help them, or if you have a bit of an evil streak, you can join the evil forces and fight against them. I'm too nice of a person and would feel guilty if I was a bad guy, so I volunteered to help them out.

There are seven different biomes to explore and fight the enemy in. Four of them have special encrypted locks that prevent you from entering, Rod has managed to hack the first two, but he will need more time for the others. He has given these special keys to residents in the town for safekeeping. The librarian Synthia has the Ashlands biome key; the bartender, Sprocket has the Icelands biome key. Based on the biomes' name, it's pretty easy to guess what the terrain will be like, but be prepared for heavily armoured tank drones and lava traps in Ashland. For Icelands, you will find a cold and slippery place full of traps and corrupted bots from the run-down local factory. Each area you explore will have a different activity to do, like skating on ice or swimming through swamps, as you try to solve various puzzles, mini-games, and enemies to defeat. 

The visuals in Robo Legend are what you expect from pixelated graphics. They aren't super detailed, but they get the job done. The bots you meet are all pretty cute though, simple and sweet! The music when you are walking around and exploring is pretty chill, but it sounds a lot more exciting when you find yourself in a battle with hordes of enemies or a boss. I enjoyed the fishing mini-game you play to catch robotic fish for Cammy, who runs the fishing hole in Gear Town. It was really different using a drone spear and swimming down to avoid the obstacles to get to the fish. It was refreshing that you didn't just stand there, holding a fishing pole, waiting for a nibble.

During your adventures through these biomes, you will encounter weapon upgrades for Robo. You start with a simple blaster, but soon you will acquire weapons like guided missiles to help you complete the twenty-five available quests. These are required to complete your journey, becoming either the story's hero or its villain. As you defeat enemies and explore, you will get extra armour and chips you can use at Volt's gym for upgrades. There are ten different endings in Robo Legend, so your choices really impact how the story finishes. Some will be dark and bleak, while others will be happier. Guaranteed, you will want to play through the game a few times to try and get endings that are drastically different than the previous ones you got.

Robo Legend is a title you will want to check out if you are a fan of twin-stick shooters with RPG elements and cute robot characters. With various endings to unlock based on the choices you made. The responses you select will impact how your story ends.