Super Roboy review

Super Roboy is the passion project of solo developer Vincent Penning. Using his artistic talent as a tattoo artist and the programming skills he learned alongside his late father, Penning decided to pay tribute to his ancestor by creating a video game that he said they would enjoy creating together. This led to him taking his indie game to Kickstarter to help raise additional funding, testers and feedback to create the final product, which fans can now try out for themselves. All these elements together create Super Roboya hand-drawn Metroidvania adventure in which the titular android character makes his way through a desolate world in search of his lost memories and father.

straight away Super Roboy becomes home to several niches – as a Kickstarter-funded title, an indie game, a standalone development venture, a 2D cartoon experience, and as a Metroidvania. These aspects make Penning's debut game quite unique in its own right, impressing in some areas while leaving a bit more to be desired in others. Super Roboy delivers on its premise of inviting players into an experience where fans can explore and fight villains that would have satisfactorily belonged in the pages of a comic book. However, the growing pains of trying to offer an open world with its own skill system can make or break the enjoyment Super Roboy offers fans who jump into the title without guides or previous gaming experience Super Metroid.

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Super Roboy excels at all the things that make fans choose the game

Metroidvanias have arguably grown to stand on their own outside of the platforming genre, but players still explore similar titles and expect tight controls, movement systems, and intense combat. At first glance, it's easy to get confused Super Roboy for a cute introductory title to the subgenre, but it's built almost entirely for those who adore the genre and are looking for something new, yet nostalgic. It certainly opens simplistically with an AI guard named Virgil telling Roboy that his memories have been erased and that they need to find his father. From there, Virgil serves to mark important points on Roboy's map, but beyond that it's entirely up to the player to find their way and their upgrades.

Survey in Super Roboy It starts out this way and is easy enough to understand as players jump and shoot platforms and enemies as expected, but they soon discover their first crystals and are informed that they have their first few skills. Instead of offering power-ups scattered around the map as expected in games like Metroid, Super Roboy replacing them with the Enemy Skill system, which requires defeating a certain number of enemies and collecting crystals to unlock. This doesn't hinder players too much at first, as enemies are plentiful and green crystals (at least) aren't hard to come by, along with many of the early skills serving as optional upgrades.

Players have enough time to learn and understand what Super Roboy it's probably in the first area, which is enhanced by how wonderfully the game controls. Jumping, shooting, gliding and rolling are all incredibly responsive, making these abilities a joy to use and ultimately satisfying to improve once you discover them. This goes well with exploration and platforming Super Roboy offers, which is one of those liberating and player-driven adventures. But that serves as both a blessing and a curse when it comes to the game in general. Once players complete the tutorial, it's not clear what to do next, which can leave them confused.

The innovation in Super Roboy could hinder more than excite

One could argue that the best video games find the line between telling and showing. Metroidvanias in particular have always been known for letting players figure things out as they go. Still, Cool Robots he ends up shooting himself in the leg with the Enemy Skill system. The Enemy Skill system works great when it comes to unlocking stat buffs and weaknesses for specific enemy types, but there is a problem with locking necessary upgrades in the same system. Moves like double jump, wall jump, and underwater abilities are locked behind a certain number of enemies and bosses, with some necessary baddies only found in one challenge room between four different areas. Just wanting to explore and missing one room out of an entire maze can easily prevent players from finding the one ability they need to progress, with only vague guidance and no proper advice on how to get it.

Besides, a more open Metroidvania app has been done before, and it seems like it Super Roboy still shows how more work needs to be done to bring the two functions together. Four areas that are almost completely accessible from the start without proper direction, Enemy Skill being a necessary upgrade or not, can lead people to find secret passages too soon. This issue may get easier over time as fans get used to it, but the way all skills are poorly organized and managed can lead to unnecessary frustration finding missing enemies and unlocking missing skills on a map that only shows players half of what they need see.

Many of Super RoboyThe formula changes seem to work great on paper, but not so well in practice. Important skills almost beg to become regular unlocks instead of being hidden behind basic enemies, and making important Floater collectibles invisible on the map without the skill and locking the rarest crystals behind them feels more like a nuisance than a reward. Some of the floats needed for yellow crystals are even locked behind optional side quests, making the hunt for yellow crystals problematic in the long run. While essential skills are locked behind unpredictable requirements and collectibles are occasionally confusing at hand, the movement system and how great the basics are Super Roboy Feel keeps players moving just to fly around the world and see what's around them. I was able to find solutions to the puzzles that prevented me from progressing just by testing the hunch of what was sticking, but that shouldn't be the answer to every obstacle in Super Roboy. Especially not when players are left to figure out key information such as the Bounce ability, which allows players to jump on top of deadly bombs, which isn't directly explained.

Just a few helpful changes could prevent unnecessary running around, like having boss rooms marked on the map, but also more conversations with Virgil and Roboy that have content would work great and offer more clues than just a few notes scattered around the map. . Story-wise, it's definitely not a drag Super Roboyas the characters barely get a chance to interact during the adventure. While Super Roboy seeks to create a world that aims to take cues Hollow KnightMost famous through letters and diary entries, it fails to capture the same intrigue and charm.

Super Roboy is a Metroidvania purely for the love of the genre

That's not bad at all Super Roboy however, it brings her exploration, movement, and combat mechanics closer. In fact, this indie game shines completely in these aspects. Even aimless exploration rewards players for defeating repeated enemies with Essence, helping Roboy level up to take on bosses and later enemies with ease. The Skill system even manages to impress by including four elemental upgrades and status ailments that add depth to what could be an otherwise basic combat system. Super Roboy it even takes notes from a number of role-playing games to add a bestiary of enemies where players can see enemy weaknesses in a simple but cluttered menu.

Elemental weapons and status ailments end up being incredibly prominent Super Roboy'with bosses where the right combination can make quick work of challenging bosses in a satisfying way. At first it was great to fight the Mutant King Minos, but once I used some extra crystals to increase my biological resistance and plant poison against him, as well as keep in mind his attack pattern, I didn't put in much effort. However, on higher difficulties, these skills definitely matter, as hard mode reduces the amount of health particles and significantly increases health indicators compared to the other two settings. The penultimate part of the game – once players reach the power plant – pulls no punches and is sure to test players on all levels of difficulty. Super Roboy surprisingly challenging to see through to the end.

Breaking the mold isn't necessary for Super Roboy to become a worthy Metroidvania

Video game design is similar to many other mediums in that during the journey it takes to create something, there usually needs to be one core value that stands out as its message and purpose. When it comes down to it Super Roboyits main purpose was to be a hand-drawn Metroidvania experience, and it certainly hits the nail on the head in that regard. The movement system makes exploring incredibly fun even at times when the objective may not be clear, the bosses are challenging with patterns that require close observation to master, and nearly every area has collectibles that can be revisited with unlocked upgrades. This only adds to the adorable and charming art style that persists Super Roboywith sprite animations and well-crafted backgrounds that offer plenty of surprises. Super Roboy it may have its flaws, but it also shows some impressive potential for other 2D animated games from the same developer.

Super Roboy is a great and simple Metroidvania for its target audience of genre fanatics, though it can be hard to recommend for newcomers to the platforming subgenre. Those who have already passed Hallownest or even passed a Mega man the game easily feels at home during the game's short but demanding runtime. Super Roboy it delivers on its promises in a way that is unique in its own right and is therefore worth exploring.