I first saw Robot Unicorn Attack advertised during the Adult Swim segment on Cartoon Network. The unicorn part of the title held no interest for me. The robot portion, however, made me curious. Were the developers able to seamlessly integrate a robot and a unicorn? What kinds of attacks would a robot unicorn make?
Positives:
+ It is very easy to learn the controls. There are only three: X to dash, Z to jump or double jump, and R to retry from the beginning (resetting score) any time before death.
+ The game is very fast paced. This is a good thing for those casual gamers who only have a few moments and need a quick bit of stress relief.
+ Side-scrolling platform provides a familiar feel for those familiar with games like Super Mario Brothers.
+ During each play-through the points scored by collecting pixies stack exponentially allowing for some pretty awesome final scores. Each pixie is worth 10 points times the number of pixies you’ve collected so far. For example, if you’ve collected 2 pixies then your score for the second pixie is 20 (pixie score equation is 10*x where x= total number of pixies collected up to and including that pixie.)
+ If the unicorn misses a platform and crashes, it explodes into a fiery ball.
+ The replay screen that pops up when the unicorn dies shows the picture of a severed robot unicorn head and it’s crying.
Negatives:
- The theme is obnoxious. It is full of rainbows, pastels, and sparkles.
- The main character is a unicorn. While it is also a robot the unicorn traits are so prevalent that it is easy to forget its robot side.
- You are dumped right into the middle of a fast paced side scrolling game. If you’re distracted for one second then you’re dead.
- No way to pause the game. If you need to answer the door or get something out of the oven then you kill the unicorn. There is no other way to stop the game.
Thoughts:
~ This is a great example of how simple design can create a very fun and popular video game.
~ While I don’t like the theme choice the game’s art is nicely done.
~ I love the music. It was a great choice to go with the game.
~ Two sequels of the game were made: Heavy Metal and Christmas. It’s branched out to Facebook and has been ported to the iPhone and Android markets. I wonder if it will get as big as Angry Birds?
Would Like:
* Changing scenery. Currently the scenery is a bit monotonous. I love it if the scenery changed as the game scrolled into a new area.
* Different levels. So far the game is one continuous level where you just run until you die. Perhaps add different levels that include increased difficulty so that the player has more of a sense of accomplishment than simply having a new high score when they finally die.
* The ability to pause the game. I understand that it’s supposed to be a run until you die kind of game. Sometimes, though, after playing and not dying for a while a pause button would come in very handy.
* Considering the game is called “Robot Unicorn Attack” there should be at least one attack move. I think pushing X twice should cause this attack move.
Credit where credit is due:
Deam, Jordan. (2010, February 12). Robot unicorn attack. Retrieved from http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/alt-escape/7166-Alt-Escape-Robot-Unicorn-Attack
Williams, Ivan. (2010, February 27). Dual review: canabalt and robot unicorn attack. Retrieved from http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9021648
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