Robots. Let’s see… A movie right? And now… it is a game… a licensed game. For GBA… and the DS: the same game twice with little touch-screen, dual-screen additions. So you know what to expect, right? Hmm… here we go!

The game starts you off as a new robot, Rodney Copperbottom, moving into the big city. You have a great new invention to show the inventor Bigweld which can help out the robots in the city. However, Bigweld has mysteriously gone missing. It turns out that the antagonist of the game – and apparently the movie – is an evil robot whose plan is to force robots to upgrade instead of being able to buy new parts. Now, it is up to you, Rodney, to find Bigweld, fight against Ratchet, and protect Bigweld Corp.

Much of the game is presented in a tilted 2D angle, making it appear like a 3D world. The graphics are exactly like those on the GBA version of the game, and you won’t find any difference between the two. Well, my previous statement is not entirely true. The half-pipe Transit System has a more “3D” look to it, and the addition of the touch screen allows for quicker menu navigation and easier access. Still, the game is exactly like its GBA brother, with attempted inclusions of the touch screen functions. Some of the levels that use the touch screen are ones in which Rodney becomes a ball and you must navigate narrow passages using an icon on the touch screen. These can become extremely tedious and frustrating, as the precision of the analog is not accurate enough and you find yourself falling off or over-rolling your Rodney ball. These levels are a nice addition to the otherwise stale adventure, but not nearly enough to make the game more entertaining.

Now, the thing that bothered me the most about Robots is that character development, influence, interaction, and importance was minimal. Extremely minimal. It would be of no importance had this game been a puzzle game or a simulation game, where characters take no part in the overall enjoyment of the game. However, for a game like Robots, based on the movie with the same name, where characters are unique and important to the story, these characters should have been highlighted more. But instead, we get a game where all you do is go around an enormous world looking for weapon upgrades and your next location utilizing a useless map. Battles are scarce, and when they do happen, all you do is smack enemies a few times and watch them croak to death. Even the upgradeable weapons add no variety to combat, making them a useless addition.
Maybe I’m being really harsh on this game; I tried to like it but it was just too boring and repetitive. Let me get back to the character importance in this game. With unique characters like Bigweld, Fender, Wonderbot, Aunt Fanny, Ratchet, and Madame Gasket, it would have been great to see these play key roles to the development of the story. Okay, let me put it this way, if characters were not important for a game like Robots, then why does the game individually introduce each one in the introduction screen before you play? And then, it completely ignores them and makes their presence obsolete in the game itself? It was truly a disappointment to see these great characters have minimal influence on the game.

What you’ll hear out of your DS speakers while playing Robots is nothing to drool over. The music used for Robots pertains primarily to generic tunes that add very little atmosphere and are instead included as necessities. On dramatic moments – or moments that try to be dramatic – the music does vary a little but their substance and effect are not profound enough to create the desired atmosphere. Do not look for catchy tunes or memorable music while playing Robots.

If I were to describe playing Robots it would be like playing a really horrible version of Castlevania or Metroid. Everything is structured similarly to these games, except for the isometric view of Robots. Even the map and “save station” in Robots resembles that of the Castlevania games. However, the map used in Robots is useless and hard to understand, as the different levels and dimensions of the areas expand greater than the map makes you understand, making the relation between the two unfriendly. One great thing about the map, however, is that you are able to write directly on it using the DS stylus to create notes for yourself for future reference. The only problem with this is that once you turn the game off, these notes are gone - you cannot save them. Thus, if you are going to properly use this feature you have to play the game through without stopping. This isn’t a problem, of course, as the game is only about five hours long. But really, Robots is so boring and its worlds are so sterile that you will not want to play the game for even an hour straight.

Overall, having not seen the movie, I was disappointed that the game was not able to garner my attention to go and see the movie. Many of the attempted innovations to the game fell short of the experience it was trying to create, and I found myself bored and not entertained by the levels and execution of the game. Even the final boss is a pushover, and the ending came bitterly, even though I already wanted it to end anyways. It was truly hard for me to go back everyday and play more of Robots, and even the unlockable movie stills were not enough to peek my interest. If you are still interested in Robots, then you should definitely rent it, but if possible, stay away from it completely.