Widow Maker's Game Room 5: Robot Legions

"And we're back! It's been a while, but I'm here with another game review. Today we're going to be delving into the fascinating world of Xbox Live Indie Games. It has a reputation for being a terrible service full of short, lame, copycat bugfests, but any platform with this few barriers for entry is going to require some sifting to get to the good stuff. First up from the indies is Robot Legions. With me today as my special guest is Celestia Canicco, mother of a thousand roleplay characters."

"So this is that Xbox 360 all the kids are playing these days? Where's the cartridge slot?"
"It uses discs."
"Ohhh!"
"How you can be such a whiz at robotics and yet such a dullard at modern trends is beyond me."

"Robot Legions is a twin-stick arena shooter, a genre there is no shortage of on Indie Games or Live Arcade."
"What's that?"
"It's when you put a shooting game on a system that has a controller with two sticks. You can then move with one stick and shoot with the other. It's a miracle of modern video gaming. Or maybe it's just everything trying to be Robotron 2084. Your call."
"Oh, I remember that one! It was hard."
"It was. Fortunately, Robot Legions is a lot more forgiving. But that's later. First, a rundown of the gameplay. It's pretty basic - move and shoot, fighting against THE ROBOT LEGIONS."
"Hence the title?"
"Precisely. So anyway, you're fighting the robots and they come in a whole mess of different types. The game does a great job of slowly introducing new opponents. The first level contains only robots that slowly chase you, but the second level introduces ones that shoot. Later you meet bots that fight indirectly by leaving green puddles that slow you down, bots that charge in straight lines trying to ram you, carrier bots that send out tiny minions when killed, and a dozen more besides. It gives each level its' own unique challenges, enemy combinations, and themes."
"It's always good to have variety. My daughters certainly taught me that!"
"So different, yet so alike, those four. So yeah, tons of different enemies. It would get overwhelming quickly, but there's a huge addition to the game that helps it a lot: The shop. Every killed enemy drops money, and some enemies drop more than others. After every level, or whenever you're killed, you can visit a shop and upgrade your robot. Everything imaginable can be upgraded, from your running speed to your rate of fire to your HP, and it can all be upgraded between two and four times. This adds some strategy to the game as you try to customize your build to fit your playstyle, because you aren't likely to be able to afford everything your first time through. By the way, you get a 150% money bonus for not getting hit during a level, and even if you die you still get half the money you earned from the stage and can start again from that stage's beginning. See what I mean by forgiving?"

"So it's easy, then?"
"Not necessarily. There are a few tough stages, and the last level in particular is a challenge even with max upgrades. The game is pretty short, with 18 levels that take 2 to 5 minutes each, but there's a bit of extra replay value in the form of Feats."
"And what might those be?"
"Feats are Robot Legions' way of compensating for Xbox Indie Games not having Achievements. It's a simple checklist of tasks and missions to add a bit of replay value. Unfortunately I ran into a small bug that left one Feat unmarked even though I unlocked it and saw the unlock notification. Aside from that, cool idea."
"I like the lead robot's design. Maybe I should whip up something like that."
"Only you could look at a robot like that and say 'I could whip that up'."
"Hmhmhm..."
"One other good point - the action is easy to see. I hate shooters that make it hard to see the bullets because of trippy backgrounds and fancy particle effects. Nothing like that here."
"So are there any downsides?"
"Yeah. There's only one music track - not even a boss theme. A couple times near the end I experienced some framerate issues. There's the Feats bug. And even with the Feats it'll probably take less than two hours to completely finish Robot Legions, but considering it only costs a dollar I'd say that's fair."
"A video game for a dollar?! That's my kind of value!"
"I thought you might like that."
"You know me too well!"

"You know what? It's fun, it's fast-paced, it's fair, the drawbacks are minor, and although it's not free, it's pretty damn close. It's getting five mantids. If you like shooters and your gaming budget is 80 Microsoft Points, pick up Robot Legions."

GAME ROOM SCORES:
Episode 1: Golden 20-in-1 (Sega Genesis): 1/5
Episode 2: Rolan's Curse (Game Boy): 3/5
Episode 3: A Week of Garfield (NES): 0/5
Episode 4: Growl (Sega Genesis): 2/5
Episode 5: Robot Legions (Xbox Live Indie Games): 5/5