Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Don’t Die, Mr. Robot is an arcade game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita. Infinite State Games tend to develop fun games such as 2012’s Shepherd: Mars Needs Sheep and 2013’s Frutorious that both have concepts just as unique as Don’t Die, Mr. Robot.
There are four game modes including: Remix Mode, Arcade Mode, Time Attack and Chill Out. The Remix Mode contains 10 stages, although only the first is initially available to play as the other 9 have to be unlocked by earning points from the in-game performances as the second stage requires 10 points which gradually accumulates to 180 points required for the tenth stage. Each stage has different objectives such as surviving as long as possible; destroying enemies with fruit; grazing enemies to earn danger bonuses; collecting apples; and much more besides which is a massively positive design choice for having such variety in the objectives.
The Arcade Mode, Time Attack and Chill Out are all unlocked as soon as players have completed the first two stages of the Remix Mode. The Arcade Mode is essentially an endless survival mission, while Time Attack is against the clock as players have two and a half minutes to earn as many points as possible with some twists and turns as points will not only be lost but also time for the character being killed, alongside the Chill Out Mode which allows the game to be played at a more tranquil pace.
Fruit regularly appears on screen and if it is touched it then it will explode producing a blast radius that will destroy enemies caught within that range, while leaving fruit to build up will be a huge risk to multiple enemies closing in on the location and trapping the player from any possible escape route, although it is a worthy risk as it will set off a huge chain reaction of epic proportions and quite appropriately earn a points multiplier in the process.
Players can spend the coins collected throughout the stages and game modes in the shop on purchasing power-ups including enhancements to the shield, blast, speed and magnet ranging from 10 to 30 coins each; changing appearance in regards to the colour and accessories such as a variety of hats and sunglasses and switching between male and female characters; and special guests that allow the player to entirely change characters as a homage to other indie games such as Death Ray Mantra.
The environment design is rather basic with just a grid of lasers and some colour around the edges of it, although this is perfectly acceptable as this kind of gameplay is all about spotting the enemies, so this is most likely a design choice to have simple backgrounds in order to not detract from the enemies or the player’s position, which is certainly a design choice that has been perfectly executed.
The lead character is simplistic in its design yet so charming in a Pacman style, while the enemies come in a variety of colours, lengths, widths, shapes and sizes which take random paths through the grid and spawn quicker as the character continues to survive the waves of enemies, which are all certainly positive design choices as it keeps the gameplay at an exciting and frantic pace.
There is a lot of humour that particularly resonates from the robotic voice-over which provides such encouraging comments as instructing the player followed by exclaiming, “Try not to die…Spoilers, you will die!” as well as congratulating you on a huge chain to shout, “Good golly, Miss Molly!”
The controls are well mapped to the Vita as they are simplistic and yet deliver three control schemes consisting of the left or right analogue sticks and d-pad, rear touch pad and tilting via the gyroscopic motion sensing functionality to move the character, alongside pressing start to display the pause menu.
The graphics are simplistic yet effective as the background does not have much detail besides some colour, although there are potentially many enemies on screen at once which shows how great the performance of the game is when it never provides any sign of slowdown despite the variety of enemies and graphical effects for destroying enemies.
The presentation of the game is solid with a great touch screen based user interface across various menus such as the main menu, game mode, online leaderboards, options and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left and right analogue sticks, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the rear touch pad, while the background of the menus revolves around a grid of swirling laser beams.
The audio consists of voice-overs, sound effects and music with the voice-overs informing players of their progress in regards to when they have successfully achieved a particular medal, producing sarcastic tones of how miserably they will fail in their attempt at meeting objectives and admiration for achieving an objective or creating a chain of destroyed enemies, while the sound effects include collecting coins and fruit as well as the explosion that occurs when collecting fruit leading to the destruction of enemies, alongside a dance and techno music soundtrack.
The trophy list includes 13 trophies with 9 bronze, 3 silver and 1 gold trophy. There are some easy trophies such as the Starting Out bronze trophy for completing the tutorial comprising of the first couple of levels in the Remix Mode; the Miser bronze trophy for lasting 20 seconds without collecting a fruit in Arcade Mode; and the Martyr bronze trophy for dying when there are at least 10 fruits on screen and having not scored any points. There are some harder trophies such as the Gold Run silver trophy for getting all of the gold medals and the Going Platinum gold trophy for getting all of the platinum medals. It is estimated that depending upon skill, a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips and that it would take between 5 to 10 hours to 100% the trophy list.
There are no difficulty levels, although there is a unique difficulty curve for each game mode as power-ups will be enabled or disabled which certainly varies the gameplay and makes it more or less challenging depending upon which game mode has been selected, while the enemies will always have random paths across the grid as well as more entering the grid as survival is completed over a longer period.
There are no local or online multiplayer modes which are surprising as the game would be perfect for time, points or enemies destroyed based competitive multiplayer in pass the Vita gameplay and could have worked just as well in online multiplayer too as alternative versions to all of the single player game modes, while co-operative versions of each of the single player game modes could be perfect for online multiplayer.
However, there are online leaderboards focused on global, friends and top scores with each leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); their points score and robot with the positioning of each player based upon their total points scores for each category including: arcade normal, arcade pure, remix mode, time attack, chill out mode and total coins, which totals to 18 leaderboards.
The replayability of the game comes from the four game modes with their diverse rules and objectives, while the online leaderboards provide a competitive edge to the gameplay and the amount of character customisation options available to purchase with the in-game currency earned from destroying as many enemies as possible all combine together to encourage the player to have one more try.
Overall, Don’t Die, Mr. Robot is an amazing arcade game due to how fun and appealing the gameplay is from the outset, while managing to consistently retain a freshness that will provide players with suitable options for short or long bursts of gameplay as it never outstays its welcome. If you are a fan of arcade games, then it is an absolute must purchase and with such a vast amount of content providing exceptional value at just £4.49!
Jason Bonnar
Analysis
- Title: Don’t Die, Mr. Robot
- Developer: InfiniteState Games
- Publisher: InfiniteState Games
- System: PS Vita
- Format: PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: No
- Cross-Play: No
- Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
- Memory Card Space Required: 217MB