First off, for those of you people who remember Robotron in the arcades, and loved it: run, don't walk over to Garage Games and buy this game. You won't be disappointed. MutantStorm by PomPom Games (http://www.pompomgames.com) and sold on GarageGames.com is a top down 3D shooter pretty much exactly like the classic arcade game Robotron. If you aren't familiar with Robotron, the game is about blasting everything you see with your robot's lasers while trying to protect and defend the Pixel Family from annihilation from other robots and brain-sucking aliens. What set Robotron apart from the other shoot-em ups, is that you control both the movement of your ship and the direction of your shot with two joysticks, or in the case of MutantStorm, two keyboard layouts or a combination mouse and keyboard. If you haven't tried it before, it sounds difficult, but after a little practice you'll see the beauty in this style of control and quickly understand the true Zen of Robotron.
Each level you progress through is played on a single screen, and you pilot your ship within the boundaries of the map, shooting up hundreds of enemies made up of several different types and abilities. You work through 89 different playing fields on your quest to get higher scores and gain belts in "Blastikkidoo", which is apparently the equivalent of Arcade Action Kung-Fu. Each level has a unique set up of how the map is shaped and where enemies will spawn, although the map will often flip orientation between games, or place your ship to start in a different position. The level's colors will often change between games too, which seems slightly gimmicky but frankly adds to the arcade experience and is a nice touch. Even warping between levels is stylistic, and almost sounds like Robotron's level changing "noise" bringing back fond memories of your arcade years. (Anyone who remembers Robotron will remember the sounds it made... sweet sweet 8 bit sound effects.)
The graphics in the game are top down 3D, meaning your viewpoint is fixed, but all of the objects are made from 3D models, albeit simple ones. The engine plays with the 3D a bit, and the map zooms in and tilts automatically depending upon where your ship is on the screen, and where your enemies are. (Think of it like the game table is tilting to give you the best view.) The lighting and effects around your ship, and from the aliens looks really good and fits the game perfectly. Each map is different and interesting, and each alien type has a unique shape and style. Enemies behave differently too, amongst the different type, with some being slower and path driven, while others are more random and just try to get to you as fast as possible. Each enemy type begets a different strategy to defeat, and some of the hardest levels seem to be those that combine aliens of different types, forcing you into an epileptic fit trying to combine your tactics. There are also the equivalent of "bosses" on certain levels, but these aren't generally too much harder if you can get your shots in and just stay out of their way.
With each game, you start with the classic three lives, and the slightest touch of an alien enemy, or one of their lasers will eat up one of your lives. None of this "hit point" business here! Luckily, you have four time limited and one "use it until you lose it" power-up that can temporarily upgrade your weapons or add to your defenses so you can eke out a few dozen more kills. After the three lives are up, its game over, and you're forced to make that critical decision on whether to go to sleep, or go back and play "just one more level" which is not an easy choice. If you continue in the game, you are allowed to start at the last "10's" level checkpoint that you passed, i.e. if you make it to the 12th level, you are allowed to start back at 10. You'll soon get really good, and really sick of, those 11th, 21st or 31st levels. Of course, you can always go back and start at 1, which leads us into the game's replay ability.
But for the more sophisticated level-grinder (those types of people who will go kill rats for 20 hours straight to be able to get to 34th and a HALF level) MutantStorm introduces a system of martial art style belts. These belts are synonymous with the white, yellow, black belts popularized by the Ralph Macchio collection. They represent your Blastikkidoo skill and are damned hard to get. As you progress through each level, your current belt gains a little more experience. If you can manage to survive without dying AT ALL, you'll grow your experience from level to level, eventually attaining the belt. However, if you slip a little, the digital Sensei takes back a lot of your experience, and very quickly will knock you back to zero. This seems extremely tough to me, in fact, too tough, and going after a belt, much like the Karate Kid learned, can be a discouraging experience. I would rather see your belt experience hang around between games, or be slightly easier to get at the lower levels, or both. Along with gaining your belt, your "experience" also allows you to gain point multipliers to your score, and makes the enemies a little tougher. The game basically adapts itself to your level of play and rewards or punishes you by how consistent you are at not dying.
Another ding on the game is the one place that MutantStorm in it's decision on how to deal with enemies after death. When you perish and the level restarts, all of the enemies re-spawn as well. Compare this to Robotron where only the enemies you hadn't killed yet re-spawned, making it easier to get past a difficult level. This makes the game a lot harder, as you can sometimes run into levels that have to be played almost perfectly, or with a heck of a lot of luck, to make it through. This can be even more frustrating when its the 8th or 9th level between checkpoints, and it results in a quick loss of your three lives and leading to a restart back at the last checkpoint. Trust me, nothing sucks worse than to slog through 9 levels to die on the last one with only one little pipsqueak alien left to kill.
That said, I never got angry at the game, or felt like it cheated me as I sometimes do with others. Pretty much all of the time you know that the game, while mean, is fair, and you really did make that stupid backward move into the alien, blowing your ship into confetti. And because each level is statically laid out, there is a sense of accomplishment when you figure out the trick to how to fight the level, making it a little bit of a puzzle or strategy game too instead of just a twitch shooter.
Unless you are a real level grinder, most folks will pick this one up when they need a quick fix, and put it down for other games when they have more time to play. This is one game I suggest leaving the icon on your desktop for those quick plays during downloads. But beware, once you start you just might not notice the hours pass by and might be a little bleary eyed at work in the morning. The game is beautifully done, very well balanced, and a joy to play. And it's a lot cheaper and smaller than that Robotron game on Ebay that you've been trying to talk your wife into keeping in the bedroom.
PC P3 400+, 64MB ram, 30MB Hard disk space, Open GL® video card, Standard sound card, Windows 98/Me/2k/XP, DirectX® 8+
Apple MAC G3 400+, 64MB ram, 30MB Hard disk space, Open GL® video card, OsX only
Linux 64MB ram, 30MB Hard disk space, Open GL® video card, Standard sound card
Dave lives with his wife and three kids, doing independant software development consulting and fits games in every nook and cranny of his free time. He particularly enjoys seeing new and fresh ideas from the Indie Game Studios, and believes that they are the true future of gaming. He'll play just about anything if you put it in front of him, and usually like about two thirds of it. He's also an "0ld Sk00l" gamer, having cut his teeth on Adventure, the Vic-20, Apple II and Infocom. Back when playing a new game meant you had to type the program in from a Family Computing magazine, during a snowstorm, up a hill, both ways.
