JMJ Interactive’s Adorable Platformer Robbotto Hits Steam and Nintendo Switch

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Developed and published by JMJ Interactive, Robbotto is a 2D platformer that is both entertaining and adorable. Initially, I was drawn to how cute the little robots looked. In addition to the cuteness of the robots, I do have a huge love for platformers. That is why I knew this game would be a good fit for me and I had to cover it. Before I do begin my review I would like to take the time to thank JMJ Interactive, with providing me with a free copy of the Steam version of Robbotto. It is because of their generosity, I was able to write a review for this game.

You and a friend will take on the role of either Robb or Otto, a pair of maintenance robots if you are playing co-op –If you’re flying solo then you will be playing as Robb, the maintenance robot – who are on a spaceship and must repair all of the robots that are malfunctioning, due to their ship going through a magnetic field. The only reason I was able to locate the story was because I went onto the game’s website http://www.robbotto.com/.  There was no indication on the game as to what the story really was, which I thought would have been nice to know. After reading the story it feels like we’re not repairing these robots, but that we are in fact attacking these robots. I only say attack because first you have to electrify them and then you get to shoot them with water which ultimately decommissions them. So, if you look at it maybe we are repairing them?

You will be completing this objective throughout one hundred different levels—if you choose the game’s Adventure Mode – that are occupy by any of the twenty different enemies that the game offers. Every tenth level you come across is a boss fight, making it a total of ten different bosses that you do fight throughout the game.  The game also offers a Boss Rush mode in which you take on all ten of the bosses from the game. This mode is unlocked after completing the game. I will admit that at first, I thought the game seemed a little too easy, but as you progress the levels do get more difficult; if you are playing on Single Player mode. I imagine that if you had someone to play with; the levels would be a little easier. I was unable to try out the co-op during my gameplay, but I did start up a co-op game and it appears that the levels are similar.

At the beginning of the level, you do get three hearts and if you are struck by an enemy you lose a heart. I was unsure how the heart system works as far as regaining hearts. I know when I reached level five it seems that a heart replenished and another time when I reach 50,000 points it looked like it did too. Therefore, I wish there was a clear way of knowing how the life is replenished. Whenever you finished a level you have the opportunity to collect little energies from the enemy that gives you additional points. There also appears to be a time bonus you can get as well. The only thing that bothers me about the time bonus is there is no timer indicating how much your time bonus is. If you beat the level in a certain amount of time you will get the bonus. So, it would have been nice if the timer would have been added so we know what our bonus is. Also, however many hearts you have is what carries over to the next level.

When it comes to a Game Over you are offer two options to “Continue” and to “Save and Quit.” I thought that this was a neat feature, because it saves your progress in the game. If you have the continues then it just starts you over from the said level if you select Continue. On the other side if you Save and Quit. It saves your progress and takes you back to the title screen but upon selecting continue on the title screen it takes you back to the level you left off of.

The game does offer three different difficulty modes. There is a Normal Mode; which is geared towards your casual players, as it offers unlimited lives. So, think of this mode as your easy mode. The next mode is Hard Mode; which gives you five continues to use before rendering a Game Over. This is what would be considered to be your normal mode. The last mode is Extreme Mode; which gives the player no continues, so if you lose all three of your hearts, the game is over. This would be considered your hard mode.

One thing I felt that game was missing and this is for each of the modes as well as the CO-OP mode was adding the difficulty to it. Although, how many continues you get changes within each mode. I would also like to be giving an additional challenge. For example, with level one you fight three robots. So Normal should have had three robots, Hard should have had six robots, and Extreme should have had nine robots. However, it was just the same levels with the same number of enemies which left me wanting a little more besides the continue differences.  This also applies with CO-OP mode. I would have liked if there were more enemies to accommodate that there were two players. This isn’t a huge deal breaker for me, because I will still play the game solo until I can get a local player two, but would have made the game a little different.

When it came to the controls to the game you can use the keyboard or a gamepad. There were some issues within the Tutorial in which the controls did not work very well. However, during the game the controls worked perfectly fine. I personally preferred to play the game using the controller over the keyboard, but the keyboard controls are still well done. Another thing I would have love to been added was a way to turn the game audio down. The music is a tad bit loud, and even when lowering it on my headphones and through volume mixer, it was still a tad bit loud. Which is a shame because I think the music is pretty good, but it’s just way too overpowering. I also wanted to point out a small issue I had with the font. Although, I do like the font of the game, it was a little hard to read when doing the tutorial, so I think the tutorial font should have been in a different font, so that it was a little easier on the eyes.

The game does offer eight different achievements that you can unlock. So, if you have the patience to play the game all the way through, then you will be able to snag these eight achievements relatively easy. The game does not offer trading cards, so if you are one that collects trading cards, you will not find them here for this game. Another thing I want to discuss is that the Steam Store page does mention that this is supposed to have a steam leaderboard. However, I have not seen this in the actual game yet. I am hoping that because it is on the page that this means the game will be going online. It would be interesting to see where I sit between my friends and other players throughout the world.

Overall, I thought that Robbotto was a really fun game, and I do recommend the game. Robbotto does without a doubt helps to pass the time. I really think that the game can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages and of all gaming levels. If you are interested in playing Robbotto for yourself you can do so by purchasing the game on Steam for $9.99 USD or on the Nintendo Switch for $9.99 USD.

If you would like to see more gameplay of Robbotto I have included my video gameplay of it down below. The gameplay footage does not have voiceover as I have written an in-depth review about the game.