With a Name Like Robokill, It Has to Be Good

Sure, we all loved Smash TV, but did you ever get the feeling that the classic trigger-mashing, horde-spewing, meat grinder could use more RPG elements? Like maybe a weapon shop, levels, and items?

The folks down at Rock Solid Arcade sure did, and so they took the gameplay of Smash TV, wrapped it firmly in Descent’s excuse for a plot, and simmered the meaty goodness in a sauce squeezed from Diablo’s item and equipment system. The result is Robokill, an arcade shooter where your character, clad in a mechanical armour suit, runs through endless rooms filled with angry robots and transforms them into empty rooms filled with craters.

The controls are simple; move with the standard WASD keys, point your mouse at something to sling your guns that way, and then press the mouse button to shoot. There are an awful lot of things to shoot. The enemy robots come in hordes, not through the doors like in Smash TV, but instead they enter the room thanks to spawning machines, as well as enemies who pump out more technological annoyances for you to blow away. These enemy types come in different flavours, too, with more aggressive attacks, more hit points, and just a general increase in their pain in the ass quotient. Some of the enemies, in particular a sort of tiny evil Gradius boss lookalike, can give you a good duel even one on one.

Fortunately, you can blast through this chaos with a number of weapons, from the rapid-fire Blaster, to the Shotgun, and explosive Grenade Launcher. There’s also the Revenge Detonator. Wanna guess what that does? You can also equip various goodies that don’t spit out hot death, like shield regenerators and emergency repair units, both of which are handy for staying alive.

Robokill is a flash game, so you can play it straight through your browser, which is handy if there’s any stray productivity around the office you might need to kill. The version online is demo with just a few levels, but perhaps an hour’s worth of gameplay. If you’ve never before dealt with the glory and horror of Smash TV, it’ll be two hours. The full version costs $10, which is pretty good for something polished as brightly as Robokill. If you’re done with the day and need to take out your repressed anger on mindless mechanical drones, then fire up Robokill and murder your cares away.