I really wanted to like indie developer Fugazo’s Frobot a lot more than I did. It’s funky, groovy and features a jive-talking robot that saves the universe through the power of dance; if you ever wondered what Shaft would be like on Soul Train – as a robot – this is it.
It just got boring.
The game opens “In another time, in a dimension that doesn’t exist,” and humans are extinct: there are only robots, and their world is controlled by the evil BotBlocker organization. They want to achieve world peace through total world domination, and only Frobot can stop them. “Endowed with immeasurable freshness” his powers are stored in his five lovely ladies: Sassy Brass, Jada Jett, Foxy Proxy, Violet Real, and Astella Bust. Too bad all but Sassy get kidnapped, leaving Frobot dangerously low on his funk. It’s up to him and Sassy to get the girls back, get his groove on, and save the world.
Sassy is Frobot’s righthand, and she guides you through the tutorial, teaching you all about your powers of dance and funky projectiles (a Dynomine for timed explosions, Sprocket Rockets for longer range targets, and the Jive Stalker disco ball as a guided missile). You’ve also got a blue laser for regular shooting, and a dash that’s worthy of a funk robot. Your blue laser is fired with left click, special weapons with right (and selected with 1,2 or 3). You move with W,A,S and D keys (or arrows) and pick up/put down boxes with E. Your blue laser shots ricochet, so you need to get your timing just right to knock out a BotBlocker goon or turret – or even cancel out an enemy bullet. The controls took me a little while to get used to on my tiny laptop keyboard, and the shot timing took some getting used to, but everything’s fairly intuitive and quick to pick up.
There are two game modes to choose from: Singleplaya (story mode for one person) or Multiplaya (up to 3 people destroying each other with all kinds of projectiles). I played Singleplaya, so I can’t speak for Multiplaya fun. Singleplaya offers 3 difficulties: Easy (50 lives to start with) Medium (30 lives) and Hard (10 lives), with enemies getting harder and trickier as you go. There are 4 worlds to explore, too, with 5 levels each and their own look and vibe.
The look of the game is great—bright colors, 70s-style graphics and fonts. The tone is pure 70s goodness, too, and is lots of fun. Everything is fun… until you get a few levels into the game. It’s difficult to make challenges like “shoot all the enemies in this room and push this panel” fresh and new, but this game repeats the same kinds of challenges over and over again (figure out where to put this box so you can open a door and exit the screen!). Yes, they got harder, but they were ultimately the same challenge. I got bored by doing the same thing over and over again. It is also a bit of a bummer to begin the game at the height of Frobot’s powers then play through several more hours of it in order to get back to that coolness.
It’s a pretty game, and lovingly crafted, but it got a little flat in the funk department for me. Frobot is available for the PC and for 1000 points in the WiiWare shop. Rated E, for everyone with funk.
News and Culture Editor Laurie Vazquez really misses when all games were flat. Sure, she’s worked in television and veered off into film and television writing, but when she’s not whacking out scripts for contests (or, more likely, when she should be whacking them out) she fires up her beloved flat games. Take away her Nintendo, and she is a sad, sad girl. Just don’t take away her Futurama or her viola: that makes her mad.
