As advice goes, “don’t die” isn’t all that great. Yeah, I’ll get right on that avoidance of total failure, thanks. Still, it’s the one thing Mr. Robot needs to do, but also in most cases the one inevitable result of the situation he finds himself in. The thumping techno beat and disco dance-floor levels may give the vibe of a killer nightclub, but it’s one populated by wandering spike-balls, missiles, homing-bots, laser-guards, giant ambling brutes, and for some reason, lots of exploding fruit. Mr Robot has a damage tolerance of zero, with one single hit being all it takes to put him down, but despite this while lasers and spikes are instant death, a good explosion doesn’t phase him in the slightest.
Just Because It’s Good Advice Doesn’t Mean Mr Robot Can Follow It
3D Don’t Die Mr Robotis a sequel to what was originally a PS Vita game before it made its way out to the consoles and PC. Mr. Robot started off as just a 2D square with a cheery smile and big googly eyes, trapped in a series of arenas that got crowded with unkind hazards all wanting the poor little guy dead. That was way back in 2014, though, so with a decade between then and now it would have made sense to expect everyone to settle their differences and go their separate ways as maturity and responsibility settle in. Instead, the whole crew has discovered an entirely new dimension to cause trouble in, and while all the action still takes place on the 2D plane, everything else is bigger and explodier than it’s ever been.
Don’t Die Mr Robot Lives Again With New 3D Demo
The basic gameplay of3D Don’t Die, Mr Robot!is a simplified version ofEvery Extend Extra. While Mr Robot can’t attack by himself, fruit spawns into the arena at regular intervals and explodes once collected. Any fruit within the collected fruit’s explosion radius also gets triggered, and with a little patience and care, the entire board can be cleared by the chain from a single pickup. Each fruit added to the chain also boosts the bonus multiplier, potentially shooting the score through the roof with the right timing.
The thing to be careful of is that the multiplier doesn’t affect any enemy taken out earlier in the chain. Grabbing a fruit to clear a safe spot when the enemies get too close is never a bad idea, but when that first explosion wipes out half the attackers, that means they’re only worth the base amount of points. It’s the enemies at the end of the chain, assuming there are any, that are going to be the ones to crank the score, so there’s a balance to be found between survival and point-chasing. You may get an encouraging “Spectacular chain!” pronouncement, but like a fighting game super that whiffs, it’s visually impressive but not much good for the payoff.
There’s more than just a score run to3D Don’t Die, Mr Robot!, though, with the game divided up among four separate modes.
There’s more than just a score run to3D Don’t Die, Mr Robot!, though, with the game divided up among four separate modes. Arcade is a wide-open field with plenty of room to maneuver, featuring a single life to rack up as many points as possible before the inevitable end. There’s a percentage counting up in the corner, but surviving the roughly five minutes of increasing intensity isn’t something that’s likely to happen without a significant amount of practice, skill and a conservative approach to fruit collection in the latter half of the run geared more towards survival than leaderboard domination.
The Best Thing About Rules Is Rewriting Them
Lime Attack mode is exactly what you’re afraid it sounds like: a terrible pun applied to an all-green level with a two-and-a-half minute timer. Unlike every other mode, getting hit doesn’t kill Mr Robot, but rather knocks off some time and ten percent of the score. This is as true at the very start of the run as it is at the tail end, and very little hurts more than losing over 100 points with one second left on the clock. Chill Out mode, on the other hand, is a more mellow experience, with giant fruits appearing at a slow pace but yielding a huge explosion when collected. Blowing up enemies doesn’t earn anything but coins, which are worth a single point apiece when collected, and the bigger the chain the more the enemies caught up in it drop. Like Arcade, Chill Out has the percentage counting up in the corner, but despite its low-key nature, it’s also not a challenge to be approached lightly.
The final mode is actually the first one in the menu, Remix, which is where every single rule is subject to change depending on the needs of each of its fifty stages. Some levels are the standard score run, but the enemies might be huge or the level layout cramped and tiny. One level may require killing a certain number of enemies while another requires collecting fruit, neither of which are helped by the techniques used in high-scoring gameplay. Clearing lots of enemies in a single explosion is great, of course, but when a gold or platinum rank in the level is earned by total defeated, it’s best to let as few enemies possible drift by while waiting for perfect timing. For the fruit goal, it only counts the ones you pick up rather than those in an explosion chain, so grabbing them as quickly as they appear is a much better strategy.
Almost all the rules are up for grabs in remix, though, with some levels only granting score by scraping against enemies, or others cleared by collecting the coins that drop from them when defeated. Positioning ends up being as important as chaining in those levels, because each stage in Remix is unique and many of them are more than small enough for most of the coins to fall off the edge, un-collected. Not only does that make for a longer level when the difficulty is increasing at a worrying rate, but the coins can be spent on items to dress up Mr Robot back at the main menu. He looks decent as a blue cube with red shoes, but there’s no reason he can’t look even better with shades and a witch’s hat, and maybe color tweaks to body and feet to tie the outfit together.
Closing Comments:
Like all the best arcade games,3D Don’t Die, Mr Robot!is simple on the surface, with the gameplay controlled using just the thumbstick, but there’s just enough depth to be rewarding and the controls almost always feel perfect. Granted there are a few bugs here and there, such as the occasional wall that Mr Robot can get caught on or sparks from a centipede staying on screen if it’s defeated while scraping against it, but the gameplay feels right in a way that makes one run lead instantly to another. There are interesting techniques to learn in chasing a high score, not just from dodging, but also figuring out when to grab a fruit for the biggest chain possible and when to sacrifice all that to live a bit longer, and each new game being only a couple of satisfying minutes makes jumping back in for another round easy. Topping it off is the soundtrack, which is easily one of the best of the year and justifies playing through Remix mode just to hear what the next level’s tune will be.3D Don’t Die, Mr Robot!is a ridiculously-playable arcade game that feels great whether just making things explode or chasing after a new score for the leaderboard, perfect for a moment’s break or digging in to a proper high-score run.
3D Don’t Die Mr Robot
Version Reviewed: PC
Dodge everything and collect the exploding fruit in a thumping techno arcade challenge in 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot. One hit is instant death and will end a run, but chain explosions together to send the score through the roof before that happens and maybe poor Mr Robot will die satisfied.
