Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition Review – Let Me Out

If you grew up in a household with more than one kid, you know the struggle. You’re sitting down for a nice game of Goldeneye 64 and in walks your little brother, who wants to join in on the fun. The next thing you know, you’re sitting in a bathroom stall with the only entry point covered in proximity mines while kicking back shoving handfuls of Doritos in your mouth, waiting for the inevitable meltdown. Sure, you could play something cooperative, but how can you torture your younger sibling if you are required to work together? Enter Thinice and Ratalaika Games’ newest release, Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition.

The game follows two robots, both tasked with completing a number of timed trials or facing certain death as all service bots do at the end of their service (sounds like a career in customer service to me). Failure leaves them in the scrap heap, whereas success will set them free. To complete the puzzles, you’ll need to work as a team (or solo if a player two isn’t available) as each player must carry their own weight to make it to the end of the level. I know, this doesn’t sound all that torturous yet, but we’ll get there.

At the beginning of each level, one of the two bots will be locked behind a gate, with an ever descending ceiling that slowly creeps down on the secondary player. The free bot will have to quickly move forward through the level to seek out the large red button that will release the second character. Once both of the players are free, you’ll simply need to book for the exit. While this is extremely basic, the fact that both robots will have to manage their battery life adds the true challenge.

Before sitting down to play this with a second player, you’ll need to evaluate their skillset. Is this person someone who can sit calmly and wait their turn? If the answer is no, you’ll likely want to play solo, since doing any action, be it walking, running, or jumping depletes your battery. There are a few ways to combat this, such as walking on any of the brightly lit tiles on the path to the exit, collecting one of the few battery pick-ups tucked away within the environments, or by simply giving some of your energy to the other player, which can be done wirelessly from any distance. The kicker is the exit will require a fair amount of energy to unlock, putting real weight on decisions and deterring you from making needless actions. Since my young, slightly impatient child was my co-op buddy on this venture, it’s needless to say I found the solo mode to be more enjoyable simply due to the fact that he couldn’t sit still when it was his turn to be locked away in the tube (Not So Fun Fact: Jumping into the platform that works as a creeping death will also result in an early demise).

The game falls on the easier end of the spectrum when it comes to the difficulty, with many levels only having a hazard or two to evade on your way to the exit. The short levels fail to hit their stride until late into the game, which comes all too quickly due to the fact that the game has just over 20 levels which can be completed in a matter of minutes. Once completed, there isn’t much to revisit, unless you wish to seek out 100% completion on each level by collecting the batteries or activating each of the floor plates. The completion time for each level is tracked albeit fairly useless, since they serve no purpose outside of a few achievements associated with beating specific levels within a set time.

The only weak point in the gameplay is the drag mechanic that comes into play late into the game. Most platformers use this as a tool to allow you to complete puzzles or reach secret areas – that is the same here, with the single exception being that the boxes or cubes are too light and often will move when you try to jump on them, effectively making them useless and requiring too many actions to properly move vertically, resulting in a drained battery more often than it should.

The presentation is similar to previous Ratalaika Games releases, with blocky features and characters making up the bulk of the visuals. This suits Twin Robots well, but is nowhere near awe inspiring. Towards the end, I was growing weary of seeing the same color scheme and assets that are repeated throughout the game. The same can be said for the sound effects and music. The one standout feature is the responsive controls which make breezing through the levels enjoyable, even if they are over all too soon.

Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition is a decent platformer even though it is on the short side. I would have liked to see more of the later levels come into play earlier in the game, making room for greater challenges, but I think this is a good starting point in what I hope to be a long running series that I can revisit with my son once he learns patience… or gets the opportunity to torture a sibling of his own.

8 out of 10

Pros

  • Responsive Controls
  • Interesting Premise

Cons

  • Rather Short
  • Co-Op Can Be Difficult with Less Skilled Partners

Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition was developed by Thinice Games and published by Ratalaika Games. It launched on NS on February 23rd, 2018,  and X1 on August 29th, 2018 for $7.99. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition, check out the publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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