Non-Speccy Homebrew Games #2

Electrobots (2021)
By: OxCode Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: BBC Micro First Day Score: 1,800
Also Available For: Nothing

There are quite a few retro formats that receive deserved attention from the homebrew community but for what I'm disappointed to say is only my second review in this series of posts here, I've gone for another BBC example. I've had it for at least three years ago now (if you watch the video below on YT you can see a comment of mine from that long ago!) and played it quite extensively at the time, but didn't get around to reviewing it then for some reason. The title screen to the right here saves me the trouble of relaying the game's brief backstory but what I probably should mention is that it takes the form of a flickscreen platform adventure which is set over three zones - Land Zone, Water Zone and Space Zone. The ancient objects mentioned in the story are dotted around all three zones. As are various enemies too, naturally, which appear to be robots as well, or security droids or something.

It's not just a simple left-to-right (or indeed right-to-left) platformer, though. The zones are pretty big and pretty open and you can go in any direction, assuming passage is not blocked or restricted in some way. This most often happens in the first since it is bound by gravity and Electro can only manage a modest jump (in fairness, I'm not sure how he manages to jump at all when he looks the shape of a dustbin). This zone necessitates accurate jumps over anything else; even more so since Electro loses energy from medium-to-large falls. This is actually what caused me the biggest problem rather than enemy clankers which aren't that common or dangerous. In the first zone, at least. Happily, the second and third zones do not suffer from this 'falling' issue thanks to gloopy wateryness and spacial vacuum respectively, but they unsurprisingly come with their own difficulties including many spiky things, as the screenshots here show, and an increased number of enemies.

At first I thought you could switch between the zones at will but then I realised you're switching between three separate 'bots who are each already in a zone. It's actually a nice approach, and each zone is unique enough to present its own challenge, and challenges they are, too. Each is quite mazey and it takes a lot of exploring to find your way through them. I've been stuck on all three at some point! It's enjoyable enough pottering around them, though, and thankfully there is no time limit so if you do get stuck - just keep exploring! It can on occasion seem like there is no way to progress, admittedly, and the solution isn't always obvious, but it was mostly fun working it out. The graphics are really nice, featuring pleasing colours schemes, and the 'bots are appealing little clankers and, while the audio just consists of a few bleepy spot effects, this is an enjoyable little platform adventure that's well suited to the BBC Micro. Considering it's free, the least you can do it give it a try.

RKS Score: 7/10

Gameplay Video: If you want to learn more about this splendid game or download it (available as a rom file for emulator use or an .EXE to play directly on PC), click here. If you're still unsure, here's a trailer for the game: