Wanna Be A Robot Roadie?

Posted by Bogdan Lazar

Robot Roadies iPad Game Review.

Ever wish you were on the road with your favorite band, helping them plan the concert, do light and sound checks and even enter the recording studio with them? Little do you know that as a road crew, you’re often asked to provide the band members with the most weird and sometimes mildly-offensive materials for their delight. From beer kegs and bottles of lube to some naked pictures of your mamma or a bald hooker with no teeth. I know, artists are misunderstood aren’t they?!

In the newly released iOS game Robot Roadies you get to be Randy, a mechanical member of the road crew for Wolfbaggers, the up and coming rock band in the game. Your task is to make the band happy by collecting all the items your band members demand in the allotted time in each level. The game is comprised of 12 levels and each level represents a stage in the concert. Level 1 is stage set up, level 2 is prepping the lights, etc.

In the first six levels you follow the band around in a concert, while the last six levels will let you enter the band’s recording studio to do their bidding there.

How do you play Robot Roadies

Keeping the band happy is no easy feat, because you need to literally jump through hoops to do it. Each levee starts off with only a handful of seconds of allotted time, during which you need to run, jump, smash and maneuver Randy through and over obstacles to collect all required items.

The game basically has 3 controls: forward, back and up - for jumping, of which you’ll do a lot of. There are two types of obstacles that can get you killed. Spikes and subliminal messages. While spikes in the ground are fairly obvious to spot and you just need to jump over them to avoid, subliminal messages are basically timed sound waves traveling from point A to point B. You’re going to have a hard time jumping over these, so the way to avoid them is to time your movements just right. Knowing how far the wave travels also helps, but you don’t always get to see that far in the scene.

The first few levels are fairly easy. Jump a few holes, avoid a subliminal message and collect one or two items to finish the game. Starting from level 5, things get more interesting, as you need to collect a whole list of items and the traps are getting harder and harder to spot. You’ll also have a hard time finishing the game in the allotted time.

Thankfully, there are TVs you can always jump on and smash. These will earn you a few seconds of extra time. So does collecting one of the required items. But what happens when you’re confused and you don’t know where to go next? Well, you have vinyls for that. Watch out for them floating in the air, and you’ll know that’s where you should be heading to. Collecting them will also earn you points.

Other feats

The game makes great use of the equipment that you’d normally find on a rock concert stage. You have bass drums, cymbals, guitar pedals, amps, mixing desks. All these play their part in the game and some will also help you get across certain obstacles.

Ah, did I mention you can go crowd surfing? Starting with level 4, when getting across seems impossible through a jump, but you see hands jumping up and down, don’t be afraid to let go. Jump in the middle of the crowd and they will carry you across.

These are all nice details that the developers have been careful to include in Robot Roadies. But I personally wish that they put a bit more time in designing Randy the robot. Right now, he seems very much like a beta version of Randy, with rough straight edges and his movements seem too robotic, pun intended.

The scenery and the music really do make the game worthwhile. Robot Roadies also has a very nice level of detail when it came to writing. The bizarre items that you need to collect will often make you laugh and also wonder “Do bands really want this?” There’s not point in not saying this: Robot Roadies is recommended, but would like to see more levels and a more 21st century-like robot.

Screenshots