''Robocalypse'' is a 2008

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by Russian studio Vogster Entertainment and published by

Tecmo , was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for ...

for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

handheld A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

. It is the first of the ''Robocalypse'' duology and has only been released in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The project was led by Anton Kruglyakov and the story was written by

Jay Lender Jay Lender (born June 14, 1969 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States) is an American television writer, storyboard artist and director. He is a former writer and storyboard director for ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Previous to his work on ''Spon ...

and

Micah Wright Micah Ian War Dog Wright (born 1969) is an American writer who has worked in film, television, animation, video games and comic books. He is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Early life Wright was born in Lubbock, Texas. He gradu ...

, former writers for

animated TV series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...

The Angry Beavers ''The Angry Beavers'' is an American animated television series created by Mitch Schauer for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around Norbert and Daggett Beaver, two young beaver brothers who have moved out of their parents' home to become bachel ...

'', ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

'', and ''

Phineas and Ferb ''Phineas and Ferb'' is an American animated musical-comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series was originally broadcast as a ...

''. Players utilize the Nintendo DS' unique controls to build and command an army of robots to defeat an army of rogue robots determined to destroy humanity. Upon release, the game was praised by critics and regarded to be one of the best RTS games for the Nintendo DS. An

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

port of the game was released nearly a year later, titled ''Robocalypse: Mobile Mayhem''. A sequel, '' Robocalypse: Beaver Defense'', was released for

WiiWare WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii S ...

in June 2010.

Plot

At Thermidoom Labs, a robot factory, scientist Flaxen Hayer is bewildered to discover that her robots are sharing a product line with toasters. While

nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...

Myron Mako is discussing the factory's potential safety issues with his boss, an evil robot, Demolisher, suddenly emerges from the factory with a robot army intent on destroying the world. When Flaxen expresses skepticism of making a counter robot army, Myron reveals that he has a brain scanner and uses it on

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans as a template for the intelligence of a new counter robot army, which they get to work making. The robot army enjoys some early success against the Demolisher's troops, before the battle shifts to a desert. Despite great efforts, Myron's army is unable to stop the Demolisher from taking over a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

and stealing crucial fuel from

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...

s at an

oil field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

, but manages to secure an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

from enemy troops. Then Demolisher pursues the heroes across the desert to a

safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...

and kidnaps Flaxen before she can get inside. Efforts to rescue her as she lays imprisoned in a wooden cabin enable Demolisher to uncover and activate a secret

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

missile silo A missile launch facility, also known as an underground missile silo, launch facility (LF), or nuclear silo, is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs ...

to lay waste to much of the planet. After the ensuing destruction, which Myron survives by hiding inside one of his commander robots, Commando Joe, his army then resolves to fight back against Demolisher's forces across the

nuclear winter Nuclear winter is a severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect that is hypothesized to occur after widespread firestorms following a large-scale nuclear war. The hypothesis is based on the fact that such fires can inject soot into th ...

wasteland, destroying transmitter towers that can reprogram his robots to betray Myron and serve the Demolisher. A definitive showdown then occurs between Myron's forces and that of the Demolisher. Despite the Demolisher's powerful abilities, including his use of decoy clones, Myron kills the Demolisher, but in his final moments, he reveals that he answers to an

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

master. Much to his horror, Myron discovers that it is Flaxen, who is the alien queen in disguise. She also revealed that she arranged the robot uprising to facilitate an invasion of the planet from the beginning, although the certainty of her success suddenly disappears when Myron finds the cave where the aliens are staging their attack from. Myron's army raids the alien invaders, kills Flaxen in an intense battle after she reveals her true appearance and destroys all the technology she used to ferry her invaders to the planet. Myron then laments about losing such a beautiful woman, before discovering a remote control device from Flaxen and a message from her about using it as a

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

to prevent her evil plan and pursue a romance with her despite her true appearance. Myron proceeds to do so and the two depart Earth, never to be seen again, but not without bringing his hero robots back in time and leaving them on the planet, ready to protect it from any further threats.

Gameplay

''Robocalypse'' is controlled entirely with the stylus and

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

, with optional, supplemental button controls. The single-player

campaign mode A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...

has 17 missions across four unique zones, each with different objectives to tackle, as well as optional side objectives, some which are hidden. Up to four players can battle against each other.

Development

''Robocalypse'' was announced on January 22, 2008, by former

writer

Reception

''Robocalypse'' has received mostly positive reviews, with an aggregate score of 79.8% and 79 from

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and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

respectively. Daemon Hatfield of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

awarded it the Editor's Choice in its review, exclaiming that he was glad to see a real-time strategy game made for the Nintendo DS, the genre being so well-suited for the system's touch controls and dual screens. He complimented its controls and AI. He also praised its humor, saying that he finds it to be truly unique. Mike Feinburg of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

also praised it for its tight controls and humor, but described the AI as clumsy and frustrating. ''Robocalypse'' was recognized by the KRI games development conference in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

as the best game for portable systems. It also received several Nintendo DS-specific nominations from IGN in their 2008 video game awards, including Best Strategy Game, Best New IP, and Most Innovative Design.

References

{{reflist

External links

Robocalypse's Official Web Site
2008 video games Alien invasions in video games Apocalyptic video games IOS games Military science fiction video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo DS games North America-exclusive video games Real-time strategy video games Science fiction video games Tecmo games Video games about robots Video games about time travel Video games developed in Russia Vogster Entertainment games War video games set in the United States War video games