Recent reviews by The Robot Menace

This game absolutely nails the vibe. If you like arcade games you should definitely get it.

Utopia feels like what a lot of older arcade games were actually trying to emulate back in the day - foreboding, yet minimalistic. Games of overwhelming odds vs your quick wits and unlimited firepower. However, while nowadays they can come across as dry, barren, and a little clunky, I feel like this game does what a lot of other contemporary "retro" games fail to accomplish aesthetically.

Gameplay is straightforward: you're the gun at the bottom of the screen, and it automatically fires when enemies appear - aim and apply bullets as needed. You also have a small supply of nukes, which can be fired by simply clicking the left mouse button. At the end of each round you can upgrade your defenses, which are randomized per run.

If you're looking for an quick arcade game to kill some time with, I absolutely recommend this game. It won't blow your mind, but that's kind of the point.

I'd love to see what a 3D game in this engine would look like, a la Battlezone

God I hate Balteus

This game is an absolute gem. It's not perfect by any means, especially with a few of the puzzles further down the line, but it was well worth my time spent playing it.

And, just like what everybody else says, the only true downside to the game is that you can't experience it for the first time all over again.

But, in the grand scheme of things, that seems like that was kind of the whole point :)

For those of you coming from XBox wanting to know if this is really worth it: It's Halo. On PC. Just get it.

For those of you new to Halo, and are curious about the game in general: If you're into classic FPS games and want to get a taste of something familiar without going too far into weirder, niche territories, I definitely recommend you try this. The gameplay for each of them is a little slower than modern games, and the older games are a little clunky here and there, but they run great and it's hard to complain about minor errors or bugs when the rest of the game works wonderfully.

My only complaint is that Halo 2: Anniversary Edition is a little resource-intensive compared to literally all the other games, and for the most part isn't entirely worth playing through if you're just in it for the story. The graphics for the original Halo 2 may be a little ugly, but they definitely won't make your computer hiccup like a first-time drunk every time a cutscene plays.

Otherwise, $40 for all 5 games (including every version of multiplayer!) that would normally be worth ~$20 separately anywhere else is a great deal, and getting this on sale is basically stealing at this point. No microtransactions, no weird software checks, no spending-ten-hours-trying-to-kill-the-same-boss, no BS.

Just Mr. Shooty-Man against the Purple Aliens for five games straight, and that's all anyone could ever ask for :)

God, I wish this was a full game.

The controls are simple but tight, the movement isn't restricted to a specific control scheme or area setting, and the atmosphere of the game is top-frickin'-notch. Almost feels like a spinoff of the Ratchet and Clank series, but more movement-focused like Spyro or Jak and Daxter. Figured out how to speedrun the game after the first two playthroughs and was even rewarded for my efforts, and I don't even speedrun games. That rolling move is great! And Dr. Bolt's broadcasts are funny.

Few details to point out for potential improvements:
- Enemy hitboxes are finicky and killed me unexpectedly many times, specifically whenever I attacked an enemy from behind.
- Level geometry is easy to bypass, leading to some accidental moments of extreme jank.
- Jumping off of platforms at certain angles tends to skip the first jump, leading to the second half of the double-jump to initiate instead. As such, this prevents you from double-jumping when you really need to.
- The shooting enemies will sometimes blast you right when you attack, instantly killing you instead.
- Gizmo's color scheme is a little too close to the environment colors, leading to moments where I couldn't tell how far I was from an identically-orange platform until it was already too late and I fell to my death. I also feel like Gizmo's design as a character could be improved, but it's just me nitpicking from here even though I know this is just a demo.

Regardless of these tiny issues, the game is great and made me only crave more. MORE!

No Man's Sky: Mini

If you've got leftover wallet funds from a previous purchase and want something nice to play while waiting for your other game to download, this is the perfect go-to. Took me a few hours to 100% complete, but that's not a bad thing, as I'm a bit of a completionist and wanted to play to the finish. For more laid-back players this might be something you play off and on over the course of a week between a few planets here or there. For others, this is something you could probably grind out in maybe three hours if you take a lot of risks and know where you're going. Either way, I recommend it.

Some minor complaints:
- Crosshair during dogfighting isn't completely accurate to the direction of your shots, instead going a bit high when staying still.
- If you shoot a robot while it's standing on a platform, your shot will go right through its legs. While funny, it did kill me a few times.
- Oxygen consumption is a bit too fast, and tanks don't really last all that long.
- Some upgrades were pretty hard to find. Normally, that's not a bad thing, but I beat the game not even realizing that I was still missing some blueprints.
- Asteroids are jank as heck

Otherwise, pretty fun. Don't be afraid to zoom around when you can.

This is a very fun game. Outside of "beating" it, which can be done in twenty minutes (like most SokPop games), you can just swim around and interact with the other creatures or do different things and experiment with the environment around you. I wish there were more creatures/objects to interact with, like crabs and shells, and I wish that you could eat octopus, but otherwise it's fun to just be a little fish for once and swim around munchin on algae :)

In the future of SokPop games, they should really add to their existing IPs to craft better games that last longer than 10-30 minute intervals. There's a lot of potential that these games have that a lot of people would really love to spend more time on.

There's not much to say about this game beyond what's already on the box: you play as a bounty hunter, you hunt bounties, and you make enough money to get off of this watered-down planet. You have a gun and a scanner, and you're left to your own devices from there. It's very neat, very aesthetically driven, and very cool. It's also very short. Like, literally finished in ten minutes short.

I understand that most of these games were made with simplicity and development time in mind, but I really think that this game, among others, should be turned into a Deluxe game and be expanded upon even more. This could easily become a great little arcade game where you have to hunt for a way off of the planet, find bounty stations, and earn enough money before the ship leaves. Hell, just having an endless mode with procedural environments to visit would be great. I'm still going to play this game because I find it neat enough to keep, but replayability would make this game worth keeping even more.

Good game to play off and on or to pass time. Arcade hard; becomes far more difficult past the second level, but that's to be expected.

For those of you more skeptical of the quality of the game, it's pretty nice for no price at all. Would definitely eat all your quarters back in the old days. Just don't let yourself run out of bullets.

This is an EXTREMELY fun alternative to the original game. Soft and slow but with lots of humor and surprise, just like the last one.

A few minor complaints:
Some graphics tend to glitch through each other, such as the sleeve of the guy's arm, or the screwdriver through the lockers at the back.
The crosshair used for button pushing seems to have some unwieldy issues, such as pushing a button it wasn't directly pointed at. Otherwise I must have really big fingers in the game.
Lastly, some spare animation and sound issues, where the hammer won't hit, or screwdriver won't make the "denied" sound.

Besides that, this is a wonderful game, and thanks to the devs for the 50% off coupon to get this game!