Kamikaze Robots is a quirky little game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In this game, you play as a robot whose ultimate goal is to get as far as he can without exploding.
The game play is as follows: Bounce down the mountain until you have reached the finish line, or until every body part has broken off. To last longer, you will need to bounce on your legs, as they do the least amount of damage compared to bouncing on the head, or the arms. To gain speed, you will need to complete clockwise rotations and land on your feet; the more the rotations, the farther and faster you will travel. Rotating your robot can be achieved by tapping and holding anywhere on the screen, which will begin to turn him counter-clockwise.
When you first begin using the app, a small humorous cut scene is shown, giving the back story behind these crazed robots. You can skip the cut scene by tapping the green arrow in the left hand corner, which will take you to the main menu.
From the main menu, you can begin a quick game, play the tournament mode, visit the trophy room, view your high scores, or go to the advanced menu. Tapping the “Quick Game” option for the first time will ask if you would like to view the tutorial. If you have not seen the tutorial, I recommend that you watch it, as the game play is better shown than written. If you have already seen the tutorial, or decided to skip it, this mode allows you to play a distance type game with your friends. You can select up to four players to pass your device to and from, competing to see how far each of you are able to get before losing all of your robot's body parts.
Tapping the tournament option on the menu screen will begin the main game. In tournament mode, you will be competing with other robots to get to the finish line first. For each round, you can collect chips to upgrade the features of your robot such as their bouncing ability, or the speed at which they rotate. At the end of the round you are presented an interface where you can make such upgrades.
The “Trophy Room” option on the main screen is where you can view all of your achievements which you are awarded as the game progresses. The trophy icon will show you your high scores, and the “Gear” icon will take you to the advanced menu. From the advanced menu you can turn the sound off, review the instructions, read the information about this app, or reset your game. I recommend viewing the instructions, as they offer a more in depth look at all of the aspects of this game.
This game is really well done, albeit boring. The artwork is great, and really ties in to what this game is all about. The music fits as well, but can be very repetitive. The game play mechanics themselves is what I found to be boring about this app, as there is not much variety. The levels become monotonous after playing through a few rounds. The included multilayer tries to add replay value to this game, but is negated by the fact that the loading screens between turns take a really long time. Considering that this app is currently priced at $2.99, I would recommend that you try the lite version available in the App Store before purchasing.