They are pretty serious, but lots of fun. Some levels start off with big armies of robots that you have to shoot your way out of immediately. Where the replay value in a traditional shooter might be limited, Ultratron manages to avoid cliche and offer several different ways to customize your play.Įnemies appear with a flash that you'll learn to look for, so that you can start to move and fire in their direction. Powerups appear, and range from standard upgrades for weapons and shields to 'helper' drones or smart-bombs. Each screen or wave of robot attackers will require some good coordination and planning to conquer. The Big Idea behind Ultratron is that there are four evil robots whom you'll battle wave after wave of minions to reach and destroy. But, it is a beautiful thing and there are some very useful updates in Ultratron that make the gaming so much sweeter. It does take a bit of getting used to, that independence. Separate controls on each hand, one for movement and the other for weapons. This game (and Robotron: 2084 for that matter) plays much like a bulldozer drives. There's just enough that's derivative here to keep you nostalgic, but I can't say that I finished playing and wanted to hop on Robotron: 2084. Go look at the screens for Robotron: 2084 and you'll see just how far we've come in twenty years. The graphics have a cool, soft look against a dark background that really makes everything pop.

There isn't really music in the pure sense, but some good effects that make the destruction a little more visceral, and some droning that keeps the tension high. At first, this can be disconcerting, but like any good game the mind's eye starts to understand patterns and the rest is just hand/eye coordination. There is so much going on all the time, and everything on the screen appears to be in motion. Ultratron picks up after twenty years with some sweet graphics that would have made my C-64 weep for joy. In reality, the character you play goes nowhere, but you're too busy saving humanity to care. Instead of the standard side-scrolling action, this was a game of action on all sides. Somewhere in the testosterone fog, a little game called Robotron: 2084 made quite an impression on me. If I had thought, back in the 80s, that some of the games I treasured on my Commodore-64 and in the arcade would be the subject of mass adoration a scant twenty years later, I might have paid more attention.

Ultratron rapid fire