Commodore User


Challenge Of The Gobots

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Mark Patterson
Publisher: Reaktor
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #46

Challenge Of The Gobots

Gobots go botty! Da Da Da Da the Gobots. "Leader 1, this is Scooter, the renegades are attacking!"

Guess what? Like their metal brothers in arms the 'Transformers' is a good cartoon, an average comic and a mediocre game. It's sad case of World Cup Carnival: all presentation, no game.

The plot is stupid. You are leader one, one of the only two Gobots in the game. You have to pick up the Scooter clones (poor ol' Scooter being the only other Gobot) and lob them at renegade bases. If you want you can land on the ground or the ceiling and using your great Gobotty strength, you can wrench rocks out of the ground (or ceiling) and lob them at things, like bouncing renegades. You also have your laser and unlike the cartoon it works most of the time.

Challenge Of The Gobots

When you've destroyed all the bases by bunging Scooters at them, you advance on to the next level which is slightly harder.

There is a score bar which shows Leader 1's aggression rating. I never knew that Leader 1 was that aggressive until I got hold of him. Anyway, when you fill the bar up you get promoted to the next rank starting from Cadet, so I suppose you start off with Cadet 1, which is a bit dumb when you think about it. What I really want to know is who are Servo, Turbo, Dive and the rest? I knew right from the start, when I saw that Mr. Crowther had programmed it, I mean no offence, but, well...

The way Leader 1 moves around the screen - well, not so much moves, more like bounces around like a Transformer with ants in his metal pants - makes him impossible to control.

Challenge Of The Gobots

Back to the presentation. You get a totally wicked tape with the story on one side and - wait for it - a 15-minute remix of the Gobots theme tune, which although it sounds nothing like it's supposed to, is still pretty good, and so's the story.

Before you load the game, you get the next gimmick, a computerised book. The book is of the story, lots of colourful piccies which makes it look much better than it really is. There are also a lot of gimmicky options on the book as well as various languages; also reading bars can be used which highlight two lines at a time, for easier reading.

A game tweaker is supplied so you can adjust the levels, etc, to make life simpler, or harder, for Leader 1.

A good 'W.E.M.U.S.I.C.' piece accompanies the game, and plays on the title screen. Even the game loader asks you if you want to load the game by hyper-load or not.

Like I said, incredibly gimmicky, but like Transformers, a terrible let down, especially for fans of the cartoon like me. [And me! - Ed]

Mark Patterson

Other Reviews Of Challenge Of The Gobots For The Commodore 64/128


Challenge Of The Gobots (Reaktor/Ariolasoft)
A review

The Challenge Of The Gobots (Ariolasoft)
In the eternal battle against Dr Braxis, the Gobots meet their foe in a ring of fire.

Challenge Of The Gobots (Reaktor)
A review

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