Lots of people love fighting robots. There are tons of games, anime, and even real competitions that allow you to do that. Playniac has recently released Insane Robots which allows you to battle robots with a twist. It is a mix between a card game and robot domination.
You play as a small robot that the larger system deems to be malfunctioning, and thus insane. It is up to you to battle through arenas to keep from getting your memory erased or even worse. There is a mysterious figure that acts as your guide and tries to help you escape this terrible fate.
Battling is where the card game aspect comes into play. Each robot has 2 slots for defense and attack, as well as a boost space. You start out with 3 cards and draw one automatically each turn. Playing a card takes energy, and you have 1 energy on your 1st turn and it increments by 1 each turn, up to a total of 6. Most cards require a single unit to play, but direct attack cards use 2, and to initiate an attack, you must use 3. You can even combine some cards to create more powerful or different cards. Each card can contain up to 5 power a piece.
In order to attack or successfully defend against an attack you must fill both of the required slots – completing the circuit. This means that you can have up to 10 attack or defense. If the enemy attacks before you complete your defense circuit, the card will be destroyed, and you will take the full brunt of the attack. You also have cards that allow you to swap cards with the enemy, lock your cards, and hack or glitch cards. Boost cards come in all varieties and when used properly, they can turn the tide of battle.
Besides cards, you can also augment your robot. These items are bought with scrap and provide permanent boosts to the bot they are installed on. Some augments allow you to move easily through different arenas, while others give you a tactical advantage during battle. You are able to not only purchase augments, but you will have to purchase extra slots to install them into or swap out the ones that are less useful.
The campaign plays out through a series of arena battles. The arenas are themed hex maps, each with a random chance of environmental hazards. You are placed in the arena with multiple other bots trying to get out alive. You can either dive in and take out everyone or sit back and let the CPU controlled enemies to thin the herd before you go in for the killing blow.
If you are not in the mood to play the campaign you can battle other players in either couch or online multiplayer. Couch battles are fun and give a fun change from the predictability of CPU opponents. I would assume online multiplayer would offer a similar experience. Unfortunately I was not able to play online because there was nobody else playing. After a dozen different tries across multiple days and times I was unable to find someone to play against. There aren’t enough players to support online play, unless you know someone that has the title and arrange an online session.
Insane Robots is out now. It is a fun game that will keep you busy for hours. The couch battles are fun, but the lack of an online community does put a damper on gameplay options. If you enjoy battling and like the randomness of card battling, this title offers a nice twist to the genre.
