Legend of the Golden Robot : Review by Daniel Simpson

First of all the game has a great concept, you the player, take on the role of a character modelled after the classic fictional adventurer Indiana Jones, named Indigo Steve. Who must search for all the pieces of the “The Golden Robot” to fulfil his quest. The story takes place in around medieval times so the 17th century (the time setting really confused me…but it worked!).

The game begins with a silly yet funny comic that establishes the plot line, an evil wizard comes to the village with a gang of minions, the wizard is invincible and only one item can take away his invincibility and render him venerable…the golden robot, and so Indigo’s quest begins to find the robot and defeat the Wizard . Great RobotJam art is included as always.The main game play to me is a mixture of minesweeper and final fantasy (sounds weird doesn’t it) or any RPG of its kind. It consists of searching for hidden (and strange) treasures including some other things you can find such as guitar plectrums and fossilised turds, while trying to avoid or take on enemies also on the grid who will approach you as you make moves. The moving is done on a turn based grid system, in which the player selects a square adjacent to the one he/she is currently occupying.

There is a time scale in which every square in every grid requires a certain number of hours to dig on and moving from one square to an adjacent one takes one our, digging times can be improved with upgrades.

When you and a bag guy are on the same square then there is a turn based fight, where you select actions such as attack, defend, special etc

It’s fantastically original, I can understand the idea of a mix of Minesweeper and Final fantasy may seem strange but the pace of the game is DEFINITLY one of the games strong points.

When not digging for treasures or buying items in the shop you can be in the Inn playing dice or ha’penny shove, for money, XP (experience points) and hints on where to find treasures.

Not only are the mini games fun but provide a lot of help in advancing in the game, I remember I wanted a new weapon, so ended playing Andy at shove over and over. Brian’s marks on maps (which indicate the locations of treasures) are very helpful too. If you play the dice game a lot near the beginning of the game, you can find the locations of a lot of treasures near the end of the game.

The sound in this game is excellent as everything sounds like it should do, the repetitive “pain cries” get a little annoying and repetitive but it’s an RPG so you can get used to them. The music in the tavern was nice as it was played with the style of instruments of the period.

I do like the little perks like the fact that when you equip something to the character you see the he looks like in the village with the upgrades.

The layout of the menu was very helpful like the one of flash games “battle beavers”, it had clear tabs for headwear, weapons, spade etc. The general game play is fun and at times, addictive.

I like the fact that in the battles; the sky backdrop varies dependant on the time of day and the landscape varies on the type of land occupied in the fight, all the backdrops look good, from the noon high sun to the starry night.

When you end a day progress automatically saves so you can return to the game at any time, and when you die, this is a brilliant feature for general convenience.

Although the game does look quite big at the beginning, it doesn’t take as long as you would think, so don’t be mistaken into thinking it’s much bigger than it really is and that it will take longer to beat.

I love the comedic approach to writing descriptions and speech in this game *SPOILER* in the end when you slay the wizard, and free the villager from the evil Wizard all they say is “YAY”.

At no point do actually get a “game over” when you are killed in battle you have to escape death(it sounds dramatic I know) but you escape death by just running away from him in a set of quick time events….original.

I do enjoy some of the things that are included in other games by the developers such as a map in which all 4 pieces must be found to unlock an area, except this map in on paper(NOT A PIZZA!).

I do like the references to the Indy films such as the Holy Grail and the Crystal Skull which are both findable treasures in the game.

What I did not like and suggested improvements:

When I upgraded in the stats menu, most of the time the stats would save but sometimes the stats did not save, it was just annoying to constantly add to the stats a few times before the stats actually save….make a save button please.

I’d really like it if when you first start the game, you are forced to read a set of instructions on how to fight and what each option is used for.

When you play the mini game “shove” the difficulty is represented by the number of beers your opponent has consumed. I know you can’t very easily reverse the effects of alcohol immediately but I would like it if the opponent would perform better at the game after you win and perform less successfully after a loss.

I think the game should save when you come back from a dig site AND when you do something like upgrade your stats or beat Brian at dice.

As well as buying things in the shop some weapons and all specials must be dug out of the ground or subsequently found using items dug out of the ground, when you find one of these treasures I would like to see in the close up image some kind of symbol to say it’s a battle special or just a normal special treasure. You could also order the equipment in the treasures gallery, so usable items was a set, just like the robot and the chest and key are both sets together. I feel that items that inflict damage such as the ninja shuriken, the cannon and the revolver should all have the amount of damage they inflict in their description as I think this will help A LOT.

The wrap up

 New and interesting concept by the developers, memorable character designs. It had a lot of strong points and bold choices that paid off. More things to do besides the main game made the game last longer and gave you more game time and playability, a few odd things here and there that could be tweaked to add to a greater experience would be great and key to making Turbo’s games more successful than they all ready are. I would give it 8 out of 10: very enjoyable but not a lot of replay factor.

The future

I don’t think this game specifically will have any future without having an absurd and awkward storyline, but the concepts and mechanics can be recycled into another great game.

HAPPY GAMING!!!!!!