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Spare Parts
Spare Parts is a robot adventure with just
enough mix of plat forming and fighting to make a casual gamer smile.
The player controls a robot, stranded on some odd planet. Finding a ship
with a computer intelligence known as Con-Rad. (Voiced by a strangely
reserved Simon Pegg) Play two-player co-op, and you will be seeing both
robots, Mar-T and Chip.
It is here that our robotic hero finds out
that there is a chance to get off this rock. All they have to do is find
spare parts that are scattered all over the planet, fix the ship and
waboom escape!
Search and acquire is the name of the game with plat forming, puzzle
solving and even some fighting thrown in for good measure. Getting past
each level requires finding the ship parts scattered about, while some
seem to be fairly straightforward and simple to find, other pieces
require a bit more work on our robots part.
Thankfully, there are robot upgrades to be had through out the game.
Players may upgrade after a time by spending little coins dropped by
vanquished enemies. Various skills can be obtained when upgrading, such
as a hacking device, magnetic boots, upgrades to your robot arms in
order to have the extra pushing power to move heavier objects. The
upgrades aid in activating switches and of course defeating enemies.
The fighting is easy for the most part with
most of the aliens simple to defeat with a few well thought out moves
from your robots fighting styles, from toe to toe punching, to jumping
into ground pounding smashes. There are even some long-range attacks
such as throwing little wrenches at a target. There are a few fights
considered boss fights, those you really have to work harder and use the
more diverse skills of your bucket of bolts.
The visuals look good, with your robot character being down right
adorable. I know this on the first hand squeal of our other staff
writer/photographer Donna Millheim. “Oh he is so adorable.” She quoted.
I had just upgraded some stronger arms on the robot. Uncannily the
little graphic of the robot was doing its best strong man
impressions….prompting me to wonder if the little lug nut Romeo heard my
wife’s exclamation. Environments range from spacecraft interiors,
jungles, desert canyons and strange underground caverns. All are bright
and interesting.
As noted, there is co-op ability to the game and it can be fun once the
two of you master the sometimes-quirky controls. Small issues crop up
when jumping towards or away from the camera view for instance. Overall,
it is a family friendly game with lots of potential fun. Get past the
some times repetitive play and you will actually have some fun. The
single player experience seemed to have been more fun for me anyway.
Slightly under whelming in some respects, the game could have done well
with more whit and sharpness in dialog from the voice talent for
instance. Blame the script, not the talent. It is a fast simple game.
With visuals that will delight for a time.
Have fun, play games.
Edwin Millheim
United States Editor
Impulse Gamer
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