Mr. Robot has been cheating death for a decade now, ever since Don’t Die, Mr. Robot first launched on PS Vita, but now it’s time for his greatest challenge yet: not dying in three whole dimensions. Kind of. 3D Don’t Die Mr. Robot spruces up the 2014 indie classic with new visuals, but even with the change of perspective, it’s the same core gameplay that makes it as addictive as ever.
Mr Robot is stuck in the dimension of Neon Dunjun, tasked with collecting all sorts of fruit while avoiding enemies that pass across the stage in an attempt to destroy him. Mr Robot has no attacks of his own, but thankfully the fruit he’s collecting is actually explosive, blowing up and taking out any nearby enemies – he’s equally fortunate to personally be immune to these explosions, though just one touch from an enemy and it is lights out for him.
Different enemies have different movements that you need to work out. Some will fly in a straight line, while others come in a group and spread out across the level so you need to guide Mr Robot to stand in a gap between their paths, and yet more will home in on Mr. Robot, or pop in as a pair and fire a laser beam across the level. You need keep moving and adjusting your position, but will often find yourself getting cornered.
The main mode in 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot is Remix, giving you a sequence of levels to work through. Every level has a ranking system from bronze to platinum trophies, and once you unlock the platinum trophy the level ends. Getting that platinum at the start of Remix is easy enough, because the game is still introducing you to the different elements of it. The further you get, the tougher things become. There are levels where the platform is tiny and enemies are popping up with no way to close the gap on them with Mr Robot, so you must instead wait for fruits to appear and line up to create a chain of explosions to save him. Linking these chains together rewards you with lots of points, though points don’t always mean prizes. In some missions, you have to destroy a set number of enemies while in others you have to collect coins. As you meet each trophy tier in missions the number of enemies increases, as does their speed, testing your reactions as you go.
Outside of Remix mode, there is Arcade mode which is essentially a score mode where you try to survive as long as you possibly can to rack up those points. And with online leaderboards, you will want to keep chasing those scores. My personal favourite named mode is Lime Attack, which is a time attack mode which is green and the only fruit that appears is limes. Chill Out mode brings some coolness to 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot too, and rounds out the modes available. Collecting the coins in missions is not a pointless endeavour if you love accessorising. You can use the coins to unlock all sorts of accessories for Mr Robot, including hats, glasses, shoes and body colours.
What Infinite State Games has nailed with 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot is that feeling of chasing a high score, and doing better each time you go in. Every time I failed to hit Platinum in Remix mode, I would immediately replay that level over and over until I did get it… or the mission proved too tough for me, and I lowered my target to the Gold trophy.
One niggle I did find with the game was Mr Robot kind of getting stuck on corners in missions where the layout had some sharp corners or turns, which led to some runs ending quickly.