3D Don’t Die Mr Robot

3D Don’t Die Mr Robot is an arcade style dodging game from UK dev team Infinite State games and is a sequel, of sorts, to their 2014 original Don’t Die Mr Robot.  Now, we’ve got a soft spot for Infinite State Games here.  The original game was one of the first titles we reviewed on PlayStation Country, their game Rogue Aces is an all-time banger and, while it wasn’t an amazing game, Horatio Goes Snowboarding definitely spoke to the Spectrum fans in the team.

We reviewed Don’t Die Mr Robot on the Vita.  It was a perfect little dodge ’em up which saw you controlling the titular Mr. Robot as he weaved through patterns of monsters.  Your only defence being explosive fruits which could take out said monsters individually or, if you wanted the big rewards, you could dodge around for longer so that there was more fruit on the screen and then detonate them all in a big chain combo.  If you ever played the criminally-forgotten Every Extend Extra series, you’ll know what we’re talking about.

Although it had a PS4 version too, the Vita was the perfect home for Don’t Die Mr Robot and the game’s level design was just delicious frustration as you worked your way through each level’s target scores trying to get the platinum medals beaten.  We spent forever working on the game’s trophy set with us abandoning the game’s hardest trophy (for getting all the platinum medals, which was ironic as the game didn’t have a Platinum Trophy) eventually returning to the game to beat it some three years later.

Infinite State revealed this sequel was coming years ago and it eventually dropped on Steam back in May 2023, leaving us regretting our PlayStation-only stance but, thankfully, the game has just landed on PSN, thanks to the ever-profilic publisher eastasiasoft (their lack of capitalisation, not ours).

This new game offers up the original two modes – Arcade where you try to score as much as possible in one life and Remix which offers up fifty stages each with different level design and score targets.  Both these modes use the same gameplay mechanics though.  It pretty much feels and plays like the original did.  You only use the left stick/d-pad for movement and you have no attack button.  The enemies still come at you in waves and the fruits still explode and chain together.  This is very much business as usual.

So how does the ‘3D’ aspect affect things?  Well, it’s definitely an unnecessary gimmick.  The original game used flat 2D visuals, which were perfect for the gameplay.  The 3D here just allows you to angle the playfield but that has no positive effect on the gameplay.   Indeed, in levels where you need to graze along with enemies (a cool risk vs. reward mechanic which is never really exploited except in a couple of remix levels), an angled camera is a definite liability.  Thankfully, Infinite State have made all that optional.  Pressing R2 on almost all of the levels will just give you a perfect top-down view.  So yeah, the 3D here is pretty meaningless.  But at least it doesn’t get in the way either as that could have been game-ruining.

In terms of the Remix levels, they’re mostly a lot easier than the original game.  This is an eastasiasoft title after all.  We managed to get gold or platinum medals on most levels at the first or second attempt with only the last few offering up any resistance (but, even then, not much).  You don’t need all platinum medals either, just gold.  So the trophy max here only took us a day, which was a bit of a let down.  But, it’s all still a lot of fun, just maybe not as addictive as it once was.  That said, we’ve put hundreds of hours into Brotato, so our dodging skills are uncharacteristically on point at the moment.

There’s another mode called Lime Attack which plays out much like the Arcade Mode but with a fixed time limit where any deaths take away from your score.  This was maybe the most fun mode.  The time limit reminded us of Geometry Wars 2 and 3, which is never a bad thing.

The presentation is pretty good.  The music is exactly what this genre demands, classy and bombastic synth tunes, and the visuals are bright and colourful.  And, once you lock in that top-down view, the gameplay is never obscured by the graphics.  You also get a bunch of customisation options too (just make sure to save up 10,000 coins before buying any as the trophy for that requires the coins are all held together and not cumulative).

In the end we’re pretty happy with 3D Don’t Die Mr Robot.  The eastasiasoft alliance has definitely dumbed down the challenge a bit, and that is a shame, but the magic is still there.  It just feels like this isn’t a game that will last as long in the memory as the original and, for us at least, that puts this sequel a notch below the original.