Super Mutant Alien Assault

Robots never get the respect they deserve. When we're not turning them into dumb cleaning products, we're trying to kick them over or humiliating them in front of audiences. And then there's the fear that one day they're going to revolt and overthrow humanity once and for all. Sure, we love Robby and Wall-E, but all it takes is one Transformers movie to poison the well. Super Mutant Alien Assault pushes back at this cyberphobia by giving us a robot who isn't afraid to fight to the death to protect his human companions. I'm not sure that makes up for what the robots did to us in The Matrix, but it's a good start.

This is a fun little 2D action game starring an adorable robot fighting off a fleet of mutant aliens. Super Mutant Alien Assault takes place in the distant future, at a moment when humanity is forced to escape a dying Earth in hopes of finding salvation on another planet. But nasty space aliens have another plan, one that includes defeating humans once and for all. It's up to a squat droid to protect the ship and take out waves of enemies.

This sets up a surprisingly short action game that sees our hero fight through three galaxies' worth of mutant aliens. Each stage takes place on a single screen and involves the little droid stocking up on guns and shooting down the outside intruders. Sometimes you'll need to transfer batteries between terminals or discharge reactors before they explode, all while taking out waves of enemies. If you can clear three challenging stages, you'll find that a punishing boss fight is the only thing standing between you and freedom.

Super Mutant Alien Assault employs a number of roguelike elements in an attempt to keep the action fresh. For one thing, you'll run into different stages with each playthrough. The game is also good about adding new weapons to the mix the longer you play. What starts out with simple guns and grenades will quickly escalate into more experimental tech. There's an explosive pogo stick that is every bit as dangerous as it sounds, as well as an energy donut that bounces around the screen killing everything it gets in contact with.

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Beyond firepower, the robot will also pick up a number of useful special moves. You'll be able to do the typical stuff, like charge and roll, as well as double jumping away from dangerous attacks. You can stack these perks as you play through game, turning the adorable hero into a nimble killing machine. But don't get too cocky, because dying means starting over from the beginning with none of those power-ups.

As a roguelike, it often felt like Super Mutant Alien Assault was holding back. While each run has different stages, you'll quickly notice a lot of repeats. There wasn't enough variety in each playthrough, and I don't just mean the stage designs. The visual changes between galaxies is minimal at best, something that started to get to me after a while. There's a reason why games will often jump from one extreme location to the next, and it's because seeing different backgrounds keeps you interested and engaged. Sadly, there's nothing like that here. And as a result, I found that I growing bored of Super Mutant Alien Assault after only an hour or so.

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It's also worth mentioning that this is a short game. The single-player mode has you fighting through three galaxies made up of four stages each. You don't need to be an ass-kicking robot to know that's only a dozen levels to complete. It won't take long to beat the game on the normal difficulty, even if you're terrible at this type of platforming. The good news is that the game encourages you to dig through the higher difficulties, as well as take on the endless mode.

Although short, Super Mutant Alien Assault is far from an easy game. The game has a funny way of overwhelming players with swarms of increasingly difficult enemies, which can make some of the later levels a little sticky. The idea is to pick up a random weapon and hope for the best. Unfortunately, too many of the guns are nearly pointless in these small, enclosed stages. I dreaded the more explosive weapons, as they had a bad habit of coming back to hurt me. You're basically at the whim of the random weapon machine, which wouldn't be so bad if the weapons were more effective.

While I largely enjoyed Super Mutant Alien Assault, I wish there was more to it. The story mode won't take more than a couple hours, and replaying these stages over and over may or may not be something you're excited to do. That said, the action is fast and fun, and that friendly droid hero goes out of its way to remind humankind that not all robots are the monsters you see in the movies.