Game Reviews

Bounty Bots

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iOS
| Bounty Bots
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Bounty Bots
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iOS
| Bounty Bots

There aren't a whole lot of online shooters on the App Store, so Bounty Bots has an advantage right from the off. Toss in the fact that it stars gun-slinging Wild West robots and you should have a pretty irresistible recipe for success right there.

Start up Bounty Bots and you're thrust into an endless cycle of matches, each with a single goal - collect more coins than anyone else in the game.

These coins are easy enough to obtain, for they're liberally dotted around each map. It's hanging onto them that's tricky. Get shot, for example, and you'll lose a small amount of your stash, while death wipes out your tally completely.

Playing it safe

Unless, that is, you bank your winnings using one of the safes dotted around each level. Anything you manage to deposit is yours for keeps at the end of each round. There's a complication, though: it takes a bit of time to move your money, meaning you're left wide open to attack every time you give it a go.

Each match, therefore, turns into a briskly paced game of cat and mouse, with each tightly focused map offering little room to hide. And with each round lasting only a few minutes, things quickly descend into chaos, as opponents attempt to swipe, blast, and stash as much loot as possible.

There's even more scope for pandemonium when you factor in the large number of ludicrous weapons and power-ups at your disposal once your money's started to stack up. From a fundamental gameplay perspective, then, Bounty Bots is uncomplicated, accessible, and a surprising amount of fun.

Trouble in them thar hills

Bounty Bots's biggest problem, though, is one of longevity. You only get two maps to play around with (at present) - a sun-bleached ghost town and a ramshackle trainyard - and despite the game's entertaining setup, it doesn't take long to tire of the same old surroundings.

It can also be tricky to find a full roster of opponents at times, and that's an issue when so much of the enjoyment you get from the game is derived from the chaotically raucous rivalries.

What Bounty Bots delivers is a beautifully presented shooter with stacks of personality and a good solid framework for compelling knockabout fun. With a limited number of maps on offer, however, it sadly doesn't take long for the game to outstay its welcome.

As online iOS shooters go, Bounty Bots has all the right ingredients - it's just in serious need of more variety to make the most of its entertaining foundation.

Bounty Bots

An accessible, enjoyable online shooter that desperately needs more content to expand its appeal
Score
Matt Wales
Matt Wales
Following a lifetime of adventure on the high seas, swabbing the editorial decks of the good ship IGN and singing freelance shanties across far-flung corners of the gaming press, Matt hung up his pirate hat and turned his surf-seared gaze toward the murky mysteries of the handheld gaming world. He lives to sound the siren on the best mobile games out there, and he can't wait to get kraken.