Robokill: Rescue Titan Prime

You can’t get away with releasing a game that belongs to just one genre these days.

Developers are falling over themselves to bundle platforming with fighters, puzzle-solving with role-playing, and grindcore with sludge hip-hop acid jazz.

Robokill: Rescue Titan Prime is the lovechild of role-playing games and twin-stick shooters, coming from the wilds of Flash gaming with a whopping 450 levels.

Hundreds of levels is a stretch, but there’s still an substantial chunk of gameplay to enjoy before it finishes telling its tale.

The game takes place on the space station Titan Prime, which has become overrun with psychopathic machines, hell-bent on sitting in one location peacefully, not bothering anyone.

To stop this reign of terror, you have to stomp a few metal faces, shoot hot lead into robotic limbs, and buy weapons from a handy shop-keeper.

The usual virtual twin analogue sticks are here, although they're cemented in place, meaning that if you have big hands expect to suffer hand cramps. But there's a silver lining to this cloud - Robokill is so entertaining that even when your hands cramp you won't want to put it down.

While the graphics are average and grey, it’s the well-paced combat and exploration that gives the game some punch.

Much like old arcade classic Smash TV, each mission is split into 20-30 separate screens (this is how the game supports its 450 levels claim), each containing its own collection of monsters. Clear the room and you get to move on, usually with your choice of paths leading to the objective.

Alongside the exploration and action are role-playing elements. Enemies drop weapons of varying quality and type, from shotguns to lasers, each coming in three different levels of quality.

While this system is fun at first, it could be a lot better.

Despite the different quality levels, there’s little variation between the bonuses they impart on a weapon. This often results in the majority of weapon-drops being useless and customisation largely pointless.

Likewise, the single screen setup keeps the game shallow. Unlike Smash TV or its followers, Robokill only throws down one wave per room. As such, this means you’re never surprised or threatened until the final stages of a level when enemies magically become harder to beat.

These niggles don’t prevent Robokill from being an interesting combination of twin-stick shooter and role-playing game, but they might leave you wishing it had focused more on one genre over the other.