Robots Attack!

How many times has your mother told you that looks aren't everything? Almost as many times as games journos have used the term in their intros, we suspect.

Yep, Robots Attack is another game that affirms the old truism. For while it looks a treat - both in stills and in motion - there's very little to it beneath the glossy surface.

Here's an irresistible premise for you. You take control of a growing gang of marauding robots, stomping through a city, smashing buildings, incinerating bystanders, and blasting attack helicopters and tanks into the middle of next week.

It's like every 12-year-old boy's dream, and for the first ten minutes Robots Attack! almost appears capable of delivering on this promise.

The controls are simple. You crush buildings by physically picking up a robot and slamming it down. You zap people and vehicles by dragging a line between your robot's eyes to the target. And you recharge your robot's dwindling health bar by touching and holding its feet.

There's an additional RPG-lite element to Robots Attack!'s gameplay. As you progress you acquire points to invest in upgrading your weapons or levelling your robots up (which makes them physically bigger as well as more robust).

You can also spend it on purchasing additional robots - you can have up to five. There are two basic classes of robot - one that tackles ground targets and one that handles helicopters - and you'll need at least one of each to progress.

All of this makes for a solid enough foundation, but the trouble with Robots Attack! is that the game stops progressing and developing at an alarmingly early point.

Once you've purchased a couple of the more powerful robot types and maxed them out - which occurs pretty quickly - both challenge and interest fall off a cliff.

The game ticks on without even a change of scenery, with a simple increase in enemy numbers signifying that you're playing on a higher level. It becomes almost hypnotically repetitive.

Who would have thought that a robot apocalypse could be so mundane?