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Roomba makes game debut in terrifying fashion

The message for unworthy players of this iOS game? "You don't suck enough."

Tim Hornyak
Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. E-mail Tim.
Tim Hornyak
I'm just glad the real Roomba doesn't look like this. iRobot

Woe unto thee if you're a virtual dust bunny.

The wrath of Roomba is coming down from on high, and there ain't no wrath like that of a rampaging robot.

iRobot has released Roomba's Revenge, a game for iOS that pits Roomba against the evils of dust bunnies, dirt, and pesky felines.

Available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, the game features a cartoonish Roomba that looks like a hockey puck with insane eyes and a rictus.

When Roomba sucks up enough dirt, it goes into revenge mode and can destroy all the dust bunnies in the house. If you don't clean up before time runs out, you're told, "You don't suck enough."

It's a challenging game, with little time to clear each level. I found Roomba a little hard to maneuver on my iPod Touch, but managed to wipe out a good number of dust bunnies before they could turn into whirlwinds and scatter the dirt everywhere.

The full version of the game is 99 cents. Part of the proceeds go to iRobot's SPARK education initiative to encourage students in STEM fields.