Why You Can Trust CNET Robo5 for Android review: A platform game that's puzzling on many levels
As Robo No. 5, your job is to move objects around in order to climb your way to the top of junkyards full of boxes.
Set in a futuristic steampunk-flavored world, Robo5 is a 3D puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of a cute and quirky robot trying to escape his laboratory. As Robo No. 5, your job is to climb up mountains of boxes, reach the top, and advance levels. But with perplexing box configurations and other obstacles, this task can be much more difficult than it sounds.
Robo5 for Android
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Similar to many other mobile games, Robo5 starts you off with stages that are designed to teach you how to play. Throughout these, a mysterious character known only as "LA" gives you tips. Also, the layouts of the levels let you practice basic moves like pushing, pulling, and hopping along the sides of boxes. To have any hope of completing the later levels, you first need to master all of these skills, and you have to learn to deal with things like immovable objects, boxes that act as teleportation devices, and even time limits. While the first 10 stages or so are relatively simple, the stages that follow quickly increase in difficulty. If you enjoy challenging puzzle platformers, then this is certainly a good one.
In Robo5, you'll commonly encounter things like uncrossable gaps between objects. Since Robo No. 5 cannot jump (except to get on top of a box), you must get over these obstacles by creating either bridges or stairways using movable boxes. Similarly, you often have to create stairways to get atop high platforms. The challenge is that as you move boxes around, you may be causing other boxes to fall or become otherwise inaccessible. These are the kinds of puzzles you can expect with Robo5.
If you pinch your screen, you can zoom out to get a wider look at a level, which I use often when plotting out my strategy for ascending a level. While this little trick is certainly helpful, I also wish the game let you swipe around to see specific portions of a level up close.
What frustrates me about playing Robo5 is how little you learn about the plot and game as you go. At the beginning of the game, you know literally nothing, except that you are a robot and you need to get to the top of the boxes. Then, as you make your way through the game, you get tiny tidbits of information that shed light on your character's purpose. I understand that this promise to learn more is supposed to keep you playing, but I also think that the mystique created borders on annoying. For instance, 12 levels into the game, and the icons and items still haven't been clearly explained. I think that if the game could reveal more details, more often, to enrich the storyline and inform the gameplay, it would make for a much more enjoyable experience.
Even with its borderline annoying ambiguities, Robo5 is a captivating puzzler with unique and interesting feel. The game is free to download, but it only comes with a limited number of levels before asking you to upgrade for $1.99. Once you do, you get 40 levels and 8 hidden bonus levels.