Written by: Alex

 

 

 

With smaller downloadable titles becoming ever more prevalent this generation twin stick shooters have become increasingly popular. As more have appeared so too has the need to be different, with new options, variations and twists needed to attract ever-fickle digital shoppers.

 

Developer Naked Sky has done a lot to set their new title "MicroBot" out from the rest of the pack by setting the action inside a human body. With customisation options and the novel setting MicroBot certainly does stand out at a glance, but with such a well trodden genre it still struggles to be truly different.

 

 

MicroBot follows a nano-machine tasked with going into a body and destroying an infection of other rouge nanites that have joined forces with an invading virus to play havoc with the unfortunate host.

 

With the ability to upgrade and adapt to infections and obstacles it comes across as it moves through the body the small MicroBot is designed for just such internal tomfoolery. It's a simple premise but one that allows for a good degree of variety as different parts of the host are explored and the different obstacles found in each area of the body are encountered. 

 

 

Travelling through the host is an interesting experience. Within the viscous liquid of the body and the variety of tissue to be passed through MicroBot’s movement feels different to most similar titles as the craft slowly builds up speed and struggles to rotate. Effects on movement are not limited to passive elements because as in a real body liquids move and, suspended in these fluids, the craft is also affected. Rushing to parts of the body that require them, the liquids create barriers or sweep the action away from desired locations as the blood is pumped through the vessels. It is a small, and for the setting, appropriate mechanic but it is enough to give a distinct feel to MicroBot as the small ship navigates the internal parts of the patient.

 

 

Passing through the various internal areas of the body, viruses and other nano-machines are encountered, these are joined by a number of bodily cells that can passively hinder, help or attack the ship. Red blood cells sit suspended, moving only from inertia of the ruptured blood vessels they are released from. These cells frequently form barriers, block shots and unwittingly shield enemies as they bob unintelligently about.

 

White blood cells are the other key bodily element; initially indifferent to the protagonist craft they quickly identify it as a threat or an ally depending on its actions. If the ship destroys attacking craft or viruses the white blood cell will join it, if not and attacks are made against useful bodily elements the white cell will join with the foreign bodies in attacking the MicroBot.

 

 

Obviously shooters need some variety between levels, and floating through the body of MicroBot’s ‘patient’ demands exactly the same need for variation. Problematically however the body tends to be… well bloody and red as any avid viewer of Dr House or CSI will testify. The initial zone of the game (the first four stages) proscribes to just this thinking, with red being the primary colour and squirts of swirling liquids frequently gushing from ruptured areas of the body. Its unpleasant in ways, but fitting as the gloopy red of the world gives a real sense of the setting and sets its up for more fanciful later stages.

 

Each of the games twenty stages are divided into fours using these environments and each new area is meet with a new hue, obstacles and enemies. While these changes may find no basis in the reality of a real body, there is logic to the variations. Lungs fill with what looks like a moist, marshy green that give a real feel of the damp diseased air filling the lungs and mucus, while the brain is more ordered with almost computer like decoration and is inhabited by more electronic, angular adversaries.

 

 

The huge three-dimensional innards of the person both seem to extend far in and out of the screen. This effect adds a great sense of scale to proceedings, but also frequently causes game play issues. Protruding up from the play field, some areas of the body occlude vision, leaving the small craft shooting in blindness.