"If you can beat this, you can dodge rain."
As old school shooters go Ultratron has everything I need for a good old nostalgia trip. But has it got enough to keep you interested beyond the usual high score chasing? Twin stick shooters were all the rage down my local arcade when I was growing up. Stacks of coins would be lined up as we all waited our turn to beat the highest score. Ultraton is moulded in the same vein as IkarI Warriors, Smash TV and most notably Robotron. You take control of the last battle droid as you blast your way through forty levels of bullet strewn hell exacting your revenge for the slaughter of mankind.
The graphics here are of the what you see is what you get variety. The area you fight in doesn't change from one level to the next so if you crave diverse locations wows out of luck. The enemies spawn from the sides and corners and as soon as they appear they will make a line straight for you. Killing the enemies drops cash which you must pick up in order to upgrade your battle droid, buy smart bombs or buy pets. There aren't your normal run of the mill pets though. These are mini battle droids and depending on which one you have with you they each have different weapons. They offer either laser, rockets or bombs. You can even have all three fighting alongside you at once.
You can also pick up power boosts as you play by shooting Spider Droids that random appear. Killing these drops a power up that you cannot buy. Three way fire, bouncing bullets and berserk mode which is rapid fire to you and me. As longevity goes this game has very little. Within ten minutes I had already cleared the first two levels and with only five levels on offer here that's not a lot of bang for your buck. There is no online co-op mode although there is a split screen option available. There are online leaderboards available so you can track you online friends scores and the best in the world but that’s it as far as online goes.
The colour scheme here is huge mistake. Whoever thought that the background, enemies and bullets should all be the same colour deserves a slap. There is so much going on here that it is nearly impossible to differentiate between what's shooting at you and what is just a pick up and this is really, really frustrating at times. You do have the option turn off some of the more distracting effects in the menu, trust me you will want to do this.
Sometimes Ultratron will just repeatedly kick your arse in some pretty unforgiving ways. Enemies have a tendency to just spawn right in front of you or even worse right on top of you in your really unlucky. One very surprising addition is collectable fruit that randomly appears on screen they add nothing apart from additional money if you manage to collect them before they disappear.
If you like a challenge and can handle some pretty unforgiving moments then Ultratron might just be for you. But its lack of other gameplay modes and no online co-op make this a very short lived experience.
Review copy supplied by XCN.
Game: Slenderman: The Arrival.
Genre: Dual-Joystick Shooter.
Developer: Curve Digital.
Publisher: Curve Digital.
Platform(s): Xbox One.