Shoot Many Robots - New Game of the Day #41

Shoot Many Robots – New Game of the Day #41

What? A four-player shoot em up with RPG-lite levelling and a ton of customisation. Kill robots while wearing a tutu and chugging beer. What’s not to love?

When? March 13th (PSN) and 14th (XBL, Steam)

Where? Xbox 360 (XBL), Playstation 3 (PSN), PC (Steam)

There genuinely aren’t enough games featuring gung-ho hillbillies battling against a robotic invasion of Earth. There certainly aren’t enough that let you get drunk and dress up in silly clothes while doing it, either.

Like Borderlands before it, Demiurge Studio’s Shoot Many Robots doesn’t take its world-saving duties too seriously. Main character P. Walter Tugnut (seriously) is a keg-sucking redneck who finds himself up against a full-scale invasion of Planet Earth by murderous automatons. Armed with hundreds of weapons and random items of clothing (all of which offer stat bonuses or special abilities), Walter can team up with up to three hillbilly friends to face the onslaught together – while all the time trying to outscore each other in something Demiurge have nicknamed “Co-opetition”.

Killing robots in Walter’s cartoony, side-scrolling world will award him with XP, which is obviously used to upgrade his abilities. It’s not groundbreaking, but Shoot Many Robots seems to be more about cutting loose and having fun than reinventing the proverbial wheel. Playing with friends will increase the number of robots and the difficulty of the game and Demiurge have stated that you won’t be able to unlock everything in just one playthrough.

The robots come in a variety of flavours from the chainsaw-wielding Chopper to the acid-spewing Fatboy, and taking them on will take courage, skill and an awful lot of booze and swearing. Running and gunning, grabbing loot and XP, shooting robots in the face and swilling beer… Sounds like a good weekend to us.

As you can tell from the screens below, Shoot Many Robots looks great – the environments are bright and detailed, the colours bold and vibrant in a style not too dissimilar to Gearbox’s Borderlands. If Demiurge can nail the balance between challenging and fun, they could have a surprise hit on their hands.

Developer Legacy: Demiurge Studios are a Boston-based developer founded in 2002. Very much a go-to-studio for a number of developers and publishers, Demiurge worked with Gearbox on Borderlands, and created the Pinnacle Station DLC for Bioware’s Mass Effect. They’ve also developed a number of mobile apps and games in-house, such as the iOS survival horror The Nightworld. Shoot Many Robots is Demiurge’s first original arcade title.

They Say: “Metal Slug fans will find a lot to love here.” – Joystiq.com

We Say: There’s a helmet in Shoot Many Robots called the “Fruit-f***er”. We’re sold.

Can’t Wait? Play this: For some irreverent 4-player co-op action with a similar aesthetic, you could do worse than Borderlands, but if you’re after a similarly side-on run-and-gun frag-fest, SNK’s classic title Metal Slug might get your juices flowing until Shoot Many Robots arrives.

Website: http://shootmanyrobots.com

Twitter: @shootmanyrobots

Facebook: Facebook/ShootManyRobots

Words by Mick Fraser (Twitter: @Jedi_Beats_Tank)

Shoot Many Robots featured as our very first New Game of the Day way back in August. We're not going crazy - we just thought you'd like an update. Thank us with beer.

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