Mechanibot

The game has a lot of charm, it's polished and very easy to jump in to. Unfortunately this is one of those super vertical progression rogue-lites, which in my opinion are just not fun because you have to grind grind grind to get permanent upgrades before you have a chance of beating a run. Add to the fact there's no randomness to the levels and you're facing the same enemies, in the same order, over and over again and that just hampers replayability which is what rogue-lites live or die by. In the end it feels more like a run of a mill autobattler with the tiny twist of being able to reposition your robots out of harms away. Fun for short bursts of 15 minutes but nothing more than that.

[code][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33025671-Missi-the-Achievement-Huntress/] Please see my curator page for more games that are well worth your time[/url][/code] [b]Approximate amount of time to 100%:[/b] 12h [b]Estimated achievement difficulty:[/b] 3/10 [b]Minimum number of playthroughs needed:[/b] 1 [b]Is there a good guide available:[/b] I wrote [url=https://www.missitheachievementhuntress.com/mechanibot-achievement-guide//] this achievement guide [/url] [b]Multiplayer achievements:[/b] No [b]Missable achievements:[/b] No [b]Grinding Achievements:[/b] The achievement for spending 1.000 coins is a bit grindy, but I got it just a few runs after the true ending [b]DLC-Only achievements:[/b] No [b]Speedrun achievements:[/b] No [b]Time-gated achievements:[/b] No [b]RNG-achievements:[/b] No [b]Does difficulty affect achievements:[/b] No, you can play on "Destiny Mode" aka easy mode and still unlock all the achievements [b]Unobtainable/glitched achievements:[/b] No I write this at the end of Augustus 2022 and so far my favorite game of 2022 is "[url=https://www.missitheachievementhuntress.com/lost-nova-review/]Lost Nova[/url]". Why do I bring this up in this review? Because Mechanibot is from the same developer and that automatically made me hyped for this game. I had some doubts as this game looked a bit more stressful than Lost Nova, and would I be able to complete it? The Good news is that this game is amazing! I would rate it a little bit lower than Lost Nova, but that doesn't say much as I rate that one so so high it is almost unfair to mention it here. And yes, I was able to complete this game. I felt stuck a little bit on the second planet as I kept dying, but the developer has increased the rewards you get at the end of each fight and that made it so much better and more doable, as now I could more easily afford upgrades to help me out. In this game you buy robots that do the fighting for you, you are there to keep them safe and heal them (I loved the upgrade that allowed me to heal my robots a little bit just by staying close to them). At the end of each fight, you can choose from a lineup of robots and items what you want to buy, or flush the store and get new options. It is very rewarding to save your money in the beginning and just buy a few you like and upgrade those without flushing the store a lot, as you get more money the more money you saved from the last round so that later on you can flush more and more. I had a lot of fun placing my robots strategically so they could attack, it was also fun to choose which robots to add to your team, or which to sell to make room for others. I had my favorite type (Rangers) and to be fair... I tried other types, but when I got the chance I did go back to my Ranger team for almost all runs. All types have their pros and cons (Although I really disliked the non-range types, I just didn't use those outside of the few times I needed to for the achievements). I had one run where I used a combo where if an enemy exploded it would damage the enemies next to it, which was so funny to do and felt so satisfying but didn't work out for bosses as they didn't do much damage, they just did a lot of small amount of damage. Here you can see a short clip of how this worked on small enemies: https://twitter.com/i/status/1561093965243449348 I love that you can see the achievements in-game and that they give you an in-game reward for completing them. The achievements unlock when you complete the mission on the mission board. Most of the achievements are very easy in this game. You have those for leveling a specific robot up (most of those are the easy ones you can buy at the beginning of the runs), have a team with 4x the same robot type, defeat boss x and y, and stuff like defeat x amount of enemies and spend x amount of money. There is one achievement that isn't so clear, but if you have a hard time figuring it out, you can find the solution in my achievement guide linked above.

[b] Target Audience: [/b] Strategy Players [I] [/i] [b] Summary: [/b] If you're coming to this review to assure that your 3 bucks to spend on Mechanibot is worth your time, then rest assured, Mechanibot delivers. The gameplay design leads to interesting loadout variation as well as fun upgrade paths that will feel familiar from run to run, but having little changes that you'll appreciate in the repetition that occurs in this auto-battler. The game is interesting in that aspect: being familiar and having you do a lot of the same things from run to run, and yet never feeling like you're doing the same thing...even though you pretty much are. That's a sign of subtle yet wise game design, and building your loadout of robots and seeing what you can maximize is fantastic. The play field design and enemy sizes feels like it's been refined to really maximize the experience you're having, even if in the long run I wanted a tiny bit more variation in the enemy variety and bosses from run to run. It's a perfect game to pair with a youtube video in the background or your favorite podcast, as while the sound design isn't bad, it's the kind of game that's destined to be the “i'm playing and paying 90% attention” kind of one. Does it have flaws? I mean, every game does. Some of the swarming nature of certain waves can feel overpowered compared to other waves, seemingly being a stopping point from run to run. Certain powers do feel like they vastly outweigh others ( Time Stop.), but 98% of the game feels really balanced. Sometimes it can be easy to lose your guys on screen thanks to some of the presentation design, and I do wish there was a tiny bit more oompf with the visuals from a over-the-top type display. Yet, the game also makes you want to keep seeing what happens, and has a one more run mentality that develops. You just want to try again, and even in that repetition, you really don't care. It's the definition of getting hours and hours of gameplay for a few bucks, and if you've even considered the game at this point, throwing a few bucks for hours of fun is most definitely the right decision. [b]Review Video: [/b] https://youtu.be/3jpNhyGGX-c [u] Lists: [/u] [b]Positives:[/b] [list] [*] Strong base gameplay design that focuses on strategy and movement in hectic battlefield organization. [*] 98% well balanced in terms of the design as a whole where you can't abuse certain mechanics and it feels like a lot of time and play testing went into it. [*] Reasonable variety and boons from different robot types allow for interesting robot combinations to experiment with. [*] Good rewards for trying different loadouts and permanent upgrades feel impactful over time. [*] Robot design follows the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle and does it well. [*] Writing is fun with good jokes and an interesting plot that makes you want to see where it's going. [/list] [b]Negative:[/b] [list] [*] Enemy variety could use a tune up in the long run in RNG variation. You'll lose against swarms a lot in the early going, which can be annoying. [*] Just a step under what I'd want for visual flare: specifically with projectiles and combat animation. Almost there, but not quite. [*] A couple of small annoyances regarding presentation (losing robots behind big enemy visuals). [/list] [b] If you want more reviews/information regarding games I've reviewed, visit my curator. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6861768/Dragnix Curator [/url][/b]

I was stuck in the infinite loop, constantly summoning little robots to do my bidding... except they always needed me to carry them around when they were in danger. Put them down thinking my job was done. The enemy then decided that the little guys had slighted them and I spent half an hour running around with them on my head. Finally set the buggers in the corner and they did they job. 0/10 for ability to throw the robots off the edge when they have annoyed you. 10/10 for a good way to spend an afternoon and worth the price.

This just feels clumsy and frantic in a way I really don't enjoy.

The game feels quite like something between a tower defense game and an autobattler. Your units don't actually move to interact with enemies - that's your job. If you're familiar with autobattlers, then you'll easily recognize most everything in the game, but the change - the player needing to actively protect and set up your units mid-battle for the attack makes the game hectic, but when the run goes well, it just feels good. The only current downside is that the encounters seem to always be the same and in the same order, but the developer is still working on the game, and that is an extremely minor complaint for a game at this price. TLDR: The game is fun.

Wow, what can I say? I had a lot of fun and I'll be back for sure. This game is intuitive, it's challenging, you can disable screenshake, and it controls damn near perfectly. Sound design is about the only place this game is lacking at the moment (a little more diversity in the stage music would brighten things up) but as is isn't any kind of a drag on the overall game! 8/10 Shout outs to Jon Nielsen via Woovit for providing me with a review key.

I got a copy from the devs and that might color my opinion. I found myself enjoying the game. I think while it feels limited, I found it interesting during the 17ish hours until I 100% it. I am a sucker for 2D style so I enjoy the art style quite a bit. I don't know what an auto-battler is to be honest, so I don't understand what it means by taking the "auto" out of it. But the roguelike elements are interesting and the idea of being a Mechanic-robot taking care of the battle bots is a fun idea. I was surprised that the bot you control doesn't take damage and your bots are your health/survive-ability, instead of like how a Tower-defense works. It makes managing positioning of them more important and keeping them alive to be hard when you are just learning patterns of enemies. I feel like the only issue with the game might be balance. I find all the close range bots hard to take to the end, while the Ranger and Blaster types are easiest when you build with the right upgrades. And mixing or separating bots is more challenging then keeping them together in a single pile. You will find out pretty quickly that when picked up the battle bots don't take damage, unless you also pick up a Crystal mine. So crystal mines are really dangerous when you are trying to avoid damage by picking up all your bots. The other offset is that attack speed gets stalled while picked up but the enemies attack charges keep building until a bot is placed down. All that said, it is still fun and interesting to try different combinations and figure out the bots you like the best. I feel the game is worth it. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I did.

want Team fight tactics, but single player? then this game to be a game

Great fun, plays a bit like a tower defence game if you had to chaotically run around constantly moving the towers while the enemies are attacking! As the levels ramp up it's very fun frantically running about trying to keep all your robots in one piece! Excellent presentation, very cute pixel art and fun writing, absolutely worth it for the price for sure