Crashbots Review

As far as indie games go, Crashbots stands out because it takes different platforming elements from different games and mashes them up into a straightforward romp on the Nintendo Switch. Is this title worth your hard-earned cash, though? Let’s take a look.

Crashbots starts you off with a tutorial that lays the foundation of pretty much the entire game, which takes cues from a lot of auto-runner games that were huge hits from a few years back. You have to get your robot through what is essentially an obstacle course, using a combination of controllers to dodge left and right, jump over barriers and slide under laser fences. There will also be enemies and explosives that will get in your way – fret not, however, as you can also shoot your way through whatever blocks your path. You can also speed up for quick bursts along the way.

To make things a bit more interesting, your robot runs on a limited supply of energy, which you must keep an eye out for in each stage – you can replenish this by gathering battery packs throughout the course. You must strike a balance between all your skills to make sure that your robot gets from point A to point B. Make it all the way and you get to unlock more stages, as well as earn coins. Run out of juice, however, and you must restart the level all over. Aside from obstacles, you’ll face triggers which are scattered over each course. Triggers can affect your movement, either by speeding you up, temporarily halting your movement, and they can even spring traps. It’s all up to you to either make use of these triggers or to avoid them. Now, of course, unlocking more levels means that you’ll have more obstacles to overcome, and you must think on your feet to ensure your machine’s survival and success at the end of each level.

Speaking of machines, Crashbots allows you to collect robot parts throughout its 125 levels – collecting these will unlock more robots for you to choose, adding more variety to the game. Completing the tutorial will let you access the game’s endless mode, if you find that the regular levels are too short for you.

Crashbots is also nice to look at – the game gives you an isometric bird’s-eye view of the action, and you’ll either love it or hate it. Personally the view had me wishing at the time for a traditional third-person view more akin to your usual slew of auto-runner games, but I suppose that the isometric perspective adds a tiny layer of challenge to the game. Graphically speaking, it doesn’t look bad for an indie title, and the somewhat polygonal look works a lot well for a game based on robots and various types of machinery.

So, how is it overall? Well, the good thing about Crashbots and its bite-sized pieces is that it’s great for pickup-and-play situations, especially if you’re rocking the Switch in handheld mode, or if you’ve opted for the purely portable Switch Lite. A lot of the levels are quick affairs, making this an ideal game for daily commutes and such – that is, if you’re up to playing it frequently. While the game has some unique and well-thought mechanics, it can get a bit repetitive for players looking for more variety in their platforming games. Yes, the variety of obstacles, power-ups and robots do add some much-needed variety in the game, but you’re essentially doing the same objective repeatedly – which is not bad if you’re in it mostly for the bite-sized courses.

So should you get Crashbots? If you find that its repetitive nature might not be your cup of tea, then you might want to pass on this one. However, if you’re after quick bursts of auto-running obstacle courses with some quirky little robots to boot, then get this one.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.