Solbot: Energy Rush (iOS) Review

Solbot: Energy Rush is a vertical-scroller where the titular character can be controlled by simply tapping left or right. This simple mechanic lends itself well to casual gamers, due to the ease of simply diving into something that doesn't have a huge learning curve. Solbot needs to collect a certain amount of renewable energy orbs to complete the level and move onto the next stage. In total, this has 50 levels to complete and they are quite an easy challenge to overcome.

Orbs litter the vertical-scrolling screen, and represent two contrasting uses: the gold-ringed orbs are renewable energy orbs, and these are the goals which Solbot must collect to reach the level quota required to complete the stage, with the rest of the orbs without the gold rings simply being the 'enemies' which will bring about the destruction of the robot, and failure of the stage. As the different coloured orbs appear on the top of the screen, the robot hero must fly through space avoiding the dangerous orbs, while collecting the gold-ringed ones. Of course, since he can only move left or right, the movement is achieved by tapping on the left or right sides of the screen.

Power-ups slowly creep into the game itself, with the magnet being the first addition, something that makes the stages considerately easier and quicker to complete, as it will magnetise Solbot and draw all the renewable energy orbs on the screen straight to it. Fireballs shoot off a fiery-spout of balls to eliminate the dangerous orbs on the screen, while the shield acts as a double-role: to defend him from dangerous orbs, while doubling the count of the collected orbs, with two orbs being tallied for every one that is collected.

Towards the end, the Slowdown power-up is introduced, though it rarely has any real use except for slowing down the rate of movement through the vertical-tunnel, though the game itself is not that difficult in normal motion anyway. However, the other three power-ups have their own use in making the stages a lot quicker to plough through. Again, it's not that the game needs these, but they do make the subsequent stages more enjoyable because of how much of a convenience they provide, with the final 15 stages taking less than twenty minutes to smash through with ease.

The main point of Solbot, however, is not to provide an enthralling piece of entertainment for everlasting hours, but rather to educate on renewable energy. From the main menu screen, the fact of the day regarding renewable energy will award with a bonus key for the day, which can be used to continue a stage from the point of death rather than having to restart the level.

A main gripe with Solbot is the transitioning sequence between stages. When Solbot has reached the stage's required quota for completion, a score screen pops up showing the accolades of the robot from that stage. However, a quick glance away from the phone at that precise moment can be extremely costly; that menu screen disappears after a few seconds and the game proceeds, with the titular robot needing to pass through a laser-field to reach the next stage. If he does not make it through the door, it counts as a death, and the previous stage needs to be repeated. The entire sequence to reach the next stage just feel a little off and unnecessary, and it is interesting as to why that design choice was decided to be put in.