Welcome Time Wasters!
This week I returned to my phone for my gaming fix, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Robot Unicorn Attack 2 (it’s more like the sixth game in the franchise, but whatever) on the Google Play Store. I had a lot of fun with the first game (I believe it came out shortly before I started the Time Waster), and I was really excited to play this new game. I wasn’t let down either.
Robot Unicorn Attack 2 takes everything that was good about the first game and enhances it. Then it takes all those small flaws and throws them out the window (doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it’s dang close).
Gameplay in Robot Unicorn Attack 2 is largely the same as previous installments. Players control a robot unicorn and attempt to run for as long as they can on a side-scrolling world. Still included are fairies to collect, and stars to destroy. Added are jewels that can be picked up along the way, and are used a currency to buy in-game items. Also new are Star Golems. These nasty brutes block the player’s path and fire lasers at them. To get past these golems players have to dash at just the right time to go through the golems and its laser. The golems are a nice way to keep the game from getting too stale.
Another feature added into the game in the ability for players to customize their robot unicorns. There are a total of six unicorns available in game: Robot Unicorn MK II, Iron Pegasus, UV-N7, U-800, Pageant Princess, and Void Maker. Players can mix and match different parts from these unicorns to create their own special unicorn. Also the different parts give players different abilities. For example some wings can fly faster than what other wings can, and some horns allow unicorns to dash for longer distances. It’s a fun little addition that helps players create their own way to play the game.
The game allows players to connect better than in previous installments. All the old games allowed those who played it on Facebook to compete against friends and share scores. While Robot Unicorn Attack 2 isn’t as focused on Facebook sharing (it is still an option), it does have its own community. After players reach rank six they have the option of joining either Team Rainbow, or Team Inferno. These two teams compete daily to see who can complete a task first. The task is usually something simple like run through ‘X’ amount of hoops or destroy ‘X’ amount of stars, which is great because players can help their team without having to do anything different than what they would normally do when they play. The players on the winning team receive a small sum of jewels.
The game has also received major improvements in the graphics department. The unicorns look great, and have really fluid movement animations. The backgrounds are really detailed as well. Floating islands with waterfalls, unicorn whales and giant seahorses are some of the things that can be seen moving through the background. The only problem I have is occasional instances of lag, which are sometimes bad enough to freeze the game, but not often. Granted, this might have something to do with my phone. I’m currently using an LG Lucid to play this game, and I might soon look into picking up the Lucid 2, but not immediately.
One of the things that made the first game so popular was the song that played in the background, Always by Erasure. When I booted up the game and didn’t hear that familiar song it left me a little disappointed. After awhile I became accustomed to the new song, which has an upbeat whimsical feel to it. I also found out that the app allows players to purchase the Erasure song from the first game and listen to it instead. While I really like this idea I found that I had actually become so accustomed to the new song (Land of Rainbows by Module) that I didn’t feel I needed to purchase Always.
Overall Robot Unicorn Attack 2 is a great game. It uses the same concept as the original, but updates it enough for it to feel new. Graphics and music in the game are beautiful and customizing unicorns is a definite push.
Robot Unicorn Attack 2 dashes its way to 4.5 GiN Gems out of 5!