Robot Games

Robots are a theme, and the theme is fighting

A robot game can be almost any genre wearing armor plating, but most of what players search for is one of three things: robots that fight, cars that turn into robots, and robots you build yourself. The arena fighters put two machines in a ring with health bars and a punch, block and special-move set, in the tradition of the boxing-robot movies. The transforming games start as a car chase, flip into a walking robot at the tap of a button, and swap between the two whenever the road runs out. The build-your-own titles are gentler: pick a head, arms and legs, then take the result for a short test.

The human end of the arena brawl is under fighting games; the ones where the robot is mostly a gun platform belong with shooting games; and the transforming chases are close cousins of the car games hub.

Categories:ShootingCar

What the shapes actually play like

The three-dimensional fighters are the most demanding: WASD to move, mouse to aim, and a set of keys for punches and special attacks, with a round lasting a minute or two against a computer opponent that gets tougher each match. The transforming games are open maps with missions — chase this, destroy that — and the fun is in the switch, since the car is faster and the robot hits harder. The military end is a cousin of tank games and war games: mechs with rockets, waves of enemies, upgrades between waves.

The children's end of the hub is quieter. Assembly games are drag-and-drop toys, robot dinosaur crossovers borrow from the dinosaur games shelf, and cartoon robots host runners, puzzles and coloring pages that play the same as their non-robot versions. The kids games hub is the safer entry for younger players who came here for the theme rather than the combat.

Keyboard for the fights, a thumb for the rest

Anything in three dimensions with a free camera wants a keyboard and mouse, and the fighting and mech games are heavy enough that a phone will run them but not comfortably: the touch versions map attacks to on-screen buttons that hide part of the arena. The transforming car games are better on a phone than you would expect, because steering by tilt or two thumbs suits a chase, and the transform button is one tap. The assembly and cartoon titles are pure touch games.

Load times vary with the size of the map, not with an install — nothing here downloads anything. If you want the action without the theme, the action games hub is broader; the hub aimed at the audience that asks for robots most is games for boys.

Categories:ActionBoys