Robotron somehow simulates the stress and intensity of an actual robot apocalypse through the use of, like, 50 pixels on the screen. The responsiveness and precision of the controls make or break a game like this, and Robotron's are like silky tofu - smooth, compliant, and vegan.

The simple rules of play and intuitive controls lead to an addictive experience. When you die, instead of thinking "wtf, I dodged that, the computer cheats", you think "I saw that coming, I'll be ready for it next time" or "hmm, maybe I should kill these guys first". You strategize to avoid or prevent deadly scenarios. You experiment with different paths and priorities. You realize that your plan of attack matters just as much as twitch reaction and skill.

The graphics are just good enough to get the job done (does the main character have huge glasses or something?), but the sound design is bombastic and perfect for an arcade thriller.

It's not a terribly deep game - It's an arcade game after all, good for maybe five or ten plays per session - but it's remarkable how well this humble cabinet with the limitations of 1982 tech holds up.

Fast paced, psychedelic, and addictive. The game popularized twin stick shooting, but is also a just a fun game in its own right. Enemies come from all angles with a variety of projectiles demand quick movement and aiming. The people you gave give you an increasingly large point creating a risk vs reward for going after them, or keeping enemies alive to collection them before a round ends.

The graphics are simple but vibrant. With flashing colors providing constant visual stimulation to compliment the action.

Classic arcade action at its finest, and the genesis of the twinstick genre. The graphics are flashy, but there's still enough distinction between the enemies and the humans for the player to quickly identify them. The sounds are basic, but memorable and have that iconic Williams sci-fi phaser sound to them. However, what really makes this game stand out is its brutal difficulty. This is quite possibly the hardest old school arcade game of all time. However, not a single death is cheap because of how incredibly quick and responsive the controls are. You are in total control the entire time and the only person you can blame for your failures is yourself. This is the twinstick genre stripped down to its bare essentials. And in this case, less is truly more.

Neat point of twin-stick history. Really incredible how the paradigm of constant positioning and dealing with enemies that all want to murder you while you desperately look for safe spots to manage all the distinct enemy types persists all the way since its creation.

Albeit, still monotonous to really attempt to perfect past the first hour now, although how far we've come on the genre definitely holds a lot of the blame for that. What doesn't is how painfully flashy the art and colors are, with not exactly the accessible and perfect sprite stuff you see in Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Really more of a game that makes you quickly appreciate or at least learn how exactly visual feedback and cohesion is kinda something that's super important to have.

Definitely the age old wear I expected walking in, but hey at least it'll look good in a museum!

(made it to wave 32, in case anyone is curious)