Bytten

"In the land of candy canes and gumdrops, all is not well. The town that once stood as a pillar of hope for the planet has fallen to a rash of crimes that until recently appeared to be the act of violent mad clowns. It wasn’t until they messed with Krisotron - the half man, half robot, all bad ass, keeper of justice - that they sealed their fate. One day while at the bank with Princess Noida, Krisotron was approached by Dr. Gacy, a PhD holding son of a circus freak that no one liked, but never thought of as more than a mere nuisance. Dr. Gacy unleashed an evil barrage of juggling balls knocking Krisotron to the ground; this was all the time he needed. He grabbed Princess Noida and flew away in his tiny clown car. Now Krisotron is out for revenge. He wants his girl and he'll be damned if some oversized shoe wearing honker-nose is gonna steal her from him."

I don't normally copy the plot for a game directly off the game's website, but in this case I felt there was no way I could adequately express it otherwise! In any event, the plot isn't particularly important to the game itself, which is a variant on the ever popular Robotron. You take on the role of Krisotron as he battles through a series of levels in pursuit of Princess Noida, wielding a variety of deadly weapons with which to demolish the hordes of enemies that swarm against you. There's no finesse to this one - just blast everything! As is normal for this style of game, you move with the keyboard and aim/fire with the mouse, if one can be said to aim in the chaos that unfolds.

There are two game types in Krisotron. The story mode plays through four chapters of several levels each, as Krisotron chases after the princess, each in a different setting and with different monsters to battle. Krisotron has a limited number of lives; if you die, you restart that level. The final level for each chapter features a "boss" enemy. As you complete levels, new weapons and items are unlocked. Survival mode sees Krisotron facing endless waves of enemies. He's heavily armed, but only has one life. How long can you survive? This mode is all about the score.

The graphics are far from exceptional (though still a little better than my efforts would be...!) but, for this price, what do you expect? Everything is brightly coloured and reasonably clear - that said, the game's screen dimensions are fixed, so you either play with a blown up fullscreen mode or in a window, which was pretty tiny on the enormous monitor my desktop computer sports (and, as it's a widescreen monitor, the fullscreen mode was rather stretched). I was also less than clear on what some of the floating pickups were - the red pluses were obviously health bonuses, but what are the red/blue cylinders? Batteries?

Sound is plentiful. Gunfire and the sounds of death are everywhere as you play this one! Amongst the neat touches are the heart monitor beeps that start up when Krisotron is near death, turning to that well known "eeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound when he finally expires. Music is not so good, however - a single tune plays from the title screen and continues into the game itself, but it doesn't loop or change. Later levels are played sans music (it is interesting to note, however, that I took a while to realise this - perhaps the music is fairly irrelevant when you can't hear it for gunfire!)

This is actually quite a tough little game. Enemies can spawn right on top of you and will mercilessly chase you around the screen when they arrive. Collecting powerups and boosting your stats is a very useful endeavour. You can switch between weapons and secondary items but the weapons you obtain seem to become generally better as you advance. I particularly like the Death Discs! Generally the game descends into "run away from the enemies whilst firing wildly into them" but the rate at which they spawn generally means you're likely to run smack into more of them. Still, as a quick blaster it's rather compulsive.

As for longevity... I'm not sure it has THAT much life in it. The chapters are fairly short, and the action can get fairly samey. Still, I don't think it's trying to be a long-lasting epic - especially not for loose pocket change! As a quick blast here and there, it delivers rather well. So while my scoring may seem a little low, it's a fair assessment - and doesn't mean that it isn't fun to play. I hope to see more ambitious offerings from Rebel Box in the future, as they've managed to capture a spark of fun in Krisotron that shines through despite the late 1980s graphics - and that spark is the most important aspect of any game.