Atomic Robo-Kid


Atomic Robo-Kid is a horizontally-scrolling shooter arcade game released by UPL in 1988. In America, the game was published by Nikøm, Inc.

Plot

In the 21st century, a blast of cosmic radiation bombarded Terra-12, a deep-space outpost of Earth, hideously mutating all transplanted life. A fleet of savage beings followed the radiation wave and invaded the planet and began the systematic destruction of all remaining sentient life. Years of battling the alien 'governors' have gone by, and now only one hope survives to avenge the desperate terran colonists.

Gameplay

The player controls the titular character through six stages of increasing difficulty, facing an alien "governor" boss at the end of each level, followed by a "duel" level against other Robo-Kid sized robots. Many levels branch into others, giving the player the choice over which zone to enter next, increasing replayability.
Robo-Kid can collect four different weapons in addition to his default gun, collect powerups for a shield that activates on enemy contact, plus rapid fire and speed powerups. The player can also encounter a friendly dinosaur-looking robot that sells weapons and shields to Robo-kid using extra lives as currency.

Ports

The game was ported to the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, and Sharp X68000. The TurboGrafx-16 version was called "Atomic Robo-Kid Special" since it was an adaptation of the arcade version, rather than a straight conversion.
A demo was distributed of the ZX Spectrum version before it was cancelled.
The game was released on the Nintendo Switch in the Nintendo eShop on 15 November 2018 by Hamster Corporation as part of their Arcade Archives series.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Atomic Robo-Kid on their March 1, 1989 issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.