Developed by Odyssey Software and published by American Video Entertainment in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Deathbots apparently wasn't even held in high enough regard to warrant Nintendo's official seal of quality. Upon playing it, I really can't say that this fact was shocking to me at all.
The plot of this game is based around an AI program that has put the fate of the world in jeopardy, much akin to about four million other science fiction stories before it. It's supposedly located on Alcatraz Island, though, so that must count for something. Apparently, there's a weapon of mass destruction within the base which happens to be the only hope of stopping this program, and so a lone robot (whose name we are neither informed of nor inclined to care about) is sent to find and destroy it.
Since the creators couldn't even be bothered to program a title screen, pressing the start button will take you directly to the main game. The graphics you're treated to are mediocre at best; not necessarily an eyesore, but the sprites all look rather lame and there seems to be very little in the way of color. That first impression leaves much to be desired, but it only goes farther downhill from there. Also, the overhead perspective is quite awkward; it doesn't seem that way at first, but soon enough you'll find yourself not even knowing what angle from which you should approach a door to open it! To top it all off, you most likely won't even know when you're getting hit because there's absolutely no indication on your sprite when it happens. So it's pretty safe to say that Deathbots falls rather short in the graphical department.
The music and sound effects, much like the aesthetics, are generally uninspired. Nothing migraine-inducing, but nothing you'll be singing in your sleep. The only sound effect I have a strong feeling for is the ear-grating static you hear when you change items in the Select menu, but everything else is pretty unremarkable.
Now with visuals and sound as subpar as I previously described, one would think that Deathbots would be able to compensate with its gameplay. No dice there, either. It's little more than a generic, run-of-the-mill shooter against second-rate, unintimidating robots. Your ammo is limited, but it turns out that if you happen to run out of it, you can HUG your enemies to death! That's right! You can literally destroy the enemy robots just by running up to them! Talk about top-notch game design!
In all honesty, I was neither interested nor engaged enough in this game to continue past the first stage. From what I've read about and seen, though, the later levels are more of the same, so I don't see myself carrying on with Deathbots any time soon. Many of you who are reading probably haven't even heard of this game until now, and frankly you haven't been missing out on much at all.
Developed by Odyssey Software and published by American Video Entertainment in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Deathbots apparently wasn't even held in high enough regard to warrant Nintendo's official seal of quality. Upon playing it, I really can't say that this fact was shocking to me at all.
The plot of this game is based around an AI program that has put the fate of the world in jeopardy, much akin to about four million other science fiction stories before it. It's supposedly located on Alcatraz Island, though, so that must count for something. Apparently, there's a weapon of mass destruction within the base which happens to be the only hope of stopping this program, and so a lone robot (whose name we are neither informed of nor inclined to care about) is sent to find and destroy it.
Since the creators couldn't even be bothered to program a title screen, pressing the start button will take you directly to the main game. The graphics you're treated to are mediocre at best; not necessarily an eyesore, but the sprites all look rather lame and there seems to be very little in the way of color. That first impression leaves much to be desired, but it only goes farther downhill from there. Also, the overhead perspective is quite awkward; it doesn't seem that way at first, but soon enough you'll find yourself not even knowing what angle from which you should approach a door to open it! To top it all off, you most likely won't even know when you're getting hit because there's absolutely no indication on your sprite when it happens. So it's pretty safe to say that Deathbots falls rather short in the graphical department.
The music and sound effects, much like the aesthetics, are generally uninspired. Nothing migraine-inducing, but nothing you'll be singing in your sleep. The only sound effect I have a strong feeling for is the ear-grating static you hear when you change items in the Select menu, but everything else is pretty unremarkable.
Now with visuals and sound as subpar as I previously described, one would think that Deathbots would be able to compensate with its gameplay. No dice there, either. It's little more than a generic, run-of-the-mill shooter against second-rate, unintimidating robots. Your ammo is limited, but it turns out that if you happen to run out of it, you can HUG your enemies to death! That's right! You can literally destroy the enemy robots just by running up to them! Talk about top-notch game design!
In all honesty, I was neither interested nor engaged enough in this game to continue past the first stage. From what I've read about and seen, though, the later levels are more of the same, so I don't see myself carrying on with Deathbots any time soon. Many of you who are reading probably haven't even heard of this game until now, and frankly you haven't been missing out on much at all. 
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