What the fork is going on in Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion? The robots are invading, silly. However, how this is all presented is batshit crazy, and has more f-bombs in the dialogue than a Joe-fucking-Pesci movie. Yep, the language in Home Alone is absolutely fucking disgusting.
You’ll note the language used here, and if you’re particularly offended by that as early as now, then you can go fu- just kidding! Basically, everyone in the game swears from the get-go, so if you don’t like swearing, give this a miss. If, however, you grew up with comics and always wondered what they’d look like if they came alive and you did the fonts, this is what would happen.
Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion is from the perspective of Shooty, a female crackshot agent employed by fork (everything in the game is lowercase). I’d love to tell you about what the acronym means, but I was distracted throughout and keen to absorb as much as possible. Besides, I was confused whether the protagonist was male or female at the beginning (so Gen X…), and was looking for clues so I could identify as the protagonist and don a crop top.
Robots have indeed invaded, and Shooty has to take them all out without an ounce of mercy. As an FPS, you’re dashing around the streets and beachfront, blasting away with an unlimited pistol. There are no bells and whistles: you get a gun and a dash, and that’s it. This proved frustrating at first, as some of the early flying enemies would effectively take me out in one wave, as I couldn’t target them fast enough, and there aren’t any health drops in battles. Learning to dash was the solution.
Though there aren’t any complicated moves or specials, Shooty can dual-wield and, at times, can feel overpowered, but the game balances the boss battles well, so you get your money’s worth. In addition to dual-wielding, parkour is also an option with a bastardised Tiger Uppercut that launches you onto the rooftops. This was a little tricky when first learning the specific parkour movements without touching the ground, but once done was easy-peasy.
Stripped down, Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion is a very basic FPS. What makes it utterly shine is the artwork and animation, and equally the NPCs and interactions. Everything is hand-drawn in Bubby Darkstar’s game, and it looks absolutely brilliant, warts and all, and blows that dogshit AI overpopulating our screens out of the murky waters. I absolutely loved the visceral feel, how seemingly painstaking it may have been to illustrate and then animate everything – including the pops and bangs of the guns – throughout.
There’s an abundance of robots in the game, and each of the six(?) worlds has its own bespoke characters and traits, as with the locals. While Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion is undoubtedly an FPS, it could moonlight as an RPG with its fetch quests. For a little while, I did feel a little trolled in the beginning, where each time I’d check in thinking I’d finished the area, the boss would send me back out, and I’m backtracking an unbelievable amount.
This did grow on me and I definitely saw the humour in it – particularly highlighted in the very first area where you’re asked to deliver a letter to someone, but nobody can describe what the person looks like and you end up on a wild goose chase with hilarious consequences. This continues throughout in Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion as our unsung hero blasts through countless enemies, chinwags with too many weirdos to list, and overall, despite its limits in terms of actual FPS gunplay, it’s a highly recommended gem to anyone with a penchant for quirky, out-of-the-box interactions and utterly unique visuals. I like it a lot.
