"Half man, Half machine in pocket form"

Robocop is based on the film of the same name. It's a port of the arguably classic arcade game. Like the film you play Robocop: a cyborg with a human mind and face! He must rid the streets of evil criminals and some robots.

Graphics 6/10
Decent graphics, for obvious reasons it does not look as good as the arcade version or even the NES version due to hardware limitations. The sprites are nice and detailed for Robocop with good animation. The characters are fairly good all well animated but some look a bit "samey". Look out for the bikers on later levels, these are some of the most detailed. The backgrounds are flat and quite boring, not to mention, repetitive.

Sound & Music 6/10
There's been some effort put into the music. Unlike many Gameboy games the music is actually worth hearing, mainly for the reinterpretation of the Robocop film theme tune. The sound fx are fairly decent but is let down by the limited soundcard. Some of the explosions sound quite muddy but are still OK. The shooting noises, especially the 3-way gun are enjoyable.

Gameplay 5/10
Like a lot of side scrolling shooters it is quite repetitive. Walk and shoot enemies, kill the boss at the end not much to it. There are some enemies which take you by surprise, especially the machine gun toting maniacs who shoot out of windows - like with the game Shinobi once you pick up when you expect a bad guy to shoot out of a window or creep up behind you it becomes easier. There are power ups along the way such as a gun with more powerful bullets and the 3 way shooter. As mentioned it is repetitive but challenging. I would rate the game as medium/hard difficulty. I think many gamers would find it difficult to complete. Like many games of its type a continue makes you start from the beginning of a level. If the repetitiveness or difficulty can be overcome there's is an enjoyable game to be found.

Overall 6/10
A decent side scrolling shooting game. The Gameboy's limited hardware is put to good use. Yes, the game is repetitive but it's also enjoyable. There are worse side scrolling shooters such as Navy Seals and unless you want to go down the Flying shooter route with Parodius or R Type or a samurai game such as Ninja Gaiden then this is one of the better ones.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/11

Game Release: RoboCop (US, December 1990)