PlayStation Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] Robotron X (Midway, PlayStation, 1996)

Electrifying—on the right setup.

I've had a morbid attachment to this game since I was a wee lad. In fact, it was one of the original game reviews I wrote for this section when I started doing them on cammy.somnol. To be clear, on console, Robotron X is still a mess. The framerate is horrific (hovering around 10FPS at worst), which makes it difficult to tell what the fuck is going on when dragged-out waves of respawning robots fill the screen, and the lack of DualShock support means you're holding down that shitass PS1 controller D-pad for minutes at a time. Not great!

All that said, we happen to live in The Future (not the Robotron one—yet), and emulators might just be able to fix most of these issues. I normally like my emulation console-accurate, but I've already gassed RetroAchievements up for making me like PS1 Space Invaders, so let's keep going. A little birdie tipped me off once that overclocking DuckStation gets this game's framerate up, way up. Paired with being able to map the face buttons to the thumbsticks, plus memorizing a power-up code or two, that should fix most of the issues, shouldn't it?

Yes! A 500% overclock gets you a solid 60FPS in damn near any chaotic situation, meaning navigating near-death Robotron encounters and picking up humans becomes more than possible—it becomes mesmerizing, habit-forming, fun! Seriously, I've been itchy for this one all week, cleaning out 25 levels at a time like a creepy bald chimney sweep. Even the eerie, skeletal visuals have grown on me. None of this makes Robotron X a better game (Robotron 64 is still the way to go on hardware), but it does make it a better experience, revealing its true form as a psycho zoneout game with a thrilling, throbbing electronic soundtrack.