Robot Unicorn Attack Review and Analysis

Robot Unicorn Attack is an online game created by Adult Swim. The player takes the role of a robot unicorn with the goal of staying alive as long as possible. To stay alive, you must guide the unicorn over hanging purple cliffs by jumping, and through large metal stars by charging. The game is challenging because the unicorn continually gallops forward, and gets faster and faster as you stay alive longer and longer, so dodging obstacles becomes harder and harder.

Robot Unicorn Attack is a highly addicting game. Part of this is probably because it only has two controls, one to jump and one to charge, and has virtually no learning curve. The game's instructions are one line long, and are shown on the main title screen so there's no need to navigate through instruction menus. Although you may not know exactly what the point of the game is by the limited and cryptic instructions (to start the game, the title screen says "Press 'Z' to make your wishes come true!" - the 2 controls are also listed here) the game is easy to pick up while you play and doesn't have many rules that need to be learned. Just jump, run, and charge.

Another reason the game is addicting is that it is so easy to jump in and play. Unlike other online games, where getting a 'game over' can sometimes be very frustrating because you have to start all the way from the beginning of the game if you want to play again, Robot Unicorn Attack shows you your score, and then by pressing one key instantly puts you back into the jump and run action. Another reason starting back from the beginning is very frustrating in many games is because you have to play through levels and scenarios you've already beaten to get to the new gameplay, which feels more like work than fun game play. Robot Unicorn Attack has randomly generated levels, so the butterflies, and stars are never in the same places, and the hanging hills are always different shapes. In this way, the game feels fresh every time you play.

Because Robot Unicorn Attack is so quick to play (I couldn't stay alive for more than a minute usually because the unicorn started running so fast), you can play the game with multiple friends on one computer without anyone getting bored. And the fact that each player gets a total score after each of their 3 lives turns the game into a competition - where whoever stays alive the longest over 3 lives is the winner. There's also the simple competition of who can reach the dolphins first. When you get 5,000 points in the game (which is non-trivial), bright, shiny dolphins start to jump and swim across the screen with your unicorn. They have no actual effect on the game, but they look really cool and come with the bragging rights of 'I reached the dolphins.' You can also upload your scores to the leader boards, so competition with other players online for the top spots is constant.

Because the game requires little skill (just press z to jump or x to charge at the right times), anyone can pick it up and play. So while you can really only have fun playing many videogames with other hardcore players because they require a lot of skill and time to master, you can play this game with anyone who has a free minute, regardless of whether they've practiced this game or even play conventional videogames.

Just like almost all other online arcade games, Robot Unicorn Attack gets a little boring after playing for 2 hours. This is due to the fact that eventually the player can recognize patterns in the level structure (which turns out is not random, but has around 7 different structures) and then the game becomes predictable and so loses its appeal as both challenging and 'new.' However, even with this knowledge of what's coming next due to the patterns in the levels, it is still hard to progress far in these levels because of the increase in speed as you go along. Even though you can figure the strategy out after a while, the game becomes virtually impossible around the same time every play through because you just can't react fast enough to click the jump or charge buttons. So even though it seems like you can master the game by figuring out the patterns, you will still die at some point, and that point will be very close to the point when you died even without knowing the patterns. So, in summary, the game not only becomes predictable after a while, but its predictability doesn't even have the pro of helping you advance farther in the game because a human physically cant react and/or mash buttons fast enough to progress further than a certain point.

It also seems like most of the fun of the game is in its design and not really its gameplay (more on that in the design section). For example, the gameplay is very similar to helicopter, where you press and hold the mouse key to navigate over and under obstacles as you continually move forward. This game simply takes that and adds a charge button to charge through certain obstacles, and replaces the bland visuals and sound of the helicopter game with fun and comical ones. And this game is more fun than the helicopter game because of those design choices. However, the shock and awe wears off, and eventually you get used to the design and realize the gameplay is simple and predictable.

This game's true colors lie in its design. Everything is incredibly cutesy and polished. The sky is baby blue, the cliffs are purple, the unicorn's mane and the butterflies are rainbow, and every time the horse jumps, a rainbow appears from where it jumped to where it landed. Everything is sparkly, including the menus, which are also incredibly cutesy. And the music perfectly matches the visuals - one song plays endlessly on loop with a chorus of "Always, I wanna be with you, and make believe with you, and live in harmony, harmony oh love" while you're jumping around. And lets not forget that your 3 lives in the game are called "wishes," and the title screen exclaims "Press Z to make your wishes come true!" In this way, the game has a huge, attractive 'cute factor.'

But this game was made by Adult Swim, so of course it was built to be comical. In fact, the whole game is meant to be a farce. Yes everything is cutesy, but there is a constant juxtaposition between the cute and the hardcore in the game. One easy to see example of this is that you are a robot unicorn, and the game is called robot unicorn attack. In terms of gameplay, nothing is added by the player being a ROBOTIC unicorn, or that the title contains attack, but it's funny to think that there's a cyborg unicorn that attacks things because we always think of cyborgs being tough and scary, and not cute animals like unicorns. Other things that are funny in contrast with the cute elements of the game are the fact that the unicorn explodes and gets decapitated every time you die, and whenever you start a new game there is a random chance the text "You will fail!" or some similar anti-cutesy message will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Overall, this creates a really beautiful looking, comical experience that draws you to play the game over and over again just as much as the actual gameplay. The game's unique character is its strongest point, and the reason it has gotten so popular so quickly.