What’s better than robots? Robots and aliens that’s what, and guess who’s got ’em combined in one game? Spare Parts does, that’s who. Spare Parts is about two robots Mar-T and Chip, (way to meet the stereotype) who are stranded on large junkyard planet. Trying to find a way off the planet Mar-T and Chip find an abandoned broken down spaceship with an A.I. named Con-Rad who’s voiced by Shawn of the Dead’s Simon Pegg. In order to get off the planet Con-Rad sends our the adventurous robots across the planet in search for missing parts of the ship.
Spare Parts looks like a great game, beautifully colored and modeled. Levels and characters have so much depth, each with their own different design. Water effects, fire effects, and electrical effects in the game look amazing. The cartoonish colors, and very friendly design of the characters gears this game to a younger crowd, which I most likely think that Bright Light designed the game towards. The only real downfall of the design is camera controls, the lack of different angles of the camera makes jumping some obstacles difficult or finding certain objects a challenge especially in co-op mode.
The game was originally designed with co-op mode in mind. With the limited range of camera panning and lack of camera controls, I’m not exactly sure how well the game was planned out. Countless times I found either myself or partner dying from either falling off ledges or going off screen where you slowly lose health and die. Luckily there’s no set amount of lives to run out of, instead the only penalty of dying is a reduction of collected coins you already have. Also players are able to drop in and drop out of game without really interrupting the action, which means any random player can join in and kill you multiple times on purpose or help you out. Just know that it can go both ways.
Although there are problems with the camera, the controls on the other hand are great. Button mashing to attack, itchy trigger finger to throw a barrage of junk at enemies, or set up your own combo to get through the swarm of enemies. The only thing that I really wish they added into the game was a lock on target button. Outside of single player mode I didn’t have any problems, but as soon as you have a friend playing with you it’s a all out slug fest.
Spare Parts is definitely a game for kids and the people who have an itch for collecting everything in a game. Not only are there parts for the ship to collect but there are upgrades for Mar-T and Chip to collect as well. In fact most of the parts for Mar-T and Chip are needed to collect all the ships parts, so replaying past stages will be a must. All the while, there are some nice tid bits that the developers have thrown in for some amusement like dancing robots who actually break dance. Also if you can’t already tell this game is pretty fun to play and for it only being $10 you get your money worth. If you have kids then this would be a great buy for them, but if you’re a more mature gamer I’d have to say pass.
Overall = 7.0
