Atomic Robo-Kid

Timed NEC exclusive

Atomic Robo-Kid is a horizontally scrolling shooter released in arcades by UPL. The player controls the titular character through six stages of increasing difficulty, facing an alien "governor" boss (which are so large as to be considered levels in and of themselves, as some of the bosses take up several screens) at the end of each level, followed by a "duel" level against other Robo-Kid sized robots. Many levels branch into others, giving the player the choice over which zone to enter next, increasing replayability.

Released: 1988
Platforms: Amiga Arcade Atari ST Atari ST/STE Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Sega Genesis Sharp X68000 TurboGrafx-16
Genres: Arcade Shooter
Developers: UPL
Publishers: UPL
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E

About

Atomic Robo-Kid is a 1988 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by UPL for arcades. The game was published in North America in February 1989 by Nikom as its only released arcade title. The PC Engine version is an adaptation of the arcade original and published as Atomic Robo-Kid Special.

›Story

In the 21st century, a blast of cosmic radiation bombarded Terra-12, a deep-space outpost of Earth, hideously mutating all transplanted life. A fleet of savage beings followed the radiation wave and invaded the planet and began the systematic destruction of all remaining sentient life. Years of battling the alien 'governors' have gone by, and now only one hope survives to avenge the desperate terran colonists.

Keywords

cyborg
digital distribution

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player controls the titular character through six stages of increasing difficulty, facing an alien "governor" boss (which is so large as to be considered a level in and of themself, as some of the bosses take up several screens) at the end of each level, followed by a "duel" level against other Robo-Kid sized robots. Many levels branch into others, giving the player the choice over which zone to enter next, increasing replayability.

Robo-Kid can collect four different weapons (whichever weapon is selected is lost when Robo-kid loses a life) in addition to his default gun, collect powerups for a shield that activates on enemy contact, plus rapid fire and speed powerups. The player can also encounter a friendly dinosaur-looking robot that sells weapons and shields to Robo-kid using extra lives as currency.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Atomic Robo-Kid on their March 1, 1989 issue as being the eighth-most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

Legacy

The game was released by Hamster Corporation (its current rights owner) as part of their Arcade Archives series on the PlayStation 4 in 2016 and Nintendo Switch in 2018.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Arcade	1 November 1988	Japan
TurboGrafx-16	13 January 1990	Japan
Sega Genesis	1 October 1990	North America · Japan 14 December 1990
Sharp X68000	20 December 1990	Japan
Amiga	31 December 1990	Europe
Atari ST/STE	31 December 1990	Europe