Robots once started out as man's helpers, but as time has gone on, being a simple helper isn't good enough, because now they must be designed as killing machines able to do our every whim. Along comes RoboBlitz, a game in which you are a helper robot, but soon finds itself taking up arms and fighting it out with pirate robots. See, we keep creating, and it always leads to destruction. Perhaps a future envisioned by The Matrix isn't so far off.

In the game, you play as Blitz, the helper droid in question who looks a bit like any number of the droids you'd find in the Star Wars saga, though what makes Blitz unique is that rolling marble he is balanced on. While talking with the robotic professor in his underground lair, the space station you are on has been rocketed by space pirates, and they are sending in specially designed boarding droids to do the dirty work for them. As Blitz, the professor tasks you with visiting the six different locations on your ship needed to retaliate back and get rid of the pirates and save yourself.

The six areas of the ship are broken down into three missions per area, which you enable by going up to one of the yellow markers, activating it, and then heading down the tube. Most of the missions and levels are environmental puzzles, where you must figure out what button does what and finding things you can use in other parts of the area. For instance, for your first mission, you'll need to scrap enough metal to build a casing for your weapon's bullets, but to do so you must find scattered barrels about, move them to the scraper, and then dump them in. However, there aren't enough barrels, so you must do battle with pirate robots and use them as scrap.

The enemies are rather easy, even when you only have two arms (weapons) at the beginning of the game. So, say you have a flying robot coming at you, well you can zap it with an EMP blast to fry its circuits temporarily, and then you can pick it up and bash it until it is destroyed. Enemies will usually either roll at you on the ground or fly in the air and shoot at you. Levels also have some pretty hard boss battles, as I've found myself getting killed over and over just because I didn't know what I needed to do. Thankfully, frustration is at a minimum since you can load up a game almost right at the spot you died.

As you go along through the game, you'll run across wrenches that can repair the damage you've taken, or find upgrade coupons that allow you to go back to the professor and have him create a new arm set/weapon for you, such as pulse rifles and rocket launchers. Sadly, you can't save up your coupons to buy weapons you think might be better along the way, because you must buy the weapon presented to you first before you can see what the next one is. The aiming of the third person shooting isn't all that bad, though aiming did falter when you'd think standing in front of a console would allow you to interact with it, but instead you have to be looking down and acknowledging it before it can even be activated.

Blitz, besides his use of weapons, has other moves at his disposal. Blitz can dodge, jump, do a spinning arm attack, pick up objects and enemies with his arms and carry them around or bash them into the ground, and various others. Blitz doesn't control the tightest, due to the ball nature of his movements, but usually he worked how I wanted him to, though inclines often posed problems.

This is easily the best looking game on Xbox Live Arcade, as its use of the Unreal engine is perfect, and some of the sheen from the walls to the grind of cog wields is rendered extremely well. The physics are also something, as they are very life like and react as they would in normal life (except for one instance where I had a barrel, smacked into something, and the next thing I knew the barrel was no longer in my grasp and had completely disappeared).

At 1,200 Xbox Live points (about $15 dollars) RoboBlitz isn't an easy sale; it lacks that all encompassing factor that anyone who plays the game could pickup and enjoy. If you liked the environmental physics puzzles of Half-Life 2 or the puzzles of an Oddworld or such, then RoboBlitz would probably be a game that would please you rather easily. As for everyone else, heck, it doesn't hurt anything to download a trial and give it a shot. If you are in the frame of mind to do action adventure puzzles, RoboBlitz could be the teaser you are looking for.

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