Twin Robots review for PS Vita, PS4, Switch

Platform: PS Vita
Also On: PC, PS4, Wii U, Switch
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developer: Thinice/Ratalaika
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-2
Online: No
ESRB: E

Twin Robots has a pretty interesting backstory: it was originally released on the Ouya back in 2014, and over the ensuing years the game wound its way through mobile devices, the Wii U, PC, Switch, PS4 and the Vita. If nothing else, the game has proven to be durable.

Unfortunately, that backstory is pretty much the only thing about Twin Robots that could be described as interesting. Otherwise, it?s just your standard co-op platformer where you?re controlling a pair of robots, helping them escape some sort of lab over the course of 28 levels.

Even though the game is short, it doesn?t take long for Twin Robots to feel like it falls into a rut, largely because all the levels feel so similar. They may be laid out a little differently, and they may get progressively more difficult, but the set-up always repeats itself: one robot is trapped in a tube, the other one has to find the switch that opens the tube, and then, ideally, both of them exit the level together.

The good news is that, within its limited scope, Twin Robots is perfectly fine. The controls are as precise as they need to be for a moderately tough platformer, with jumps that fall just shy of feeling a little floaty, and…well, that?s about all there is to judge here, since the game isn?t very demanding. My only real complaint — beyond the repetitiveness — is that the levels don?t automatically restart when your lead robot falls into one of the many death traps littered throughout the game.

As complaints go, that?s obviously not a very big one. But Twin Robots doesn?t operate on a scale that allows for massive screw-ups. It?s not particularly ambitious, which means that it neither wows you, nor does it ever run the risk of mind-blowingly bad. It?s worth checking out if you need an average platformer, but don?t expect to be thinking about it beyond the few hours it?ll take you to beat it.

Ratalaika Games provided us with a Twin Robots PS Vita code for review purposes.

Grade: B-