The plot of Robocalypse is a bit silly, sure, but it's also brought to you by one of the writers on the Spongebob series. There's a lot of tongue in cheek humor, and you play the part of a geeky builder who ends up putting the brainwaves of old WWII vets into the bodies of robots to battle it out against the main bad guy. The story does have some funny bits, but it also falls a little flat at times, but at least it doesn't take itself all that seriously. There's some cutscenes in between levels, played out in small animated bits, but they don't take up a lot of time, and they're definitely not long enough to really break up the core gameplay, so they won't kill you to sit thru a couple minutes of story.

The gameplay, on the other hand, will definitely frustrate you. Like I mentioned earlier, this is an RTS game, and to a certain extent Warcraft III fans are going to be a bit familiar with the rules here. There's resource gathering, two types, batteries and metal, which you'll need to create the factories that will build your robot army, and you'll also need the materials to build the actual robots. There are caps in place to keep your army under a certain size, and then there are various resource hubs and bases scattered about a map that you can take under your control simply by having personnel close by. Each map features certain objectives, most of which will have you wiping out the other enemy, along with secondary objectives that are mostly optional. Along with your basic robot units, of which there are a few varieties, there are hero units, which are the robots that boast the brainpower of the WWII vets. These hero units allow the player to have direct control over them, choosing where to move them, when to use their different special powers, and who they can attack.

On the other hand, placing flags around the map moves the basic units, and putting one down causes them to patrol a particular area. You can also mark enemy units to be attacked, or buildings that you want defended. However, this system is also where the game has some serious issues, and since it's hard to control all the available units at once and have them take the same path to an intended location, they'll often split up and go their own way. Sure, they'll make it to where they need to go eventually, but along the way it's easy for them to run into enemy patrols or enemy bases, and if they're split into two or more groups, they're typically going to end up underpowered for the confrontation. You can try and re-rally the troops to help them out, but chances are they're not going to make it in time, leaving your once sizable and impressive force whittled away by the randomness of the AI. You can try and place the flags in closer positions, which does help to alleviate the random path taking, but it also makes the gameplay much more tedious to go through. The only real solution I found was with one of the hero units, who has a power that allows him to create a formation of units around him. It seems that his power would be better suited to be a default ability for all the hero units, allowing them to keep the basic units in place and together to help prepare your assaults.

Still, if you can get by that issue, and you don't mind babysitting your soldiers, I think you'll enjoy Robocalypse. It's a really solid attempt at bringing an RTS over to the DS, and I'm glad to get a chance to check it out, but I do wish that I could get past the issues I have with the AI. It's definitely worth a rental though, as these problems might not bother you nearly as much as they do me, and I hope to see a sequel or a new RTS from the developers in the near future that hopefully irons out some of the kinks.