App of the Week (February 20, 2011): ROBOT 99

Posted by Hetal

Remember waaay back when “family time” centered around a radio? The hub of the household was the radio, as families gathered round to listen to their favorite broadcast.

Nowadays, critics say that our increasingly “plugged in” world of personal tech has vanquished any hopes of communal family bonding. Well, that’s not the case if you have ROBOT 99 for iPad — our latest App of the Week!

The concept of ROBOT 99 – like most great mobile games — is simple: tap the falling robots to open up their parachutes to ensure a soft landing for them before they hit the ground. Touching robots and holding them in the “Powerizona” at the top of the screen multiplies the points you get for “saving” each robot. You can unlock more and more complex levels with each point milestone (2000, 5000, 10,000…) that you pass. Just make sure not to let two robots collide with each other, lest you lose “life” and risk the dreaded “game over” screen.

You could do all this on the iPhone too, but it is on the iPad that ROBOT 99 truly comes to life! Set it down on the coffee table after dinner, gather the kids around, and team up to save the falling robots together. Seriously, you’ll need the extra help in the later, more difficult levels where the robots fall at frantic rates and speeds. The game ingeniously makes use of Corona’s multi-touch and physics engine, so you can have fun stretching your fingers and appendages across the screen to rack up points. If you’ve ever played a board game together as a family, playing ROBOT 99 on iPad together will be a natural transition.

On top of the addictive and teamwork-oriented gameplay, creator Keng-Fu Chu crafted the game with some very exquisite artwork — a trademark of the Taiwanese artist!

So, take a shot at “board games 2.0″ by getting ROBOT 99 at the App Store pronto!