Robo Army (Neo Geo AES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of SNK's 1991 beat' em up for the Neo Geo AES, Robo Army.

Played through on the normal difficulty level with Maxima.

Robo Army was one of SNK's earlier beat 'em ups for the Neo Geo platform, and though it'll probably never be considered one of the machine's defining titles, it certainly knows how to entertain.

You can't fault SNK for their creativity when it comes to games like Robo Army, since its completely outlandish plot line and scenario is part of what makes the game so memorable. Dr. Jeed, a scientist from Neo-Detroit, kidnaps Maxima and Rocky, two cyborg police officers. They manage to escape, and of course, feel compelled to fell the mad scientist's nefarious plot by set about destroying everything in sight. I won't spoil it, but it has some hilarious "plot" twists.

Robo Army is a belt-scrolling beat 'em up like Final Fight or Sengoku, and gameplay largely consists of walking from the left to the right, punching everything until it dies or explodes. The fun twist here is that your cyber-cops can turn into cars, Transformers style. And for some reason, they look just like Sophia from Blaster Master. Go figure. You can just pick up cars and throw them at the enemies of you prefer. Either tactic is effective. The game is fairly difficult - enemies can take out massive chunks of your health in one hit, and you have to be careful about your rhythm and attack timings, but it's pretty manageable after a few games.

The graphics really helped to sell the game back in 1991, and the look does enough to set it apart still. The enemy designs are fantastic - many of they remind me a lot of the gross corruptions from Mutation Nation, but you get the added variety of a lot more robots thrown in this time as well. Cars suddenly stand up, sprout appendages and attack, a robot gorilla that fills half the screen oversees cells full of human prisoners - the sheer outlandishness of it all gives it a distinct personality. I loved the look. The sound is about as good - it's full of strange voice samples and some music that rocks surprisingly hard for such an early game. Of course, good luck hearing it - most of the time you'll be hearing the sounds of your metal limbs clanging against everything alongside some announcer incessantly yelling out "Cyberball!!"

Overall, Robo Army is a fun and ridiculous take on the beat 'em up that fans of 90s arcade games should enjoy. Even better, it's available on all of the major consoles thanks to Hamster's ACA series. After beating it countless times on the Switch, I figured it was about time to upload a video.

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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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