Over 1 billion tablets to be in use by 2017
A mobile analyst firm is forecasting that more than one billion tablets would be in use globally by the end of 2017.
Alex Walls
May 1, 2013
Robot Unicorn Attack 2
Adult Swim
Free on Apple iOS
Oh Adult Swim, you had me at ‘Robot Unicorn’.
It didn’t seem possible for the cartoon channel for grown ups to get any cooler, but I have since stumbled upon the sequel to the platform scroller, Robot Unicorn Attack.
While the original cost £0.69, the sequel is free and involves dashing, leaping and galloping your way up the points ladder, collecting fairies and tear-drop gems while ‘dashing’ through frozen stars and giants, and leaping through rainbow coloured hoops.
You play as a customizable robot unicorn. Let’s just take a moment to admire that sentence right there.
At any rate, the more tear-drops you collect and the more achievements you gain (such as dashing through a certain number of stars) unlocks different ranks (so far there’s been Celestial Mare, Lunar Star Dancer and Robot Dasher among others) and you can purchase the tear-drops in game if you wish.
Customising your unicorn (with things like ‘Unicornium Wings’ and ‘Flame of the Forge horn’) improves your performance and according to the load screen, will make your dreams come true. After unlocking certain ranks, you have to choose which team you want to play for online – Team Inferno (flame licking from eye sockets) or Team Rainbow (rainbow mane, vague aura of purple sagacity).
Guess which team I went for.
Ranks also mean you can unlock different worlds; the default is a candy floss pink world of rock plains, pastel colours and silver rocks and soaring space whales (I’m not kidding). Try not to get distracted by the levitating leviathan (I’m here ’til Friday, try the veal) because smashing into the platforms means your robotic head flies at the screen, devoid of skin, and the game is over.
You get three ‘wishes’, or tries, before your final score is tallied and you can use your tear-drops to buy ‘boosters’ such as the ability to attract tear-drops towards you etc.
You can choose to buy music to play with your game, including Always by Erasure, the song that came with the first game, or Never Ending Story by Limahl which is highly appropriate. Or, you can mute the sound and play with whichever tracks you like from your music library, although 80s music most certainly fits the game best.
The game features pop up ads in between load screens which are annoying and like any platform scroller/endless runner, playing through the same start screen over and over can get boring. However unlocking ranks happens fairly frequently and customising your unicorn helps break up the boredom.
The humour inherent in most things Adult Swim is laced throughout the game all though there were fewer LOL moments than I expected. But around every corner, there’s a gem, so it’s worth playing through to spot the metallic dolphins or the exhortations such as ‘Be the wind beneath your wings…’
In a world of My Little Bronies, it’s nice to know this game can appeal to all; besides, who doesn’t like Robot Unicorns? The only better animal game would be to make a cyborg gryphon murder detective RPG (eeeeeeeep!)