ROBO

ROBO (Also known as ROBO: Employee of the Month! in Japan and Robo Blaster in Europe) is a 2D action platformer developed by Stardust Citadel and published by Nintendo in June 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the debut title for Stardust Citadel, previously known as Sigma Concepts, a group of Commodore 64 game developers. The game features Robo, a cyborg citizen who works as a janitor in a big company who seeks promotion and sees his opportunity when he discovers the rival company is planning to sabotage his company. Robo goes on an adventure to save his company and get his promotion.
The game was released in June for United States, Japan, and Europe. Despite not having an official release, Robo was pretty common to find the cartridge in Australian stores. The game was very successful in the critical and sales departments, earning high scores from Japanese and American critics and selling very well in those countries, although the game was had average success in Europe.
Robo was first released for the NES and it was later released for the Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. A Game Boy port was released a few months after the original NES version.
==Development==
The team behind the development of ROBO is composed of ex-members of the Commodore 64 game developer Sigma Concepts. The concept of a platformer came from after the success of Super Mario Bros. and various attempts were made to replicate the smooth scrolling and power up mechanics from that game in the Commodore 64, which resulted in failure. From 1986 to 1988, a total of ten prototypes were made. Eventually, the team figured out that they would only possibly replicate the features of Super Mario Bros. in the NES itself, although the CEO of Sigma Concepts found the cost of the licensing of the NES development kit to be too much of a risk and requested that the team continued trying. This led to some members quitting the team and forming Stardust Citadel with their own funds.
A prototype for the NES began development soon after the acquirement of a development kit. The new prototype utilized ideas of the Commodore 64 prototypes, including a cyborg protagonist and a futuristic setting. However, the developers noticed a huge amount of futuristic action games already available for the system, such as Street Fighter 2010 and Mega Man and wanted to do something different with the setting in hand. The suggestion of turning the cyborg into a janitor was a joke thrown in by one of the developers but the rest of the team decided to further expand on this idea.
After taking a look at the many popular games at the time and taking notes to what made them famous, the developers noticed a lack of personality in many of the protagonists. In the classic NES games, the protagonists barely showed any emotion. The team wanted to create a character that would showcase his personality through out gameplay by showcasing different emotions during certain events. This led and the aforementioned janitor joke, pretty much created the Robo character as we know.
Having a pitch ready, the team seek out to have Nintendo to publish the game. Nintendo were reportedly very interested in the project and decided to fund and publish the game. The game was first announced to public through Nintendo Power Issue #8, in a short mention in the Previews section. Notably, the issue includes an early image of the game featuring an early design of the main character. According to the developers, it was a placeholder design meant to have "something to show to the public". The game was meant to be released in November 1989, however inner struggle led to some problems in the game's production and the next time the game was shown to public, it was said that the release date was unconfirmed.
In an interview, one of the developers stated that the delay was caused due some inner conflict of whenever or not the game should instead be remade to the soon to be released Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The team attempted to prototype the game on the Super Nintendo, although project leader Sid Colin stated that the production on the NES version would continue as they have already gone over the budget and that version was almost completed. The aforementioned developer, Lawrie Laurie, stated that this debacle had gone on for six months or so.
The public became aware of ROBO once again through Nintendo Power V12, which showed a preview of an almost finished version of the game, including several details of the game and a release date. The decision to release the game first in Japan was a choice by Nintendo, who thought that the game would fare better in that region due the game's more comedic approach. The game was translated into Japanese by Shichirou Yuuki and the translation process occurred alongside the game development. This ensured that the game would be already available for the Japanese market, although the Japanese version of the game lacks a detailed ending and it features bugs not found in the other versions of the game. The European version was developed by a group of four developers who translated and converted the game to the PAL format.
==Story==
ROBO's story is told through the cutscenes in the game before and after boss battles, as well in the introduction and ending. ROBO tells the story of a cybernetic citizen Robo whom, despite his incredible knowledge, is a janitor working at Delta Corp. Dreaming of having a higher position, Robo tries everything to please his boss and get his promotion, but every time the boss doesn't give his promotion. While cleaning up the entrance one day, Robo notices a group of people from the rival company, Sigma Corp., looking around the Delta Corp building suspiciously. Robo looks around to see if anyone is watching him and when he notices that there isn't anyone watching him, he leaves the building and investigates the people... only to be captured by purple cyborgs (purple being the color of Sigma Corp.'s logo).
After escaping, Robo eavesdrops in a conversation in which two members of Sigma Corp discusses their plan to sabotage Delta Corp. At first, he is worried about his job in Delta Corp. in case Sigma Corp. manages to complete their plan but he notices this is a good opportunity to get his promotion at Delta Corp by saving the company. He bursts out of prison and goes to find the ones that are planning the attack.
He first encounters Assistant Manager Marius (Kakaricho O. Tezuka in the Japanese version) and demands answers. Marius is confused as he is unaware of who Robo is and why he should give the information. Robo doesn't find a good comeback and the two are left staring at each other for a few, awkward seconds. Marius then notices the Delta Corp. symbol on Robo and pieces the information together. He summons a mecha to fight against Robo, which Robo manages to defeat rather easily. Marius escapes but not before leaving an important piece of information regarding the remaining staff involved in the sabotage plan. Robo utilizes his knowledge to track them down.
The player can pick which one they want to fight next: Manager Sulla (Kacho Y. Tomino in the Japanese version), General Manager Radius (Jicho M. Yuki in the Japanese version), Department Head Primus (Bucho G. Nagai in the Japanese Version), Managing Director Helena (Jomu S. Kawamori in the Japanese version) and Executive Director Damon (Senmu K. Tagauchi in the Japanese version). Defeating one of them will give the player a hint on how to defeat the next one and after defeating the last one, the player will be informed about the headquarters of Sigma Corp.
At the Sigma Corp Headquarters, Robo reveals to the CEO of Sigma Corp, Adam Link (Kaicho H. Sasagawa in the Japanese version) that he is aware of his plans to sabotage Delta Corp and he orders that he stops his plans. Link instead replies "Good." and activate his plan earlier than intended. He transforms the headquarters into a fortress and sends a nuclear missile towards Delta Corp. Robo is informed that he only has one hour to stop the missile and defeat Adam Link before the missile hits. Before that, he has to go through his fortress and fight the President Gnut (Shacho Y. Arato in the Japanese Version) and Vice Chairman Jay Score (Fuku-Kaicho S. Ishinomori in the Japanese version). After defeating them, Robo has to defeat the boss himself, Link.
There are four possible endings in the game, three considered good and one considered bad. The three good endings require Robo to defeat Link and depending on how much time is remaining by the time that he defeats Link, a different ending will play. If Robo defeats Link with 30 minutes remaining, Robo will return to his job with a smug look on his face and claim he saved the company, while the other employees don't know what he is talking about. If Robo defeats Link with 15 minutes remaining, Robo will return to his job and get promoted to Head of Delta Corp. Cleaning Department, which only includes himself as part of the staff. If Robo defeats Link with 5 minutes remaining, Robo will return to his job and get promoted to Manager, which is considered the golden ending of the game.
A fourth ending can only be acquired if the time runs out during the Link battle, in this ending, Robo will notice that time has run out and he looks outside and sees the missile hitting the company building. Before the explosion occurs, the game shifts to a picture of Robo saying "Whoops." and a game over appears.
In the Japanese version, the only possible ending is the Head of Cleaning Department ending, as that version is based off an earlier version of the game.
==Gameplay==
The gameplay of ROBO is fairly simple. As a basic 2D platformer, the goal is usually just to get to the end of the stage and fight the boss before clearing the level. However, Robo himself is not a combat oriented robot and as such, he is weak at the start of the level, being somewhat slow and not able to defeat enemies. This is where the gears comes in, in each level there is gears all around, each one with it's unique color. Red Gears are used to power up Robo and give him the ability to jump on enemies or shoot them through rapid-fire projectiles or charged shots. Blue Gears are used to give Robo more health, not only healing him but also giving him one more heart. Robo can have a total of 6 hearts and he starts out with three. Yellow Gears are for Speed, increasing Robo's mobility around the stage. There is also Grey Gears, which are rare and difficult to find, but power up every ability at once. Rainbow Gears only appears in certain sections of each stage and makes Robo invincible for a short time.
Robo can visit a shop between stages where he can utilize the bolts that he collects around the stages to buy permanent upgrades to make levels easier. Robo can also buy extra lives here, although at a very high cost. The shopkeeper can also give hints on how to defeat bosses and certain enemies, at a small price for sure. If Robo is attacked with a gear, he loses that gear, although he can recover before the gear vanishes.
After beating the game once, the player unlocks Hard Mode, in which the shop is gone and gears become harder to find. Enemies and bosses health stays the same, although with the rarity of gears now, they are more challenging to fight against. This mode is unavailable in the original Japanese version.
The game includes a Party Mode up to four players where they compete in four minigames for the highest score. The first minigame is a fruit collecting game, where the player has to collect fruits and dodge rocks, if they collect the rocks they lose points. The second minigame is a space shooter, to which the one that defeats all the enemies on the screen first wins, the third is a Simon Says-like the game, in which the last man standing wins and the fourth and last one is an obstacle course. In this mode, the other players control differently colored versions of Robo.
==Characters==
Not counting the bosses, there are only 4 characters in ROBO.
Character	Description
Robo 	The main protagonist and player one in the Party Mode.
Roberto 	Player two in the Party Mode. A blue version of Robo.
Robella 	Player three in the Party Mode. A pink version of Robo.
Robin 	Player four in the Party Mode. A red version of Robo.
==Stages==
Stage 	Description
Filthy Fields	The first stage of the game, a grass land covered by junk. Serves as the tutorial stage, teaching the player the basics of the game. The boss of this stage is Assistant Manager Marius.
After completing Filthy Fields, the player can pick one of 5 stages.
Stage 	Description
Sewer Swim 	An underground sewer level, where the first half is a normal platformer stage and the second is an underwater stage. The boss of this stage is Manager Sulla.
Terror Train 	An auto scroller haunted train level. The first half takes place inside the train while the second takes place on the top of it. The boss of this stage is General Manager Radius.
Chocolate Castle	A dessert-themed castle level. The first half of the stage is a climb to the top of the tower while the second half takes place the hallway to the throne room. The boss of this stage is Department Head Primus.
Disco Desert 	A desert stage with disco lights. The first half is the desert itself, while the second half is a deserted disco club. The boss of this stage is Managing Director Helena.
Purple Planet 	A science museum stage. The first half takes place in the entrance of the museum and the second half takes place inside the planetarium with the title sake purple planet. The boss of this stage is Executive Director Damon.
After completing all the aforementioned stages, the last stage unlocks Sigma Corp. HQ. This stage is broken up into three acts.
Stage	Description
Act 1	A boss rush against the previously fought bosses, only now they have new tricks on their sleeves.
Act 2	A boss rush against President Gnut and Vice Chairman Jay Score.
Act 3	A battle against Adam Link.
The last level is timed, although once the player reaches Act 3 it is stated that due lack of budgets and a planning oversight, the missile is going to hit the building 30 minutes later than intended. This gives the player extra 30 minutes to fight Adam Link.
==Items==
There are two types of items in ROBO.
Item 	Description
Gears	Gears can upgrade and fix Robo. They can be found by defeating enemies or around the stage. There are five kinds of gears:
Red Gears: Increases Robo's offensive capabilities. One gear gives him the ability to defeat enemies by jumping on team, two gears gives the ability to shoot projectiles and three gears gives the ability to charge a projectile.
Blue Gears: Increases Robo's defensive capabilities, by fixing all his damage and giving him one more heart.
Yellow Gears: Increases Robo's speed.
Grey Gears: Increase all of Robo's abilities at once.
Rainbow Gears: Turns Robo invincible for a short time.
Bolts	Currency in the Robo world. The player can find bolts by defeating enemies or around the stage. There is three kinds of bolts:
Small Bolt: Worth 1 bolt.
Big Bolt: Worth 10 bolts.
Golden Bolt: Worth 100 bolts. Can only be got from Gold Diggers.
==Enemies==
ROBO has 8 types of enemies.
Enemy 	Description
Chaser 	Indentifiable by their slim body and mustache. They only appear in the platformer sections. Comes in three variations:
Basic: Weak versions of Chasers, slow and can be defeated by jumping on it or shooting at it.
Upgraded: Golden colored Chasers, faster and can only be defeated by shooting at it.
Rare: Black colored Chasers, the fastest of them all and can only be defeated by a charged shot. Has a chance of dropping a Grey Gear once defeated.
Can 	Small enemies, whom often disguise themselves as part of the scenery. They only appear in the platformer sections. Comes in two variations:
Plastic Garbage Can: Slow and weak. Can be defeated easily.
Metal Garbage Can: Fast and with upgraded defenses. Can only be defeated by shooting at it.
Drones 	Flying enemies who only comes in one variation. They are weak but they are fast so it might be difficult to hit them with the jump and it is easier with the weapon. They only appear in the platformer sections.
Mutant Garbage	Living, mutant garbage. It attacks the player underwater. Since the player can't jump underwater, it can only be defeated by shooting at it. They only appear in the underwater sections.
Mutant Eels 	Gigantic eels with sharp teeth. They don't hurt the player, but stuns them leaving them open for attacks. They only appear in the underwater sections.
Robot Gunner 	Can appear both on platforming sections and underwater. Comes in two variations:
Robot Gunslinger: Comes with a pistol. The projectile is fast but there is a delay between shots. It can be defeated rather easily and it has a decent chance of dropping a red gear once defeated.
Robot Sniper: Shoots fast and can be dangerous but the shot itself is rather predictable. It cannot be defeated as once the player gets close to the enemy, it runs away.
Gold Digger 	Non offensive enemies. They can spawn out of nowhere holding a Golden Bolt (which is the equivalent of 500 bolts). It is rather fast, so the player needs to catch it before it either falls on a stage hazard or it disappears off screen.
Obor 	A Robo clone that copies his moves. Only appears in the Sigma Corp. HQ and it is invincible. The only way to defeat it is to make it drop in a pit.
==Bosses==
ROBO has 8 bosses.
Boss 	Normal Mode 	Hard Mode
Assistant Manager Marius	The player battle Marius with him inside a mecha. The player cannot damage the mecha itself but the battle is easy, only requiring Robo to jump on the shiny OFF button on the back of the mecha. The mecha attacks by slamming itself against Robo and shooting wildly. 	The battle is the same with the exception of the OFF button. The player now has to hit Marius himself after the mecha attempts to slam Robo and leaves itself open for attack.
Manager Sulla 	With the battle being underwater, the boss battle plays similar to a horizontal shooter, Sulla will swim around shooting various projectiles at the player while she has mutant eels around her. Shooting the eels will make her vulnerable to be attacked. 	Same deal, only this time, she summons another circle of eels after she is shot.
General Manager Radius 	The battle against Radius is rather easy, Radius himself only has a sword that can absorb projectiles, when he rises the sword upwards, it absorbs the electricity and even the player's own projectiles and shoots back at the player. Other than that, he either jumps to the other side of the screen if the player gets close or dashes to the other side after some time. He is vulnerable every time his sword isn't raised.	Same deal, although his pattern is faster and more unpredictable. Additionally, he can use the sword attack three times in a row.
Department Head Primus 	The battle against Primus takes place in a dark room, in which Primus posseses objects and throws at the player. When the lights come up, he is visible and open to be attacked, although the room will go dark after a while. 	This time the lights won't come back up and the player instead have to guess where Primus is hiding and shoot at it. His position is usually given away by a small cloud of dirt that he leaves once he escapes from one point to the another or a sound effect related to the location where he is hiding.
Managing Director Helena	The boss battle against Helena is at the disco dance floor, where Helena is at a place to high to Robo to reach and all that Helena does is laughs and send mooks at the player. The player has to jump on the mooks to get high enough to hit Helena. 	There is two Helenas now, one being the real one and the other being an illusion. The player has to figure out which one is which.
Executive Director Damon	The boss battle against Damon takes place in a theather stage. There are three doors and Damon is hiding behind one of them and the other two have random enemies. The player has to find which one is Damon hiding and hit him once he appears. 	Same thing with the Helena boss fight, there is now a Damon illusion.
President Gnut 	Gnut attacks by firing his machine gun or trying to slam Robo against the wall. When he is firing his machine gun or picking up speed to slam Robo, he is invincible, otherwise he is vulnerable to be attacked. Unlike other bosses, Gnut takes 6 hits to be defeated. 	Gnut can throw grenades on Hard Mode too. Other than that, it is the same fight.
Vice Chairman Jay Score 	This boss battle takes place in a football field. Jay is invincible to any attack of Robo's, although he can be pushed away if hit by Robo's bullets. The player has to push Jay to the goal 3 times to win. Jay attacks by kicking footballs at the player, which have an unpredictable pattern. 	This boss battle isn't changed for Hard Mode.
Chairman Adam Link 	This boss battle reutilizes the patterns of the other bosses. Link can change patterns and the player becomes aware of this on the monitor in his room showcasing from which boss he is using the pattern from. 	In Normal and Hard Mode, Link will utilize the patterns from the bosses on Hard Mode, although in Normal, every form can only take one hit while in Hard, it is the normal 3 hits.
==Release==
===Marketing===
Commercials for ROBO started to appear around early June 1990, which would feature an animated version of Robo recreating events in the game alongside gameplay footage on it, set to the tune of Styx's 1983 hit Mr. Roboto. This wouldn't be the first time Nintendo promoted a video game utilizing hit songs, a Dr. Mario commercial utilized David Seville's 1958 hit Witch Doctor. A different ad was shown for the Japanese market, featuring a super deformed version of the character, showcasing an abridged version of the game's plot.
The game was featured in Nintendo Power V12, showcasing many details of the game to the public. Early review copies were given to Famitsu and EGM a few days before the release of the game.
===Reception===
ROBO received positive reviews from critics at the time. Reviewers praised the game's unique style and humor as well it's tight controls, although some found the game to be hard thanks to its gear mechanic and found the game to lack replayability. Additionally, critics also noted that the multiplayer, while decent in its own right, was very lackluster. In Europe, the game was received with average reviews.
The Game Boy version received average to positive reviews, with critics praising the game being a faithful port to a less powerful system although feeling that the game lost it's visual charm on the transition to the Game Boy system. Asmik's 1992 rerelease was met with positive reviews from Japanese critics, praising the game for fixing the flaws of the original version although they noted that it was released at the worst time possible, as the Super Famicom had already been released and the Famicom was more or less forgotten by the public at the time.
===Sales===
According to Stardust Citadel, the game sold around two hundred copies worldwide in it's original run, with an additional eight thousand copies of the Game Boy port. Additionally, Asmik have stated that the International Edition managed to sell around five hundred copies in Japan.
==Rereleases==
===ROBO: Employee of the Month! ~International Edition~===
Nintendo's publishing deal with Stardust Citadel was only for one game and Stardust Citadel decided to sign deals with two other companies to publish their games: Asmik in Japan and Tradewest for USA and Europe. Additionally, Asmik also received the rights to produce ROBO games in Japan, as a move by Stardust Citadel to capitalize the series's popularity over there. Asmik's first ROBO game was a rerelease of the English version of ROBO for Japan, since the original Japanese version was based off an earlier, glitchier version.
International Edition was released in 1992, two years after the release of the Super Famicom over there. Despite that, the game was a mild success and it was rereleased for the Wii Virtual Console in 2006. Something to note is that International Edition was retranslated from scratch by Naoki Shinobu (whom would later translate all the other ROBO games up until 2006) and it is a more faithful translation to the original English version, although it removes the mecha references included by Shichirou Yuuki.
===Wii U/3DS Virtual Console===
While the Wii Virtual Console version utilized Asmik's ROBO International Edition, the Wii U and 3DS were also based off that version but the game utilized the translation of the game written by Shichirou Yuuki for the original Japanese version of the game.
===Game Boy Version===
ROBO was ported to the Game Boy three months after it's NES release. In this version, the dialogue before and after bosses is removed, as are the hints in the shop. The gears now have a symbol on them instead of being different colored, to make it easier to distinguish on the limited color palette. However, the rest of the port is faithful to the original NES version.
This would be the first game published by Tradewest and Asmik, the latter would only release this version in 1991 for that region. This version was planned to be released for the 3DS Virtual Console, but considering the fact that the NES version was already available, it was deemed unnecessary to release this version.
==Gallery==
BlueGearRobo.png|A blue gear.
RoboChaser.png|Basic Chaser, a weak enemy.
HelenaRobo.png|Managing Director Helena, one of the game's bosses
==Trivia==
*There's a lot of references to works featuring robots in ROBO.
**The six bosses the player fights before the entering the Sigma Corp building are named after the robots in the play R.U.R. (Russom's Universal Robots), which is the play that popularized the term "robot".
**The bosses in the Sigma Corp. building, Adam Link, Gnut and Jay Score are named after characters from the books I, Robot, Farewell to the Master and Astounding Science Fiction respectively.
**In the Japanese version, the bosses are named after mecha manga writers.
Category:NES Games
Category:1990
Category:Game Boy Games
Category:Wii Games
Category:Wii U Games
Category:Nintendo 3DS Games
Category:2D Games
Category:2D Platforming Games
Category:Platforming Games
Category:Stardust Citadel