An action platformer starring a pair of colourful robots may not sound particularly revolutionary, but it does sound like fun, right? After all, who hasn’t pretended to be a robot at some stage in their life? (Think about whether you have done the robot dance before you answer ‘no’.) Unfortunately, fun is not on the menu. Another ‘f’ word, ‘frustration’ (I don’t know what you were thinking) is the dish being served up (and shoved down your throat).
Right from the get go, Spare Parts feels like children’s game, which is, of course, perfectly fine. However, you find yourself wondering why EA forked out the big bucks to cast Simon Pegg as the voice of a space ship. Unless today’s children have traded The Wiggles for Shaun of the Dead, they’ll have no idea who this second rate Mr Squiggle impersonator is. Furthermore, even the very young are likely to find the humour silly, the controls overly simple and the achievements ridiculously easy to attain.
Within minutes of loading, you’re enduring the first of many explanations of the bleeding obvious. As soon as you stoop to collect your first coin, the ship halts you in your tracks and explains that “you’ve found some coins”. Thank you Captain Obvious. Soon thereafter, it waits until you’re waist deep in quicksand before telling you watch your step.
One positive is the variety on offer during the first third of the game. Each environment requires a slightly different approach. In one level, you’re jumping from raft to raft whilst trying to negotiate a raging rapid. In another, you’re trying to resist a mud flow as you fend off a horde of attackers. Sadly, the level design soon becomes as drab and repetitive as the core gameplay.
The enemies are painfully easy to overcome. You’re never forced to vary your approach to any significant degree. Even as your opponents become slightly tougher, they simply require more time to wear down. You could blunder through large sections of the game blindfolded by moving to the right and mashing the buttons occasionally. Some boss encounters require you to shift objects or hammer weak points, but not with any logic. You have to guess rather than figure out what to do. What exactly is the point of all this?
The inclusion of two player co-op should improve matters. If anything it does quite the opposite. The robots look remarkably similar, so much so that you often lose track of which one is which. You may think you’re kicking butt, but you’re actually blundering off the edge of a cliff, which is quite amusing… once.
The power ups are decent but definitely not used to their fullest potential. As you advance throughout the campaign, you pick up special items that allow you to smash your way into new areas or scale vertical surfaces. However, you can only use these abilities when the game permits. For instance, the rocket boots allow you to fly, but because the developers don’t want you to have this level of autonomy, you’re constantly prevented from accessing areas that should be within your reach.
Spare Parts attempts to be simple and engaging, but is instead boring and repetitive. The game manages to take the fun out of robots and that is quite an achievement.
