Flash game freebie: Give Up, Robot

You know a game is awesome when you’ve just died about a hundred times in the last five minutes but still want to keep on pushing forward to beat the next level, or when the jittery on-screen flashing reaches seizure-inducing levels of crazy but you still can’t look away. With its psychedelic retro style, solid grappling action, and twitch-inducing puzzle gameplay, Give Up, Robot is that kind of game – as much as it brutalizes you for playing, you simply won’t want to stop.

Woken up from a peaceful slumber by a borderline psychotic, passive aggressive computer overlord, the titular robot protagonist in Give Up, Robot is sent on a suicide mission to test a series of trauma-inducing psychedelic obstacles courses. Armed with only a grappling hook, you have to run, jump, and swing through sadistically designed stages laden with death pits, electrified blocks that fry you at the slightest touch, and moving platforms that make your task of surviving all the more challenging. While some stages are basic and can be easily completed with a few quick moves, others are trap-ridden pits of despair designed to confuse and torture you.

Adding insult to injury, every time you die – and you will quite die often – your invisible computer overseer fires off a humorous snide comment. Insults like “you will never win, robot,” and “give up, robot,” are mingled with sarcastic jabs of “super job, robot” and head-scratching additions like “I love you, robot.” Weird stuff. Play it on Adult Swim's games sitehere.

May 13, 2010

I'm a freelance writer and game journalist with a love of all things gaming and geeky.