Robotron vs. Black Widow - my critique

Robochronic

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Ok, as a fan of Robotron and color vectors, I was psyched to pick up a BW (even tho' I had never played the game) since the two games are often compared due to having the same dual-joy controls (thanks to Eugene Jarvis's motorcycle accident?) Having had a few days to play BW, I'm definitely hooked and offer the following comparison of the two:

* Same controls but the burst firing on BW (similar to Tempest) requires you to be a bit more selective/restrained in shooting;
*Also like Tempest, BW lets you pick higher starting levels based on how high you got in your last game (a nice feature which keeps you saying "just one more game!");
* BW has more confined space (smaller movement area restricted by changing "one-way" red web areas) coupled with the need to retreat from enemies that explode or shoot more directly at you (rockets vs. cruise missile brain waves);
* Unlike Robo where you basically shoot everything, BW requires more thought not to shoot the wrong things at the wrong time;
* BW breaks up the shooting by tasking you with moving eggs and avoiding red webs;
* In Robo you're often shooting forward to clear a path, whereas BW you're more often shooting behind you as you retreat from bugs, rockets or grenade bugs;
* Small circle movement patterns while firing towards the center are effective against certain enemies in both games (enforcer robots vs. rocketbugs);
* In Robo, despite having more massing enemies, you feel like you are on the offensive whereas BW you feel like you are constantly on defense (dodging brain waves in Robo feels more like you're evading tacklers while running with a football whereas avoiding grenade-bugs feels more like, well, diving from grenades);

End result: Both are very intense and fun but BW has less smooth game play requiring more frontal-lobe decisionmaking and less zen-like spinal reflex.

So for you BW experts out there, what's a respectable score to shoot for? Last night I got to wave 43 with just shy of 300K but I have a feeling I'm still in the bush leagues.
 
So which one do you like better? Enquiring minds want to know! :D

Right now I'm definitely enjoying the new and challenging gameplay, cool sounds and bright colors (purdy!) of BW but I'll have to see if it stand the test of time. B/c of its spinal-reflex intensity, I really think Robo is unique among classics for it's game play and will be hard to surpass IMHO.
 
Right now I'm definitely enjoying the new and challenging gameplay, cool sounds and bright colors (purdy!) of BW but I'll have to see if it stand the test of time. B/c of its spinal-reflex intensity, I really think Robo is unique among classics for it's game play and will be hard to surpass IMHO.
Yeah Robotron is great. I loved Black Widow at CAX 2009, but found the movements a little restrictive and found myself a little confused by what to/not to shoot at times.
 
I agree with the critique of both games. I got the chance to play BW a number of years ago(a friend had it in his collection); and it is very tough and very cerebral. In the end I like Robotron better, but you can't go wrong with Black Widow. I can't remember my personal scores(not that I was any good),but it seems 300K is very respectable....
 
My Black Widow score is a little shy of 500,000. Black Widow is am amazing game. Black Widow is a game you have to spend some time with to truely apperciate. Playing it a couple times at a friends house....or at CAX doesn't do it justice.

Edward
 
Both great games to be sure...with Robo getting the edge from me, for much the same reasons as Robochronic.

Another item a lot of folks don't know about in BW:

Watch for the one enemy on a given wave that is "glowing" (for lack of a better term)...he'll usually be a whitish color of sorts. When you shoot this enemy, the grubsteak you pick up is worth a little more than usual at 600 points. Then another enemy will also turn to this whitish color and if you shoot him, his grubsteak point value goes up further to 650 points. This succession of increasing by 50 points goes on until a maximum of 800 points per grubsteak if I remember correctly.

However, the big mosquito (?) that is in the web...the enemy that competes with you rather than kills you...will also zone in on this enemy or his resultant grubsteak. If he gets to it before you do, then the next whitish enemy you shoot, his grubsteak reverts back to 600 points, and the upward succession begins anew.

Kind of like a game within the game if you will :), which I guess contributes to the more "intellectual" component to BW versus the more straightforward gameplay of Robotron.
 
I really like both Robotron and BW, but here comes some blasphemy:

I think Smash TV is a huge improvement on both. I know its not nearly as classic, and not as cool as an original vector, but you can't beat two player cooperative play, and I love the theme,graphics & sounds, and especially bit of comedy they threw in.

Frankly I'm surprized there aren't more games with this control style. I always thought a game with the same control structure, but thumb buttons on top to control firing, or maybe a speed boost (on the 'move' stick) would be cool. Maybe some sort of top down tank game or something.
 
I like robotron, and am looking forward to trying out Black Widow for the first time at the Seattle Show this year.
 
i am a fan of both, and like playing them both, but i can usually get 20-30k in robotron and in BW i can get 150k (i think, been a while). don't know why, but i feel robotron is harder.
 
I have em both and I love em both. Robotron as everyone knows is classic and has an awesome play mechanic. It has it's own unique characteristics. Between wave warp graphics and sound (awesome), Brain waves, tanks, nodes, etc... But no real bonus level or stage. (unless you count all the humans on the brain waves) BW shares the same mechanic but adds a little more stratagy to the mix. It also has bonus levels and as mentioned earlier, a sort of bonus multipler ability. Oh yeah, and it's a vector. I still think Robotron has way better sounds though. All in all I like them both equally.
 
I think Smash TV is a huge improvement on both. I know its not nearly as classic, and not as cool as an original vector, but you can't beat two player cooperative play, and I love the theme,graphics & sounds, and especially bit of comedy they threw in.

IMO Smash TV is the GREATEST TWO PLAYER GAME EVER! As a kid Sea Wolf, MrsPac, Tron, and Burgertime were my favorites but I quickly learned that Robotron was the one game to rule them all once I started playing it. A few years later the local arcade brought in a Smash TV and my friend and I were hooked. Admittedly it's not the best one player shooter, but when you're playing with someone else who understands the game it can't be beat.
 
Black Widow is great, but Robotron is the superior game: more challenging, more depth, more fun.
 
Have both, won't get rid of either anytime soon.

Both are intense. The only knock I have on BW is the sort of "continue" function. I wish I had to earn the higher levels.

Robo just plain punishes you.

As I said, I won't sell either of them.
 
Space Dungeon came out before Robotron with the same control scheme. Did Jarvis know about it?

This is another rather unknown game I love. I first discovered it not in the arcade, but through the port to the Atari computer.

Fans of the twin stick play mechanic should also check out another game that doesn't get a lot of love... Rescue by Stern. You are in a helicopter and have to pick guys up out of the ocean while fighting off other helicopters, subs and sharks. It ups the ante a little by adding a Bomb button to the twin sticks.

They got that one at the corner deli when I was a kid. Only one I ever saw in the wild.
 
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