In the near distant future, an alien race of cats will invade the Earth. The only ones to stop this menace is a group of Boombots. Under the leadership of Dr. Pick (the American scientist who created them), this group of ragtag Bots will try to kick some cat tail and free Earth from these feline fiends.
This is the premise of a new Sony PlayStation game from Southpeak Interactive calledBoombots. The people at Southpeak got together with the Neverhood development team at Dreamworks Interactive. These are the guys who came up with Claymation game, Neverhood.
A player can choose from 15 different Bots to fight these Alien Cats. The Bots have names like Hans Texas Walker, Chickie Boom, Moby Tank and Le Chip. Boomer is the leader of the Bots but sometimes he gets to big for his britches. Chickie Boom is the rational one of the group of Bots, but Boomer can't stand taking orders from a woman, even if she is a robot. Moby Tank is one of those pieces of equipment from the Desert Storm era. He's about to fall apart, even though he was lovingly reprogrammed by an Oklahoma martial arts expert (Chuck Norris?).
Each Bot has unique powers that will allow them to fight the Alien Cats. Dog E. Dog has a bear-trap jaw that he loves to clamp on some cat's paw. Le Chip, having been programmed by the French to act like Jerry Lewis, has a helicopter tail and some very dangerous dynamite. Hans Texas Walker has a six-shooter and some moves that prove offensive to the enemy cats (Chuck Norris again?).
The Bots have weapons like rockets and guns. Some will have parts of their bodies that are fatal to the enemy. Airplane is an old WWII plane who likes to give the enemy a shave and hair cut with his propeller.Pittsburgh is slow and gangly, but man can he grapple.
The game can be played with either one or two players. In single player mode, you pick out a Bot to play as to go up against the enemy. In the two-player mode, each of you chooses a character to play as and fight it out.
There are 15 different levels in this game. There are 10 unlocked levels and 5 locked ones. There are also 5 locked characters. You can unlock both the characters and the new levels by continuing to win against the cats.
There are powerups that improve health and the power of your Bot's guns and rockets. Shield will protect a Bot against incoming missiles and Mongo Power gives a Bot instant Mongo power (a real good thing to have in a weak moment).
Boombots is a hilarious and fun to play fighting game. It has some pretty tacky humor, but what do you expect from the Neverhood gang? The Claymation is good and the gameplay is fairly solid.
You can find Boombots wherever PlayStation games are sold. It has a list price of $ 39.95. If your store doesn't have it, you can get directly from Southpeak Interactive. Their web site can be found at www.southpeak.com.