So I downloaded Robotek HD much against my my first thoughts after reading the reviews, but I was curious. A very simple game that really does not deserve the HD in it’s title, yes the graphics are high enough rez to display well on a larger tablet sized screen; however those graphics are sub-par cartoon for 2 year old quality. The game itself is actually quite fun and I’ve put a good 20 hours or so into it already over the last 4 days (even though it has been on my Notion Ink Adam tablet for close to two and a half months already). The basic concept is that the world has been taken over by computers and you are the last human, you have to hack into all the worlds mainframes and defeat their defenses to take possession of them back.

To defeat the mainframes you have to spin a slot wheel (yes a slot wheel…) there are 3 different wheels to spin and choosing the right one at the right time will determine if you win or lose at any point in the game, sure you can do things differently, but there are key moments where a bad roll can cause you to have a very bad day. Each wheel has three icons, you get to choose the first, the second and third are random, their effects increase if you hit more than one of a kind, and they occur in the order that you received them (starting with the one you pick, it is easy to select it, you get about a 70%/30% shot at the one you want). The Developer relies on you spending money through the in app purchasing system (it uses google check out) to buy your self some VERY minimal advantages at a cost of what I consider to be more than the game is worth if I had to buy it. Without spending money, you find yourself constantly struggling, the farther you climb the greater the gap between your skills and your opponents. The good news is that the system is similar to an Emperor style card game (anyone who played Magic the Gathering will understand), the “droids” get trashed first, THEN your main system can be attacked; however there are certain abilities that will bypass this on the wheel, and when your droids go boom, you can take residual damage.

To quickly give a strategy to use to win, I recommend first putting 1 point (you gain 1 point for skills per level up) in each of the following (preferably in this order):

1. Firewall Deflector
2. Energy Superboost
3. Critical Hit
4. Messy Hack
5. Repulsor Armor
6. Lucky Strike
7. Firewall Deflector
8. Energy Superboost
9. Firewall Deflector

I say this for several reasons, first off, the firewall is the only way to survive once you start fighting systems above your level, without the firewall all your droids will be destroyed before your next turn basically wasting those droids. Next is the Energy Superboost, this decreased the damage your enemies do on their next attack (immediately after the wheel spins) and increases the damage your droids will do for the next attack also. The other options I selected will benefit you in various ways, some more than others and you can pick however you want after level 9. This is not how I did it, as I really had no plan going into the game, since I really had no idea how to play (there is a tutorial and it is short, and only shows you the basics). If I had put less time into the game at this point, I would restart to follow this guide.

The next thing you need to know to survive are these simple tips:

1. Round one, summon the Tankbot, he has the most HP and does the most damage (hope for an advanced one)
2. Get your firewall up, firewall=life, and you may get a quick hack that steals one of your opponents droids to your side of the battle
3. If you hit three of a kind you get another spin, I have seen the computer get 4 spins in a turn an decimate me
4. If you have no droids and no firewall, go for a hack, you may get lucky and get a buffer AND a firewall, summoning droids at this point is not helpful, the enemies will just kill them and rank up.

Developer’s page	http://www.hexage.net
AppBrain link – Free	http://www.appbrain.com/app/robotek/net.hexage.robotek.hd
AppBrain link – Paid	free game with in game purchases, no ads

Marketplace direct DL links

Free Version	https://market.android.com/details?id=net.hexage.robotek.hd	Paid Version