Cosmo Bots Review

Cosmo Bots is a menial game based entirely on point-and-click action; in that sense, the game is simple and brainless, a time waster in the spirit of online flash games. Yet even as a time waster the game fails to impress, as all interest in the game is lost once you realize nothing really changes over the course of the 577 levels. The game is no more complex than basic geometry, harkening back to your elementary school days as you complete the awe-inspiring task of filling the area of a perimeter. To use an analogy, the game is a space-age coloring book, except you’re only given a No. 2 pencil that can move orthogonally, a treat guaranteed to disappoint child and adult alike. Naturally little bugs run around attempting to impede your progress, so you’re forced to time your strokes carefully to avoid hitting the bugs, but this challenge is easily overcome by anyone that can detect movement. As a bonus, those bugs die, or rather blow up, if you trap them in an area, posthumously providing power-ups or -downs; this makes the game slightly less brainless, yet nevertheless so uninspired that I found myself more interested in finding creative means to kill myself rather than the bugs (and trust me, there weren’t many).

On the bright side, the game-play is smooth and easy, that is, there are no immediate glitches or flaws (of course, it would be hard to screw up this game’s delivery) and the game is absurdly easy to learn; also, to accompany that game-play is an unfortunately catchy techno soundtrack, which is enough to ruin any day at work. Further, the game doesn’t put much demand on one’s operating system, or any at all—for goodness sake, you can pretend like it’s not even there; however, from the game’s simplicity and the sophomoric graphics (e.g. the static backgrounds range from space to asteroids to space) I gather a computer from the 1960’s could run this program easily. Still, Cosmo Bots fails in its general operation, as the game can only be run in full-screen, which is a tad annoying if you want to access your other programs; moreover, the designers appear to have omitted a minimize button, likely for comic effect, which forces one to become savvy with alt-tab.

Over all, Cosmo Bots was poorly developed (particularly the game’s story…why am I filling area and killing bugs?), and undoubtedly falls into the category of games made because they seemed like a cool idea at the time (what can be cooler than geometry and fly-swatting in space!)—I hate to be the one to say it but the developers were wrong and this game is not cool—it fails as a good game or even as a time waster, and if one seriously has the time to experience all 577 unchallenging, redundant levels of this game I would sincerely be impressed.