Game Reviews

Toy Bot Mini Missions

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Toy Bot Mini Missions

After his original three adventures on iPhone, Toy Bot is back on the App Store, clutching a box filled with dozens of new toys.

Choosing the little fella, or any of his entourage, your task is to tackle the 100 platform-puzzle stages on offer.

Unlike the Toy Bot Diaries trilogy though, there's no story guiding progress here; instead, it's all about popping in for a few quick levels, most of which take a matter of moments.

The concept is great for portable play.

Missions often take no longer than 10-15 seconds to complete, and even the most complex are capped at half a minute or so. Equally, the levels rarely require complicated interactions, favouring straightforward solutions.

The hybrid platform puzzle gameplay leads to many interesting challenges that focus on timing and skilled movement.

For example, some stages involve navigating a maze of platforms enclosed within a single screen while avoiding instant kill lasers - timing is critical to success. A wrong move can fry Toy Bot or send him falling to his demise.

Other levels focus on movement and positioning objects.

Electrified floors and gaping holes might require running across precariously balanced boards or shooting round pellets to rocket Toy Bot to the goal. Select missions task you with activating switches to open doors or move platforms, which sometimes require positioning objects such as colour-coded blocks.

Unlike the imaginative flexibility of a toy though, these levels demand the mechanical precision of a bot.

Short levels require specific strategies. There's little leeway provided in timing and movement, a split-second mistake or slight nudge too far causing you to fail a mission. Levels must be tackled in the exact prescribed manner or not at all.

Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of trial and error. While it's always clear what needs to be done, nailing the timing poses enough of a challenge that you may end up having to repeat a level a dozen times or more before getting it right.

The minuscule lengthy of the stages prevents this repetition from being aggravating, yet doesn't totally alleviate the torment of trial and error.

When you're aware of what you need to accomplish in order to finish a level, not being able to do so because of tight timing or the demand for pixel-perfect platforming can be a source of annoyance.

Toy Bot Mini Missions won't make you throw your handset across the room, but it will regularly need setting down so you can come back to tricky levels after a break.

But if the exactness of Toy Bot Mini Missions squashes carefree play, it doesn't preclude a lack of fun. Immense satisfaction rewards each completed level, no matter how many times you have to try.

Toy Bot Mini Missions

Bite-sized levels make Toy Bot Mini Missions great for portable play, though the precision demanding of its platform-puzzle stages can be annoying
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Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.