Picking up the pieces never felt so British.
Aww, look Robots!
See that shit? Those are two robots and they like to repair stuff. Not by choice, but by programming, nonetheless. And as such, its the only thing that they know how to do.
In this cute little game, you play as Mar-T or Chip and you're stranded on an alien planet after an attack by the Krofax. These aliens have also grounded a ship, housed by an artificial intelligence named Con-Rad. Con-Rad, voiced by Simon Pegg and is the only voice in the game, acts as your guide and narrator throughout the game, telling you where you can find ship parts to get off the planet doomed by imminent destruction.
The real gameplay is set around action-adventure platforming with exploration at the core. You jump, punch, hover, and push your way through four different level types facing against the Krofax. As you collect bits, by destroying enemies and picking them up along your way, you can purchase upgrades to your abilities.
The first one you start out with is the Power Arm which allows you to break and push bigger and heavier objects. You later get the access to rocket boots, x-ray eyes, magnet boots, and a snake like arm. There are two upgrades available to the parts with increasing effects of each ability. They actually do come in handy but if you were like me, you bought all the concept art early on and didn't save up for the more expensive upgrades. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, because you get to see some concepts of a ghost robot, samurai robot, and the vertex of all other types; Steampunk robot!
There are over 140 spare parts to collect and as such, some are only obtained through either local or online co-op. The good thing is that the co-op is really easy to get into with barely any jumps and hitches from either player. The game is based solely as co-op and that's where it shines. One player may defeat the enemies while the other uses its abilities to obtain the parts or they both could do both. My personal favorite part is after completing the levels you get this:
Of course that happens after doing a joined puzzle solve but come on! Nothing is better than a robot bro fist! Along with the bits and parts, you have the option to rescue and rebuild other robots, like those mentioned above, and use them as characters.
An all around good game that's pretty short and worth the $15, Spare Parts makes co-op fun again. I know that most people won't pick this up, but if you are up for some easy gaming and some cheeky laughs by all means check this one out. 4 rocket punches out of 5.