Shockbot, from developer Glowmatic, was one of our favorite retro arcade shooters of 2023, and now it’s even better thanks to a major content update and a visual overhaul.
Not only does Shockbot boast a tougher, more aggressive design, but the gameplay has been expanded with a whole new Enhancements system. This gives you access to eight new upgradeable abilities.
More on those later.
In case you missed it the first time around, Shockbot is a frantic run-and-gun shooter with heavy duty 16-bit vibes. Think Turrican 2 and Super Metroid, but in the 21st century and on your phone.
The game is set in a cyberpunk future in which scientists have accidentally opened a portal in a parallel dimension full of cuddly talking animals and trees that grow candy.
Not really. It’s full of monsters, and they’re pouring into the human realm, hell-bent on wiping everybody out. The leader of these monsters, meanwhile, is a hulking half-creature-half-robot villain called Ultramech—and you have to take it down.
That means running around the 2D gameworld, shooting everything in sight and clearing entire screens with your powerful Shock Attack, which you charge up by killing enemies and harvesting their Shock Cores.
Now that Shockbot 1.5 is here, there are several more moves at your disposal.
The new Enhancements system include Revive, which gives you the chance to continue a run by spending atoms; Armor Boost, which reduces the damage you take by half; Fast Charge; which rapidly replenishes your Shockmeter; and Wall Grip, which lets you reach inaccessible places by hanging from walls.
Dash, meanwhile, is a super-useful move that works as both an attack and a means of crossing gaps. And in the same double-useful camp there’s Fire Shield, which both blocks attacks and obliterates anything it touches.
Finally, One Shot lets you kill enemies with one shot, and Rapid Fire lets you fire, er, rapidly.
More Enhancements are on the way, and you might even be able to have a hand in their creation by joining the game’s developers on the Shockbot Discord channel.
You can download Shockbot for free on the App Store.