To be a robot unicorn, galloping through the futuristic landscape straight from a prog album cover while feeling the wind in your luxurious mane, dashing recklessly through glittering stars and smashing into your component robot parts when you misjudge that one tricky jump... Robot Unicorn Attack 2 by PikPok and Adult Swim is a candy-coated cream puff of a game with a tough-as-nails center. In short, a new endless runner superstar.
You are a glorious robot unicorn and you must do what all glorious robot unicorns do: run and jump and chase your high score in a pre-teen girl's fever dream made flesh. Running is automatic, so all you have to do is focus on jumping and dashing by tapping on the left and right sides of your screen. While the basic gameplay is the same, the number of improvements made to the original Robot Unicorn Attack are staggering. Daily and community goals, team challenges, unlockables, power/ups, and enemies to fight: a continuous flow of new goodies provides a compulsive and motivating meta/game. Collect tears, the game's currency, during your runs to purchase upgrades that make your unicorn better, faster, stronger, as well as cooler-looking. Every day brings new treats to the land of the Robot Unicorns, refreshing the stage layout and daily challenges.
There are, of course, a few clouds threatening this otherwise perfect land: RUA2 moves to a free-to-play structure with interstitial ads and in-app purchases for extra features and currency. While this is a controversial choice and some may long for a one-price unlock fee, the flow of currency is constant and fair. Perhaps one of the most necessary in-app purchases of all time unlocks Erasure's "Always" as background music. Yet the payment structure is a minor complaint in the face of the impressive feat PikPok has done: updating a ubiquitous mobile classic without losing the original's joyous soul. Go Team Rainbow!
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on the iPhone 4S. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.
Adult Swim has a soothing ad for this promising to destroy your life all over again.
I speak just for myself, of course, but I'd like to note that they actually have a decent reason for both the lack of Erasure at first, and the in-app purchases. One of the loading screens in game says that if they'd included the iconic song by default, the licensing fees would have kept them from making the game free.
After playing the game a bit, I decided it was worth paying a dollar to get the music. Might as well help good companies make games by dropping some spare change, after all! There are more songs available, as well. I do wish that buying music would kill the ads, but at least they aren't as bad as some games have them.
Over all? B+ bordering on A, would download again, would buy Always again.
where do i purchase stuff in-app?
@bunnehwyld
It's a pretty fair way of making money: give the game for free, and charge money for the music so that they can cover the licensing fee. I agree with you about the ads--it should be standard in iOS games that IAPs remove all ads. Altogether, though, the IAP model in RUA2 is fair. Monetization has ruined some great games but I'm happy to say RUA2 survives the process.
@Allayna
By tapping the + button in the upper right corner you can purchase currency. Music is unlocked at level 4 and the button for that is found on the start screen. Customization is also an unlockable and can be found at level 5.
Can someone help me out? I'm at level 24 and it allowed me to get 1 star from achieving the goals but now every time I should be getting stars they just disappear. I first thought that maybe I beat it but then some ppl are saying this is happening to them at level 22 so I'm wondering if its a problem. Has this happened to anyone else and if so do u know why?
Update