On this day in 2010, the glittery and whimsical masterpiece that is Robot Unicorn Attack was released onto the World Wide Web.
The game was developed by a company called Spiritonin Media Games, who haven't really done much else noteworthy, but that's fine because they did make this and this is pretty neat. The game was published on a number of Flash Game sites, and most notably on Adult Swim's own gaming portal, on the 4th February 2010. Within a week a million people had played the game on just the Adult Swim site alone, leading the company to create official merchandise, a first for any Adult Swim game.
The gameplay is pretty simplistic, you play a robot unicorn running along a never ending path of floating platforms and obstacles, dashing through crystal stars and collecting pixies for as long as possible, until your inevitable death from collision or falling off the screen's edge. Don't worry though, once you fail, you will find you still have two more lives, or "wishes" remaining, allowing you to head back into the fray and rack up them sweet, sweet highscores, yo. What really made the game stand out however, is the outstanding choice of soundtrack, which is just the song "Always" by Erasure on loop for the entirety of the game.
Robot Unicorn Attack's immense popularity also saw alternative versions of the game being published, including Robot Unicorn Attack : Heavy Metal, which is a re-skinned version of the game to look more "metul" with an accompanying Blind Guardian track replacing Always, The Christmas Edition which is, y'know, the same game with a Christmas skin, and Retro, which looks all 8bit 'n' shit. There is also Evolution, which introduced the feature of transforming into other robotic creatures upon chaining together crystal star rushes, and finally, there are the official sequels, Robot Unicorn Attack 2 and 3.
Both of the Robot Unicorn sequels were free to play games published to the App Store and Google Play, and although there are in-game purchases which is a little weak they at least don't affect the gameplay in any way, simply adding skins and power ups to the base game. There is however the issue that Always is omitted from the base game, and players wishing to experience the original majesty of Erasure's finest will need to cough up $0.99. Drag.
No matter though, because Robot Unicorn Attack is still a triumph of mobile and web-based gaming, and for that, it deserves some recognition, hot and fresh out the kitchen, on the date of its anniversary.
God speed, Robot Unicorn Attack.
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