I think that forcing the use of imagination is why so many of us that played back then have such strong connections with games like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc. It is something that modern gaming can't duplucate simply due to the technology being so much better. I used to spend hours on DeviantArt and other websites looking at interpretations of games, mostly the Atari 2600 era stuff. Some amazing work out there.

Robowarrior was part of the Bomberman franchise in Japan. Jaleco secured the rights to the game in North America, but not the Bomberman license. My mom picked it up for me by accident for a birthday. I wanted Atyanax, also by Jaleco but she got confused and forgot part of my description of the box art and grabbed Robowarrior instead. At first I was disappointed but tried to hide it, then I played it and was hooked.

To me, Robowarrior seemed like the Bomberman developers were going the opposite direction of Super Mario. They started with the party game then tried the action/adventure later.

It has a twist that screenshots don't convey. You are a robot/cyborg and you must constantly replenish your battery/life. It slowly ticks down as you play. There is so much in Robowarrior that screams survival horror but few give it a chance no matter how you sell it to them.

Ultimately, their loss as it is a good game.

Every boss is multiple sprites big, something the head of Treasure (makers of Gunstar Heroes and more) said was impossible on the Super Nintendo, let alone the 8-Bit NES. Overall, an amazing accomplishment.