Robot Unicorn Attack is a free Adobe Flash game from [adult swim] developed by Spiritonin Media. You're a rainbow-adorned robot unicorn who runs across a pink, sparkly, brightly colored world, collecting fairies, jumping onto platforms, and dashing about while a happy, upbeat Award-Bait Song plays in the background. There are only two buttons: Z to jump and X to dash. Did we mention that they had a developer devoted entirely to "sparkles and unicorn tears"?
Play it here
. There are iPhone and Android ports available for wish-chasing on the go. Three expansion packs are also now available, one of which, Robot Unicorn Attack: Heavy Metal Edition, is... not as harmonious as you know it to be.
In February 2012, a sequel was released: Robot Unicorn Attack Evolution. In this game (available on Facebook), the gameplay remains mostly the same; however, there are added additions of daily challenges, the ability to purchase powerups for the game using earned currency, and the like. The most notable addition is that for every three stars you smash in succession (And trust us, it ain't easy), you evolve into another creature and teleport to another world where there are more pixies to collect. Play the Adult Swim version here and the Facebook version here.
In December 2012, another version was released: Retro Unicorn Attack. Identical to the original, but now in 8 bits! Was later followed up with Retro Unicorn Attack: Challenge Edition, which introduces fairy and star-laden Bonus Stages to jack your score to previously unseen heights.
In April 2013, a true numbered sequel was released for iOS platforms. Robot Unicorn Attack 2 borrows many elements from Evolution, but also includes a rank system that allows you to unlock power ups, daily/community challenges, and unicorn parts as you complete certain objectives (such as reaching a certain score or dashing a certain number of stars in a single wish). Said unicorn parts allow you to modify your unicorn both visually and functionally, altering things such as your acceleration rate, speed, dash length, and even gives you the ability to fly. At a certain level it also has you join either Team Rainbow or Team Inferno; each day the teams compete to smash the most Stars, with the winning team being awarded a random amount of Tears, the in-game currency. Finally, it introduces a new stage hazard: Giants, which are basically huge Stars that fire Frickin' Laser Beams at you.
Robot Unicorn Attack 3 is now available for iOS in the App Store. The game features multiple robot unicorns that can be fused or cannibalized for parts, new monsters, and stars and fairies in regular or RADIANT! colors. Despite the changes, it maintains the flavor and addictiveness of the original game, while managing to make the inevitable crash less frustrating.
Has nothing to do with Gundam Unicorn.
Hold ooooonnnnn... to the niiiiight... there will beeeee noooo shaaaaammmmmeeeee...~
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Aptly described by one forum poster as "like my 3rd grade Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper came to life." Others have described it as "Ohmigawd, it's like totally The '90s: The Game!"
- Camp: It's not Camp, it's FABULOUS!
- Captain Ersatz: The Robot Unicorn is essentially a cyborg version of Starlite, "the most magnificent horse in the universe", from Rainbow Brite.
- More than that, Markie, from the aforementioned Lisa Frank series of which the imagery screams anyway. Look at it.◊ Markie lives on islands above the clouds, enjoys collecting stars and cloud-hopping, is fearless and adventurous, wants to go where no unicorn has gone before, chases his dreams, loves rainbows and butterflies... (There are tons of butterflies on the start and score screens.)
- Another oh-so-80s possibility is the artwork of Sue Dawe, whose fanciful and almost impossibly shiny creatures graced many a folder.
- More than that, Markie, from the aforementioned Lisa Frank series of which the imagery screams anyway. Look at it.
- Christmas Special: Robot Unicorn Attack: Christmas, playable here. The Robot Unicorn is seen dressed as a reindeer and "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" by The Darkness plays in the background.
- Cool Horse: It's a robot unicorn.
- Cybernetic Mythical Beast: Again, the eponymous robot unicorn.
- Darker and Edgier: Robot Unicorn Attack: Heavy Metal Edition, which has you trying to escape from Hell.
- Dash Attack: You smash through stars this way.
- Difficulty by Acceleration
- Double Jump: With rainbows! (paired with a glissando)
- This move, along with the accompanying techniques and accommodating level layouts, is a large part of what differentiates this from Canabalt.
- Endless Game
- Every 10,000 Points: Every 5000 points dolphins accompany you.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Your mane and tail are rainbow coloured.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's about a robot unicorn that attacks stuff.
- Friendly, Playful Dolphin: A dolphin appears for each 5.000 points you earn. They don't do anything.
- Have a Nice Death: Failing in different ways gets you different messages. Crash into a wall? "Your dreams did not come true." Smash into a star? "You became a star." Fall off the screen? "Your dreams were dashed against the rocks below."
- Evolution instead has a different message for every form.Unicorn: It ends where it began.Panda: What's black and white and red all over?Wolf: Join your ancestors.Gorilla: The jungle mourns.Rhino: Ever endangered.Dragon: You will live on as a legend.
- Evolution instead has a different message for every form.
- Just One More Level!: This game is addictive as hell. Lampshaded by one of the start screens in Retro Unicorn Attack.Press 'Z' to waste even more of your life.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to most of the original games on [adult swim]'s site. Hell, compared to almost everything put out by [adult swim], period.
- Made of Explodium: The stars and the unicorn itself.
- Mechanical Horse: The beloved Robot Unicorn is the trope image.
- Mickey Mousing: A very bad idea, especially as you speed up. That being said, it can be very difficult to resist invoking this trope.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Rainbow Robot Unicorn for the win.
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Nintendo Hard: Once your score gets over 5000 or so the game starts getting faster... And nothing will slow you down unless it kills you. - Not Quite Flight: By alternating jumps and dashes, you can stay in the air indefinitely. It's not uncommon for stretches of rock to generate in such a way that this is necessary, especially once you gain enough speed. Nerfed in Retro Unicorn Attack, where you can only dash in the air three times without touching the ground.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: If you crash into a wall or a star, you die.
- Palette Swap: The environment does this in Retro Unicorn Attack as you earn more points.
- The Power of Love: Or rather The Power Of HARMONY HARMONY OH LOVE. Not even 4chan can resist.
- Rainbows and Unicorns: The titular unicorn has a rainbow mane and tail and produces rainbows when dashing.
- Randomly Generated Level: After the first two platforms, the platforms are randomly generated.
- Real Men Wear Pink: The commercial had the line "If you feel your masculinity is threatened, then you're not man enough to play!"
- Retraux: Retro Unicorn Attack.
- Scoring Points: The main point of the game... Well, other than being awesome.
- Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: A little whooshing noise warns you when a star is approaching.
- Sugar Bowl: Rainbows, unicorns, fairies, the color purple everywhere. Yep.
- Super-Speed: You gain speed as your score goes up. Which makes things surprisingly difficult.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Oh so much.
- Unicorn: Natch. In Evolution, all of the animals have unicorn horns.
Tropes displayed by Evolution not present in the original:
- Breath Weapon: The Dragon form does this simultaneously with its Dash attack.
- Canis Major: The third-tier form.
- Darkest Africa: The Sabretooth Tiger form (Facebook version) or Rhino form ([adult swim] version) travels through an African Savannah.
- Fake Difficulty: If you jump immediately after an evolution, it has a slightly more 'forward' and less 'upward' arc than usual. If you happen to smash your third consecutive star right at the edge of a platform, and the next platform is more 'upward'... Have a Nice Death.
- Green Hill Zone: The Unicorn form's environment could be considered this considering that you start out in it, and it's a grassy area, except it's entirely purple.
- Jungle Japes: The Gorilla form travels through a jungle.
- Level in the Clouds: The Dragon form travels through a night sky with an aurora with cloud platforms.
- The Lost Woods: The Panda travels through a bamboo forest.
- Morphic Resonance: The Panda, Wolf, Gorilla, and Dragon all still have unicorn horns.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Rainbow Robot Unicorn Dragon, the final form.
- Rolling Attack: The Panda form seems to do this for its dash attack.
- Scenery Porn: The background art is quite detailed.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The wolf form travels on a snowy mountain.
- RPG Elements: The Facebook version of Evolution has a level-up system that earns experience as you play and unlocks new abilities as you level up.
- Tele-Frag: If you're using the Portal power-up from Evolution, there's a chance this will happen.
- Winged Unicorn: The "Glide" powerup adds wings to the Unicorn, but it only lengthens the jump instead of allowing for flight.
Tropes displayed by RUA2 not present in the original:
- Boring, but Practical: Sticking to the topmost route if you're going for a high score. Granted, you get less points for killing Giants since there aren't as many up there, but it also makes it the safest route, so you can still get a high score by simply surviving a really long time (as opposed to having your run cut short by a wayward Solar Beam).
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: You can buy such things as a Tear Doubler (which doubles the amount of tears you earn in-game), permanent Fourth Wish, and giant gobs of tears to buy all the boosts and Unicorn Parts you need. Other than the permanent Fourth Wish, though, none of them is really game-changing.
- Bullet Hell: All of the levels become this eventually, with some screens having as many as three Giants firing lasers at you at the same time.
- Difficult, but Awesome:
- Flying. It replaces your double-jump and allows you to hover indefinitely in the air once you reach top speed. While it has a rather steep learning curve (thanks in no small part to copious amounts of Damn You, Muscle Memory!), it can lead to astronomical scores for those who can stay in the air long enough to gain massive multipliers from hoops.
- The Ice World. The level layouts are far less forgiving than the Sky World, but there are a ton more scoring opportunities to be found.
- Energy Weapon: The Giants fire "solar beams" at you that will kill you unless you dash through them.
- Pinball Scoring: In previous games in the series, a six-digit score is worthy of considerable praise. In RUA2, the top scores go well into the millions thanks to all kinds of new scoring opportunities.
- Randomly Generated Level: Instead of being entirely random like in previous games, the game instead picks a random fixed level from a list each day. Justified in that the levels in this game are far more complex with branching paths aplenty.
- Shout-Out: One of the shifting backdrops for the 'Ice World' level is a pair of giant hounds sculpted from crystal and ice who are standing guard over a large jewel. Or, to put it another way, you could call them the diamond dogs.
- One of the unlockable unicorn trails is called the 'Automatic Deception'. It even mimics the classic blue-red-white gradient of the old cartoon's title!
- Another unlockable unicorn called the "Pretty Princess" has thicker hooves and a heart on its flank. It bears a striking resemblance to another set of colored horses.
- Space Whale: A space whale unicorn appears in the background from time to time.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Using embers can let you resume a failed wish, but sometimes the game will reposition you to a place where you'll end up crashing into the environment again.
HARMONY HARMONY OH LOVE~
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