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Urbanoids is an Action-Adventure game with Strategy Game elements built on Java by Karl Hornell released in 2000.

You play as Erwin O'Skunk, an out-of-work TV repairman, who wakes up from a party-induced hangover and realises he has to deal with robots as his town has been almost completely evacuated. Possessing a weapon, a toolbox, some protection, and clothing, he feels like he can handle this crisis... or at least die trying.

You select one of four towns, which you explore and make sure to shoot down every last remaining robot. You can hack robots to increase your firepower and gain the ability to kill stronger robots. However, failing to do so causes you to die and your hacking abilities depend on the robot you're using, so it's risky.


This game provides examples of:

  • All There in the Manual: The game's fairly complex plot is only shown is a story page linked from the game's homepage.
  • Cast from Hit Points: Each shot fired takes away some of your energy. Running out of it causes you to die.
  • Collision Damage: Colliding with a robot drains health rapidly, unless you're controlling a robot yourself.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The game uses IJKL as its movement keys, rather than the standard WASD or arrow keys. S pauses the game and G unpauses it, instead of P or ESC, so you may end up pausing the game by accident when trying to go down, but luckily the game's controls are always shown at the bottom.
  • Down the Drain: Each level has a sewer system which is grey and full of robots. Stenchburg is a town that's small on the surface but has a vast network of these sewers, so the majority of the action takes place there.
  • The Goomba: The red household robots, which generally have the weakest armor and no firepower.
  • Hacking Minigame: To hack into the enemies, the player must connect to weak spots and make sure the robot does not connect back into them. There can be things that allow multiple connections at once or block them completely. Both sides have a limited number of attempts to convert spots to their side and a time limit.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: The enemy's role and power are determined by their color: household (red), maintenance (yellow), construction (green), law enforcement (blue) and military (black). Once any of them is under your control, it turns white.
  • Life Meter: You have a life bar which is depleted when you shoot or get hit. About ten shots or three hits is enough to fully deplete it.
  • No Fair Cheating: There's a cheat menu available in which you can make bullets free to fire, be invulnerable, or make your bullets kill anything instantly, but the game admonishes you for accessing it and mentions the game is supposed to be entertaining enough without any tampering.
  • Scoring Points: You earn a number of points for killing a robot which corresponds to the number that's on the robot and 25 points for finding a battery.
  • Sound of No Damage: Failing to deal damage due to the enemy having high-level armor makes a ding sound, rather than an explosion sound.
  • Taking You with Me: If you fail to take over a robot, it will explode, killing you instantly (unless you have lots of armor from hacking a strong robot) as well.
  • A Winner Is You: You only get the message "ALL DONE" and an option to submit your username for a highscore once you kill all robots in town.

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