Girls Like Robots

Developer: Popcannibal | Publisher: Popcannibal | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Adventure / Casual / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Girls Like Robots might look like yet another match-three casual title, but don’t let its appearance deceive you. It is actually a proper puzzle title with some very solid gameplay and offers a refreshingly different challenge. A puzzle game about seating arrangements might not sound very interesting, but this is a game that is just as quirky as its title.

The game takes place on a grid layout where you have to arrange pieces to win each level. A character’s face represents each piece, and as the title suggests, characters have other characters that they either like or dislike. It starts relatively simple with girls liking robots, robots liking girls, girls disliking nerds, and so on, but pretty soon, fish, pies, cows, and bugs are introduced as well. The game does a great job of introducing each new character so it never becomes overwhelming and keeps the 100 or so puzzles from becoming stale.

While the goal is to place everyone on the board next to their friends in order to make them happy, it is not as easy as it looks. For example, girls like robots, pies, and seals, but robots don’t like pies and don’t like being surrounded by girls. This means that the placement of each piece influences all the adjacent pieces, and just when you think you have everything figured out, a new quirk is introduced. Some boards feature moving pieces, while others have squares that are on fire and will upset anyone you place in the flames. There are even boards that require you to upset everyone or keep them as neutral as possible to win. Not all levels allow you to select the order of pieces either, and some only reveal the grid as you place pieces, making things extra tricky.

There are three acts to complete, and many little story scenes occur between levels. We are not even going to attempt to describe the plot, but it involves field trips, dances, athletic events, train rides with hobo robots, and even space. The fact that the characters are all just square faces doesn’t’ hold them back at all, and it is hard not to smile at the whimsical art style. The painterly backgrounds look very nice, and the characters’ facial expressions immediately reveal how they feel about their placement on the board. If this is not enough, you can toggle an overlay showing which pieces are happy and which are unhappy.

You will be awarded up to three trophies depending on your score for each level. These trophies all go towards filling a “Bag of Happy,” which is used to unlock bonus levels. The game also has a few Steam achievements to aim for. Girls Like Robots is quite an addictive little title, and the frustration factor is surprisingly low. You can easily squeak through levels with only the minimum required scores, but getting a gold trophy is very rewarding. You can use the “Undo” feature as much as you want, and restarting a level is very quick.

We have never heard a string band soundtrack in a game before, but the tracks by the Peacemeal String Band blend in nicely. The tracks are all upbeat, and while it is not our favorite musical genre, we enjoyed the tunes. There is no speech, but each character has a trademark sound effect. Most are good, but the nerds’ sounds can be grating after a while. Girls Like Robots was initially released for iOS, but this PC version is definitely not a lazy port. Everything from the visuals to the audio is very polished, and the inclusion of achievements, leaderboards, and bonus levels is nice.

We found Girls Like Robots to be a nice little time-waster and can heartily recommend it to anyone who loves simple but clever puzzle games. If we have any complaints, it’s that we blew through the available levels relatively quickly, but there were quite a few where we could have done better. After the release, the game also received a few updates, including one that allowed for full face remixing and even a 4K remaster with improved textures, better multi-monitor support, improved controller support, and an update to the underlying engine for increased compatibility and future-proofing.

*Review originally published February 2014.