Once again the Commodore 64 exposes its Achilles heel: trying to animate a screen full of indepedent characters all at the same time. Some games like Galaxian suffer greatly from this weakness. Robotron 2084 fortunately seems to have had a little more care put into its creation, and largely rises above this handicap. Largely, but not completely.
At first glance there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot wrong with this version. In fact, Commodore Robotron sports the best controller support among all 8-bit versions of the game. Two joysticks can be used for indepedent movement and weapons. But even using only one joystick, players can still keep firing in one direction while moving in other directions. The Apple II port also boasts this ability, but it works much better here thanks to the Commodore's digital joysticks. Beyond the controls, the rest of the game looks decent. All the enemy robots are here, as well as the Electrodes. Hulks move randomly, making it easier to get to the humans before they do, but the rest of the enemies behave the same as in the arcade game. The sound seems kind of subdued, especially considering what the Commdore is capable of, but it still gets the job done.
So what's the problem? The problem is, the game plays way too slowly. Juggling all those Robotrons, humans, weapons and Electrodes is hard work for a system unoptimized for such chaos, and so the adrenaline-fueld rush of the arcade game turns into a lazy stroll on the Commodore. Players discovering Robotron 2084 for the first time on the Commodore are in for a challenge, but players already comfortable with the arcade game will likely get bored after they master this one way too quickly. It's a shame, given how this is about the only version to perfectly match the arcade game's control scheme, but for the best port of Robotron 2084, players will have to look elsewhere.