Just so you know, the game I’m about to tell you about is so NSFW. It doesn’t have anything violent or sexual in it, so don’t fret. And I’m not saying this because you will forget to eat whilst playing. This mean mofo of a flash game is NSFW because you’ll want to hide it from your coworkers and friends so it’s all yours and no one else’s; so you can casually mention its awesomeness when someone else brings it up thus asserting your internet wizardry. Seriously, man, I’m just giving you a heads-up.

I’m talking about Robot and the Cities that Built Him made by Kyle Gabler at 2D Boy. These guys also blew the casual-gaming lobes in our brains with World of Goo. OK, fine. So I’ve come to this game quite late. But Robot is something different; something even more addictive than Goo. It’s a side-scrolling game where you command giant robots who zap passer-by. I mean, come on! The more people you kill, the more of their hearts you get. In turn, you can use their hearts to upgrade your robots and buy better ones. Read: it’s as addictive as f&@^.

While you get the feeling that you’ve played something like it before, it has a freshness and eloquence about it. The balance between straightforwardness, progressiveness of gameplay and replayability is fabulous and kept this reviewer who is generally indifferent to flash-fads coming back for more.

It has been around since early 2008 and hasn’t left its alpha stage, so I’m excited to see its evolution. But please, don’t play it around other people. I don’t want your sister’s meat-axe of a boyfriend comparing it to Transformers. Uh oh, I’m one year too late…