Version 1.5 of the game adds a radical new Enhancements system and overhauls the graphics to make them tougher, meaner, and more badass all round.
There are eight new Enhancements to play with, augmenting your existing skills in a variety of different ways.
Before we get into all that, let’s first remind ourselves why Glowmatic’s Turrican-esque run-and-gun shooter caused such a splash when it burst onto the scene in 2023.
Set in a cyberpunk-infused near future, Shockbot takes place in a fictional world in which scientists have made the tragic mistake of opening up a portal to a dimension full of monsters, cyborgs, and other malevolent entities.
Led by a gigantic robot-monster hybrid called Ultramech, these monsters are on a mission to send the human race extinct.
It’s your job to stop them in a campaign that sees you traversing forests and wastelands solving puzzles, experiencing antigravity, and wiping out a colorful array of horrible monsters with your powerful Shock Attack.
This devastating move involves collecting Shock Cores from the corpses of your fallen enemies and using them to charge your Shockmeter. When you’ve got enough—boom—you can clear the screen in a stroke.
And now, thanks to the latest update, you’ve got several more tricks up your sleeve.
The new Enhancements to your character include Dash, which is both a form of attack and a means of bridging wide gaps; and Fire Shield, which is both a shield and a deadly weapon in its own right.
Also included in the latest update are Wall Grip, Revive, Fast Charge, Armor Boost, One Shot, and Rapid Fire, with more Enhancements already in development.
You might just be able to find out what they are ahead of time, or even contribute to their design, by hitting up the Shockbot Discord channel and interacting with the dev team.
Shockbot is available for free on the App Store.