Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction

"Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!"

Robot Wars is a great television show. It pits home-built robots of destruction against each other in an arena of death to become the robot champion. This mediocre Playstation 2 title allows you to build your own robots from an extensive array of parts and weapons and shove them into a competition against other robots including your favourites from the television series.

It works well in concept, but there's no denying it, Robot Wars is nothing more than a tacky simulator. Basically, you create a winning robot using a mere 2000 credits and you enter that in competitions. With the money you earn from winning, you'll be able to buy more expensive and durable parts for your robot or start afresh. To build a robot, you select which type of chassis you want, the metal you use for armour, and what weapons you'd like to add to your creation. It would be great, but not all weapons work with every design, so you may get so far to discover that your grand plan tumbles around you. Each and every part has it's own stats. Some are more durable, some hit harder, and some weigh more. You need to take all factors into consideration when building robots, as in many competitions, only certain types or weights of robots will be allowed to enter.

As for the battling itself, it's pretty impressive. No matter how your robot is designed, it's design factors are replicated in battle. If your robot is heavy, it won't be as agile or as fast. The sound effects of saws, grinding metal, and clashes of robots together will send you into button mashing frenzies as you try to emerge from the wreckage victorious. In earlier competitions it's easy to destroy other robots but as you progress through the various tournaments, the level of difficulty increases ten times over. Opposing robots won't just randomly lash out with their axes. They'll have a battle plan and you'd better have one too if you don't want to end up in the scrap heap. It's pretty difficult, so younger gamers may be put off.

To control your robot in battle, you can select one of three control methods. One is the usual control method for driving games with all the manouvering done with the left analogue stick. The other two are more traditional remote control schemes used for actual remote control vehicles, and all three work quite well. Everyone'll have their own preference and using a different set of controls doesn't affect the gameplay. Weapons are controlled with the face buttons like in most action games. Your primary weapon is always the one located at the front of your robot and the secondary weapon is the one at the back of the robot. One gripe I had was that when I was playing with a circular robot, I had no idea which weapon was which and it took me valuable thrashing time to work out which button controlled which weapon.

So you've built your robot, you've entered a few tournaments and by luck it seems you've defeated all of your opponents. Unfortunately, there isn't any real skill involved. All you can do is direct your robot towards the nearest opponent and start hammering the X button. Half the time, your blows won't even connect as the visuals in the game fail to display where exactly everything is. You'll frequently bump into the sides of arenas, other robots, spikes on the floor, and you'll often get caught in-between two stationery robots with no means of escape. The only thing you can do is hope that someone else will nudge one of the robots out of the way so you can continue.

The graphics are scrappy, to put it lightly. Not one surface, be it steel, wood, titanium, or glass, looks realistic or even remotely like what it's supposed to be. The weapons all have the same animation so it gets boring quickly plus the opposing robots always seem to look the same, offering no variety.

There's no doubt you'll get tired of the campaign quickly. If you do, you'll begin to notice the other features built into the game. Every object has it's own statistics, like I mentioned earlier, so you can compare and analyse your battles and different robots. If you enjoy knowing everything there is to know about your battle outcomes, then these features will be a bonus for you. Speaking of bonuses, there are mini-games and training exercises you can complete to improve your driving skills, and you can play against friends or the computer in multiplayer. The bonus games are pretty fun for short periods of time while the multiplayer experience is enjoyable. Somehow, it's a lot more engaging when you're playing against other people with real brains and real strategies for annihilation.

Overall, Robot Wars feels like a thrown-together experience, with little of the fun factor. An over-reliance on statistics and specs spoil the game for many who would otherwise enjoy it. On the plus side, there is fun to be had with this title if you've got friends round or you enjoy randomly bashing AI controlled opponents all the way to the scrapyard.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/07

Game Release: Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction (US, 11/22/01)