Rise of the Robots

"Repeat after me: GRAPHICS DON'T MAKE THE GAME"

This is one of the only times I've ever felt compelled to give a game the lowest score possible. And Rise certainly deserves it. Allow me to elaborate.

First off, props where props are due. This cart boasts one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard on any platform, current or otherwise, and I keep desperately hoping someone with more musical (not to mention programming) know-how than I've got will somehow put these tracks into midi or some such format so I can download them. They're just awesome tracks and they fit their environments perfectly.

Secondly, the graphics of this game are just jaw-dropping. Smooth-line cinematic sequences....on a 16-BIT CARTRIDGE. Even the in-game graphics are outstanding, easily on par (and I'm quite certain, running of a similar engine) to the Donkey Kong Country series.

And that, my friends is all this game has to offer. Acclaim should have just released Rise as something akin to those Game Boy Pokemon episodes or something, because as a fighter, its atrocious.

Player one always has to be the Cyborg (the game's main character, in case you were interested) while the second player can pick from any of the enemy robots as well, giving the game an extremely limited fun quotient as a PVP title. Story mode's not much better. You do have special moves, but they aren't that special. They consist of tweaked melee attacks, like Cyborg's dumb-looking flying head-butt. I personally would hav expected laser bolts, flying buzz saws, and cannon blasts from a troop of robots. Plus, all the specials seem to have a significant lag time, making them more of a liability than an advantage to use them. So fighting always tends to degenerate into an in-your-face, button-mashing slugging match. And that's just not fun. The cinematics will get old after awhile, and there's really no story or ending to speak of either, so all and all, this one is really a waste of time.

In a nutshell, Rise of the Robots is eye and ear candy and that's that. If you're a collector (and you can find it for maybe a buck), grab it for that value alone, and everyone else steer clear.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/06