Ice the frosty cat
New Member
Welcome to yet another LoEG review. The link to the blog is, as always, in my profile
Aha, you thought the next game I reviewed would be Galaxy eh? Well you're wrong! That game happens to be next on my agenda.
First however is Robot Arena 2. Take note that I'm using the DSL version of the game, which adds a lot more, but no matter.
Robot arena 2 is basically a robot combat game. Inspired by TV series such as Robot Wars, Battlebots and Robotica, you simply (well, not simply) build a robot and fight it to the death against other robots, be it CPU opponents or online (Multiplayer is awkward, I'll explain further down)
The concept is simple, but the game certainly isn't. Building the robots is insanely like building real ones. It even has similar components! This however means that people unfamiliar to the sport will be confused and take weeks to learn what each component does. Trust me, when I first got the game, I didn't even know how to make the robot move...xD
Once you get your head around it, building robots is very simple...not to say building good ones is. I've had the game for almost two months now and my robots have only just reached the stage where they can beat most of the stock AI robots...that was my own fault though, I installed DSL the minute I got the game. The CPU robots in the original are very simple from what I've seen. The DSL ones are insanely well built.
An interesting aspect of building your robots is the ability to program it yourself, basically assign each moving part to a key, meaning you aren't limited to the amount of weapons you can have like in the official Robot Wars game. However, this restrict the ability to play against people in the same room because you're likely to program all your robots to move with the arrow keys and it's inconvenient to switch the keys around every time you want to play with someone.
Luckily, there's an online mode as well as the ability to play over a network so if you know a friend who has the game, then you can play over the internet. Here, online is actually good. There's no friend codes required (you just set up a game and wait for people to join it) no voice chat during the battle and there's a little chat thing in the lobby before the battle. There's a bit of lag during the battles and you have to have the same version of the game to play online...also, you can't use particular parts online for some reason, which really kind of sucks...but overall, online here is much better than Nintendo wi-fi connection.
There isn't much variation on what to do here. There's a tournament mode, but it's quite shallow, you don't unlock anything, earn money or receive anything other than a useless trophy so that really sucks.
But still, what you've got is very entertaining and very difficult to get bored of entirely. Unlike most games which have at most a lifespan of two months, this game has lasted for five years (it was released in 2003) and yet the online community is still going quite well, albeit slowly, but alive nonetheless.
Where this game really shines is the physics. These have got the be the most realistic Robot combat game physics ever. Unlike in the official games, the robot moves according to what wheels are on the ground, rather than whether the robot is on the ground or not. Chassis damage is realistic, with damage appearing on it and bending and buckling rather than the armour coming off revealing ugly framework. Components fall off when they've taken too many hits (weapons were the only things that fells off in the official games) and your batteries mean something other than how maneuverable your robot is.
The game has its flaws though. With the game running on a havok physics engine, there are plenty of glitches. A common one is when certain flippers close over something, the robot will explode and fly all over the arena. It's very annoying and jeopardizes your chances. There's no music or commentary (besides an annoying American voice announcing the start and end of a battle...and when your robot is electrocuted)
There's also a glitch which lowers your computers volume when you load up the game, meaning you have to turn it back up manually (I'm talking about the system volume, not the speaker kind)
But that stuff doesn't effect the experience though. It's a solid game that you'll never tire of. It has a great fanbase so there's plenty of people to talk to about it and it's just so damn fun.
I'd recommend it to just about everyone. It was so worth the fiver it cost on eBay
94%
Think about it. If that's how good it was back then, think about how amazing it would be if they made Robot Arena 3? :0
Aha, you thought the next game I reviewed would be Galaxy eh? Well you're wrong! That game happens to be next on my agenda.
First however is Robot Arena 2. Take note that I'm using the DSL version of the game, which adds a lot more, but no matter.
Robot arena 2 is basically a robot combat game. Inspired by TV series such as Robot Wars, Battlebots and Robotica, you simply (well, not simply) build a robot and fight it to the death against other robots, be it CPU opponents or online (Multiplayer is awkward, I'll explain further down)
The concept is simple, but the game certainly isn't. Building the robots is insanely like building real ones. It even has similar components! This however means that people unfamiliar to the sport will be confused and take weeks to learn what each component does. Trust me, when I first got the game, I didn't even know how to make the robot move...xD
Once you get your head around it, building robots is very simple...not to say building good ones is. I've had the game for almost two months now and my robots have only just reached the stage where they can beat most of the stock AI robots...that was my own fault though, I installed DSL the minute I got the game. The CPU robots in the original are very simple from what I've seen. The DSL ones are insanely well built.
An interesting aspect of building your robots is the ability to program it yourself, basically assign each moving part to a key, meaning you aren't limited to the amount of weapons you can have like in the official Robot Wars game. However, this restrict the ability to play against people in the same room because you're likely to program all your robots to move with the arrow keys and it's inconvenient to switch the keys around every time you want to play with someone.
Luckily, there's an online mode as well as the ability to play over a network so if you know a friend who has the game, then you can play over the internet. Here, online is actually good. There's no friend codes required (you just set up a game and wait for people to join it) no voice chat during the battle and there's a little chat thing in the lobby before the battle. There's a bit of lag during the battles and you have to have the same version of the game to play online...also, you can't use particular parts online for some reason, which really kind of sucks...but overall, online here is much better than Nintendo wi-fi connection.
There isn't much variation on what to do here. There's a tournament mode, but it's quite shallow, you don't unlock anything, earn money or receive anything other than a useless trophy so that really sucks.
But still, what you've got is very entertaining and very difficult to get bored of entirely. Unlike most games which have at most a lifespan of two months, this game has lasted for five years (it was released in 2003) and yet the online community is still going quite well, albeit slowly, but alive nonetheless.
Where this game really shines is the physics. These have got the be the most realistic Robot combat game physics ever. Unlike in the official games, the robot moves according to what wheels are on the ground, rather than whether the robot is on the ground or not. Chassis damage is realistic, with damage appearing on it and bending and buckling rather than the armour coming off revealing ugly framework. Components fall off when they've taken too many hits (weapons were the only things that fells off in the official games) and your batteries mean something other than how maneuverable your robot is.
The game has its flaws though. With the game running on a havok physics engine, there are plenty of glitches. A common one is when certain flippers close over something, the robot will explode and fly all over the arena. It's very annoying and jeopardizes your chances. There's no music or commentary (besides an annoying American voice announcing the start and end of a battle...and when your robot is electrocuted)
There's also a glitch which lowers your computers volume when you load up the game, meaning you have to turn it back up manually (I'm talking about the system volume, not the speaker kind)
But that stuff doesn't effect the experience though. It's a solid game that you'll never tire of. It has a great fanbase so there's plenty of people to talk to about it and it's just so damn fun.
I'd recommend it to just about everyone. It was so worth the fiver it cost on eBay
94%
Think about it. If that's how good it was back then, think about how amazing it would be if they made Robot Arena 3? :0
