Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots Hands-On

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena is a new fighting game by Mattel based on an old toy franchise. "Mature" gamers (read: older than me, and I'm 25) doubtless recall growing up with the line of Mattel toys where they could take limbs from various robots, replace them with those from other ones, and then beat their new creations senseless. Keeping this style of play in mind is what the developers of the PlayStation title valued most, and they succeeded, probably beyond what they had hoped. There are countless pieces of machinery to attach to your robots; the designer at Mattel told me that the final number of variations exceeds 50,000. Balance naturally seems to be a major problem, but I was assured that beta testing began even before the alpha was released. Each piece of machinery comes with its own controller motion, so memorizing gamepad motions isn't incumbent on the robot you're controlling but on what it's equipped with. And in an effort to keep things "more realistic," the robots in Mattel's new title can't jump around like the characters in most fighting games. There are jumping moves though - mainly small hops where the robots fire jump jets and strafe with missiles or rockets. Because the robots don't jump when "up" is pressed on a gamepad, they move into the background instead. Controlling 3D movement is a cinch: You can move up or down into the screen effortlessly. The game is slated for a release later this year, and it's shaping up to be rather impressive.