It looks better than its predecessor and has lots of real-life bots, but the glitches and judges will ruin your day.
BattleBots may be trying to mount a comeback, but Robot Wars is just as dead now as it was back in 2004, when after a tournament filled with controversy, Typhoon II was awarded the Seventh Wars championship, a title it will never get the chance to defend. Of course the robots are still around; they now compete in Roaming Robots tournaments, which are not televised but are occasionally recorded with video cameras and uploaded to YouTube (BattleBots veterans have been doing the same thing). So the once very popular hobby/sport/game show that is robot combat may never regain its former glory, meaning that what few video games we got out of the franchises are likely all we will ever have. The final effort from the Robot Wars front was Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction, released alongside the Sixth Wars. Is it any good? For all that is combat robotics, I hope so...
ROBOT ROSTER
The selection of real-life robots is much better here than it was in RWAD. The roster has more than doubled. Almost everyone from the first game returns (the exceptions are the now-retired Mortis, the one-shot fake robot Thor, and for some strange reason Terrorhurtz who was just hitting its stride at this point), and the new faces include Plunderbird 5, Wheely Big Cheese, Suicidal Tendencies, Dominator II, Tornado, Thermidor II, 101, and in a surprise move, two robots from Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, the USA tourneys: Panzer Mk 4 and The Revolutionist. Diotoir has received a makeover to match its Fifth Wars and Extreme 1 appearance, as has Firestorm. Pussycat has a new model that is a lot fatter. Also finally becoming playable: The House Robots, via a cheat code. Lastly, Refbot has joined the party, and his presence is a mixed bag which I will go into later.
Of course, there are robots that should have gotten in that are nowhere to be found. Some "classic" robots from the first few seasons would be cool, like Killertron, Chaos 1, Roadblock, and Cassius. Stinger is a very strange omission, as it certainly wouldn't have been hard to include and it did very well for itself in the Fourth Wars, placing third. It's also a shame that Mortis was cut; apparently its retirement was the reason they removed it from the games. The Game Boy Advance game Robot Wars Advanced Destruction has quite a few robots in its roster this game ignored, including a slew of American robots like Rosie the Riveter and Propeller-Head, plus Bigger Brother and a couple other crowd-pleasers. Also sadly absent are Mr. Psycho and Growler, two additions that really could have livened up the housebot crowd. A clusterbot such as Gemini would be an interesting addition to the roster. Lastly, some walking robots would have been fun, with Drillzilla, Clawed Hopper, and Anarchy being the most likely candidates.
The full robot roster is as follows: 101, Behemoth, Chaos II, Dead Metal, Diotoir, Dominator II, Firestorm III, Hypnodisc, Matilda, Panic Attack, Panzer Mk 4, Plunderbird 5, Pussycat, Razer, Refbot, Shunt, Sir Killalot, Sgt. Bash, Suicidal Tendencies, The Revolutionist, Thermidor II, Tornado, and Wheely Big Cheese. To add to the ranks of your opponents, numerous bots that could have been made in the Create a Robot mode also appear. They have interesting names (Barrabis, Spikaton, The Bull, and Spanners are but a few) and Jonathan Pierce has a few lines for each one to help them fit in, but their appearances betray their real origin. You may recognize some of them from Arenas of Destruction, and they've all improved since then (Electra, Robotica, Switchblade, The Argo, and several more).
GRAPHICS
RWED is a significant improvement over RWAD. It takes longer for the armor to fall off and the robots don't look quite as ridiculous when it does. The Robot Wars Arena looks almost identical to the show – something that really adds to the feel of having a fight there. In the last game, sparks flew every time anyone took any sort of damage. Now they only appear when spinning weapons are used (you may see a couple tiny ones when using spikes and lances). The real-life robots are faithfully reproduced in terms of looks except for Pussycat, who's a bit too stocky in this game but looks better than in RWAD, where she was too thin.
Fire effects look similar to the first game, although the flame pit in the Robot Wars Arena looks a lot better. There's also a decent smoke effect that heavily damaged bots show. The Extra parts that you can add to your created robots look better this time, and many of them are now animated.
Occasionally the screen will flash black, very briefly, and lagging a bit as it does so, distracting you and making matches unnecessarily hard. This may only be a problem with my computer or another program messing it up, I'm not sure.
MUSIC
Every track from this game is a track you'll remember from RWAD (provided you played it, of course). Each arena now has only one tune instead of RWAD's two – a shame. A lot of the music is straight from the show, which is a nice touch, but RWAD's "Side B" tracks that this game lacks were original numbers and not bad at all (Japanese Rooftop had a particularly cool theme, if I recall).
SOUND
Due to a compatibility problem with my computer, the sound on RWAD didn't work correctly (I got menu sound and the announcer but not in-battle sound effects) so I cannot compare the two games in that regard. The sound on RWED, on its own merits, is pretty good. Lifting and spinning weapons sound sort of realistic, but the big pneumatic flippers (like Wheely Big Cheese) are totally silent. A solid whoosh effect like in the show would have made them feel a lot more hefty and powerful. On the other side on the coin, Panic Attack's totally silent weapon is given a clanking noise here. Strange. Also, hammers make no noise, not even when hitting a robot. Lastly, scoops make a "lifting arm" noise when their weapon button is pressed, but they do not move and the button seems to do nothing but make that noise.
Jonathan Pierce, the real life Robot Wars announcer, is back for this game. Much of what he says is directly from the last game (some phrases are new or re-recorded), and you can hear a very obvious edit when he talks about Firestorm (they had to remove the "2" because Firestorm had been upgraded to version 3). He repeats himself, sometimes isn't correct about what he's saying, and can get on your nerves, but for some reason I can't bear to turn him off. He at least makes RWED seem very official, although it'd be even better if they got the guy on the show who says "Roboteers, Stand By", "3, 2, 1, Activate!" and "Cease!". He's not here, so JP does his job (not quite as well, I'm afraid).
GAMEPLAY
There are three modes in this game, and one of them is Options. The other two are Arcade and Competition. Many of the game's worst problems (see the following sections) are only really a bother in Competition mode, because in Arcade you can turn off housebots and Refbot, restart a match whenever you like, and use whatever weapons you please. But, sadly, you need to unlock the majority of RWED's content by playing Competition. If you just jump into Arcade, you'll have only a few very weak weapons and parts to build robots with, and only Panic Attack and Diotoir will be available to represent the real-life robots. Even entering the "more credits" cheat code won't help you: The problem isn't that you don't have enough money (well, it sort of is in Competition), the problem is that nothing better is available period, unlike the last game where they kept the best parts out of reach by making them expensive instead of locking them.
In competition you enter several tournaments, one in each of the arenas you have unlocked. After clearing them all you are thrust into a one-on-one against a boss (a real-life robot). Defeat the boss and you unlock some parts, some real-life robots, sometimes an arena, and the next round of tournaments. Very simply: You will not be able to get far in Competition without some luck, some cheats, or both. As mentioned, you won't be able to build a decent robot, and the only prebuilt one you can afford (Diotoir, who is quite good in the early rounds, costs 75 credits too much, infuriatingly) is Barrabis, a horribly slow and weak robot with an easily-breakable hammer as his only weapon and thin armor. Just enter the "more credits" code, buy Diotoir, and spare yourself the grief. After reaching Stage 2, you unlock Wheely Big Cheese, one of the best robots in the game, and robot quality is no longer an issue.
Aside from straight-up one-on-one battles, there are numerous other types of battle: Melees are fights between three robots where the best two go through. Annihilators are free-for-alls between four or six robots. Capture the Flag and Mad Bomber are opposites of each other: in the former you try to keep an item for as long as possible, and in the latter you play Hot Potato with it to keep it on other robots. Sumo is a pushing match that ends with the loser off the side of a raised platform. Collateral Damage is a mode where you earn points for destroying objects scattered around the arena and no points at all for attacking the other competitors. In Soccer, you need to score more goals than your opponents. CPUs don't understand Soccer and will just treat it like a normal fight. Lastly, the Endurance Battle is a fight between you and seven other robots, who enter one at a time. Endurance is the only way to get a fight without worrying about those blasted Judges' Decisions (there's no time limit), so you'll probably play it a lot in Arcade. Most of these gameplay types were present in RWAD: Sumo, Soccer, and Endurance are new. RWAD also had a couple modes this one lacks, including a way to choose your CPU opponent, a House Robot Rebellion (called "Ultimate Challenge") and a Slalom minigame I don't think anyone misses. But the first two are a shame to lose, making recreation of real Robot Wars battles a lot harder.
ROBOT BUILDER
In some ways the new Robot Builder is an improvement, in others it's worse, and in some it's just different. There are many strange omissions, such as weapon stats: How much damage does this axe do versus that disc? You can't find out: no stats are given. The "Info" button is decent for non-weapon parts but totally useless for weapons. It will either simply repeat itself (click info for a hammer and it will say "Swinging Hammer" or something) or actually have the gall to say "No information available". No information?! Was this rushed out the door or what?!
You cannot see how much your robot weighs. You cannot see how much your robot costs. You cannot see how much health it has, or how powerful the weapons are. You can at least check it to see if it is controllable/able to self-right thanks to the new Test Drive feature. You STILL can't make an invertible robot - even with a "Tornado-style" chassis and large wheels, your robot refuses to move when flipped and the wheels will spin on the ground but do NOTHING. A horrible oversight.
But at least there are a few saving graces. Custom bots look cooler now, but you can't paint them like in RWAD. Instead, the armor you choose is prepainted and looks different depending on armor type and chassis type (Kevlar Low Cuboid and Steel Low Cuboid look different, and Steel Low Cuboid and Steel Wedge Box look different too, for example). The weapons selection is larger: Some parts made the transition (like Lifting Forks, Drakonvlast drive motors, and the ever-popular Static Spike), while others were tweaked (Torch Cutter, Big Flywheel, Srimech) or left out entirely (Spike Trap, 30 cm Spike, Lifting Arm, and Pincers are all gone, replaced by other similar but not identical parts). There are plenty of brand new parts, like swinging maces, a bar heater, and a lot of batteries, engines, and treads. Lastly, your Garage is larger, allowing you to use many different robots without having to go to Robot Trading to put them in storage. Another positive thing about the custom weapons: it's easier to self-right now. Depending on your robot's shape, it can be flipped back over by flippers, srimechs, and all three types of swinging weapon. Vertical crushing arms and top-mounted flamethrowers can help too by making your robot often tumble back onto its wheels as a sort of roll cage.
Weapons are separated into many more categories now, each category having four weapons. The categories include Spikes, Lances, Saws, Discs, Crushers, Drills, Electrical, Fire, Flipping, Srimechs, Hammers, Axes, and Maces. Some tournaments ban certain weapons. Many of them ban electrical and fire weapons, others ban all weapons except one or two categories for a theme tourney.
ARENAS
Four arenas from RWAD return for RWED, all with a graphical overhaul and one radically enlarged (the Japanese Rooftop is MUCH bigger and more fun to play on now). The other four are brand new. Each and every arena is equipped with at least one instant-death hazard (usually in the form of a bottomless pit). It is extremely important for your robot to have pushing power and perhaps a lifting arm or crushing claw to keep control over the enemy and to push back if your opponent tries to shove you down the hole. Some of the arenas are fairly safe or at least predictable, like the Robot Wars Arena, the German Car Factory, the Russian Military Base, and the Sao Paulo Scrapyard. But some get really hairy. The worst offender has to be the North Seas Tanker. This giant arena is on a boat that rocks back and forth, sending huge pieces of debris all over the arena. A well-timed flip will send a robot flying in one direction due to gravity. There are several places to fall off and die, and a launcher that grabs you and shoots you into the water – an instant death, of course. It's almost impossible to win this stage normally, especially if your opponent is invertible or can right himself. You need a combination of good luck and some tricky maneuvers to lead your enemies into hazards (especially the launcher).
The complete list of arenas is: Robot Wars TV Studio, New York Subway, Japanese Rooftop, North Seas Tanker, Sao Paulo Scrapyard, German Car Factory, Russian Military Base, and – wait for it – Mars Colony.
CONTROL
What on earth happened here? In RWAD, the only uncontrollable robots were custom bots given powerful engines/batteries but only two wheels (they rocked wildy due to their casters). In this game, robots are MUCH harder to control and a LOT of the real-life robots are speedy and twitchy to the point of uselessness. Pussycat is the worst offender, easily moving five times as fast as the real one and constantly spinning out of control in what appear to be Havok explosions. This version of Pussycat is an absolute disgrace to the well-driven Razer-killing runner-up we know and love. Firestorm doesn't fare much better; easily moving well over three times Firestorm's normal pace, the flipper is poor and the turning is abysmal. Then there's Plunderbird 5: It moves far faster than a tracked robot could ever go, it constantly overshoots its target, and IT CAN'T SELF-RIGHT, which makes the abysmal controls oh so much worse. Other well-nigh-uncontrollable bots include Refbot and Thermidor. There are at least a few robots that can be controlled, thankfully: About half the TV bots are a little iffy in turning but okay in general. Tornado, Panic Attack, Diotoir, and Wheely Big Cheese in particular are smooth and easy drives.
JUDGES DECISIONS
The judges' decisions in this game are, quite simply, bugged. The judges award points for Damage, Aggression, Control, and Style, with the points being worth the most in the former and counting less as you go down. The problem is that the decisions make no sense whatsoever. You won't be earning many (if any) points for Control and Style, because no matter how cool your robot fights the judges just don't award anyone those points much at all. I've had battles where NONE of the robots got Aggression points even though we were at each others' throats the whole time. Fights where you rip your opponents' armor off and leave them a twitching, smoking mess could end in a complete blowout for you, or it could be ludicrously close for no reason. You could also lose to a robot that spent the fight ignoring you and wandering into the Corner Patrol Zones. And some of your opponents may get stuck and be unable to move, but Refbot won't count them out because they aren't flipped over. Meanwhile you've taken out what you thought was your last enemy. But the fight doesn't end, someone else is out there. And you try to find them as the clock ticks down to zero. And they win the judges decision because you took some punishment from fighting the other guys while they just sat there out of harm's way. And they get 100 points for Aggression. This infuriating scenario happens regularly in the New York Subway stage, where enemies will get stuck on the crumbing ledge and be out of sight, you thinking they got squished by the train.
GLITCHES AND PROGRAMMING OVERSIGHTS
Unfortunately, nasty glitches are present in this game. They don't make it unplayable, but they do make things a lot harder for you. The two worst ones (besides the above "judges") are as follows: One glitch will occasionally make your robot clip through the walls of the Robot Wars arena. And if you clip through the wall it's an instant loss because you are "out of the arena". Another horrible problem is the behavior of the housebots. They will frequently come out of their Corner Patrol Zones with little or no provocation, and will give chase clear across the arena in their haste to kill you. Refbot will usually appear on the scene with a Yellow Card to make them go back to their CPZ, but they'll just come right back and do it again, forcing the Ref to hand them a Red Card. After being Red Carded, housebots will finally behave as they are supposed to, staying in their CPZ until a robot wanders in.
This isn't to say Refbot is immune from scorn; he has his own problems. Refbot refuses to count out robots that lose due to battery failure (unless it's you). So to avoid having to take it to the biased and nonsensical judges, you'll need to finish the job yourself by flipping the robot over or putting it in an instant-death hazard. But if you are killed while trying to do this (if a housebot gets the way, usually), YOU LOSE! Another horrible thing Refbot did to me: I killed an opponent's battery, and due to his poor AI I had to do the work of getting rid of the body. In the process, Shunt charged at me and flipped me over. Unable to right my robot, I watch as the Ref comes in… and rights me! I'm pleasantly surprised, but then he charges, pinning me against the wall. Unable to get away, I pound the arrow keys in frustration as Refbot begins peeling off my armor. After almost a solid 30 seconds of this vicious and unprovoked attack, Refbot finally backs away a little and lets me go. I try to push my dead opponent to the instant-death hazard, but now time is running out. I still won the judges decision, but this was an appalling display of poor AI on the ref's part.
There's also a rather annoying problem I found: I tried to enter a tournament that only allowed hammers, maces, and axes as weapons with a wedgebot that had a hammer and a mace. The robot was declined entry. At first I thought that the robot's wedge was counted as a "weapon". Then I thought it might be because the two weapons were different categories: maybe you can't mix and match. It isn't the latter - I entered a Fire and Electric tourney later with a bot wielding a Bar Heater and a Flamethrower - but I can't rule out the insane implications of the former, even though CPU opponents DID have wedges sometimes. This nonsense didn't happen in the last game.
Here's an annoying glitch to add to the pile: The announcer will every so often exclaim that the batteries have died/engine has blown up/wheels are broken on a bot, but everyone in the fight will keep moving. Sometimes a robot does stop moving this way, but if smacked around enough, will lurch back to life. Some CPU robots will still be able to use their weapons even if the robot itself can no longer move. The phenomenon of robots coming "back to life" and supposedly dead robots with working weapons are both present in the show, so it's a touch of "realism", but it tends to just make things harder for you.
One last "glitch" that's actually beneficial: Robots cannot die from weapons alone. It isn't possible. No matter how much punishment a robot takes, it never dies from "chassis failure" unless it's hit by the train in the New York Subway. As long as it is not flipped, the battery/engine doesn't die, and the robot avoids instant death hazards, it will continue to move forever. You have a health bar, but when it empties you don't die. Your moving weapons will stop working, though. Nearly-invulnerable robots are a good thing: You would not stand a chance in Endurance otherwise. A few competitor bots that specialize in pushing are particularly fond of this glitch (Tornado). (After writing this, I DID wind up in a battle where my robot – Tornado – stopped working due to taking too much punishment. But it was an Endurance match that was basically 7 minutes of constant ramming, and I didn't die until LONG after my health bar emptied. So you will likely never actually die this way in a timed battle, as robots have just too much health.)
THE GOOD
-Plenty of cool robots from the show (very glad to have Wheely Big Cheese on board, he's a lifesaver. Tornado is great too)
-Solid adaptation of the Sixth Wars arena (Drop Zone is in the wrong place and the CO2 jets are way more powerful than in real life, but other than that it's quite accurate)
-Lots to do and unlock
-Playable housebots
-Able to create your own robot quickly and easily
-Pretty graphics
-Good selection of music from the show
-Endurance Mode lets you fight without those awful judges
-When this game works, it WORKS, and you can really get into the fight.
THE BAD
-Too many glitches that should have been fixed before release, or at least patched (A single patch was released that added support for a few more graphics cards, but didn't fix any glitches! Where are your priorities?!)
-You have little choice but to cheat to win in Competition's early rounds by entering a code for more money so you can buy Diotoir
-Sound and graphics occasionally glitch
-Some robots that should be invertible are not (Wheely Big Cheese)
-Cannot make an invertible custom robot
-Inverted opponents lose all sense of direction
-Refbot is an idiot
-The other housebots are even stupider
-Srimechs still don't always work
-Physics engine leaves much to be desired
-Some robots hard to control
-Too many stage hazards and no way to turn them off
-Announcer sometimes comments on things that didn't happen
-Missing some excellent robots that deserved to be playable (Terrorhurtz, X-Terminator, and Bigger Brother, just to name a few)
-No walkers
-Mr. Psycho and Growler absent
-Mortis, Thor, and Terrorhurtz removed
-Weapons sometimes snap off with little provocation
THE HORRIFICALLY AWFUL
-Pussycat
-Firestorm
-Judges' Decisions
OVERALL
Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction certainly has its fair share of flaws, but it is STILL a fun game for fans of the show who can get past the problems. Compared to its prequel, it has better graphics and presentation but isn't as much fun. It's such a shame it couldn't have been better, but I still enjoyed it a fair amount. Don't pay too much for it, though.
GRAPHICS: 8
MUSIC: 7
SOUND EFFECTS: 6
GAMEPLAY: 5
REPLAY VALUE: Good
SCORE: 6/10