JD's Videogame Hall of Shame Part 4: Rise of the Robots

Rise of the Robots was released by Acclaim back in 1994 after a thorough and tiresomely ubiqitous advertising campaign. Whether this discouraged me from buying it at the time or I had had my fill of one on one beat 'em ups thanks to Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, I don't know, but I suspect it was a combination of both. With the benefit of hindsight, it was a decision that not only saved me forty quid, but also preserved a segment of my sanity that surely would have been eroded away by paying that sort of money to play this tosh.

Before we get onto the game's various flaws, let's examine the booklet. Akin to Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi (see Hall of Shame entry no.1), ROTR bolts on a ludicrous "story" that's supposed to give you a reason for going round banging other robots about. All the droids have backgrounds as well and special moves - although this will not be of great interest to you.

For you see, in their infinite wisdom, the developers Mirage decided that you can only play the main character, a cyborg imaginitively named, um, cyborg. Only in 2-player practice mode, can you use a different character, and still the other person has to play the blue buffoon.

Of course this would have not been a huge issue had the game been any good, but unfortunately Rise of the Robots is a turd of such immense proportions that it really should have it's own flag.

Playing against various vague and boring futuristic locations, your blue cyborg prances around the screen, daintily trying to land ineffective blows on the other ridiculous robots. The moves seem dreadfully limited and this lack of variation (or indeed the need for any tactics, as the enemies often walk happily into your attacks) cripples the game right from the start. When you do manage to land a blow (and this is entirely random) you never get the impression you're doing any real damage, even if the enemies power bar shows you've just landed a vicious hit.
The collision detection is a touch wonky as well - surely a major crime for any fighting game - and the much touted graphics, whilst servicible, are nowhere near matching the hyberbole that preceded it's release.

The best thing about the game is the music which is by Brian May. Yes, the game is that bad.

The hall of Shame now stands as follows:-

1:Star Wars: Masters Of Teras Kasi (Playstation)
2:Highlander (ZX Spectrum)
3:Ground Zero Texas (Sega Mega-cd)
4:Rise of the Robots (Sega Megadrive)