


Rise of the Robots, by Mirage/ Time Warner Interactive
CD-32 version. 1-2 players
A general rule of thumb in the video game industry is to beware of excessive hype. It seems to never fail that the games that get hyped the most are usually the most disappointing. Rise of the Robots on the CD-32 is a perfect example. After all the hype about the awesome cinematic sequences, unbelievable fighting action and state of the art graphics, I had high hopes.
	Unfortunately, it seems that virtually none of those original elements were retained in the final version. CD-32 Rise of the Robots has almost nothing in the way of cinematic sequences except the rather boring opening and very, very short clips of your next opponent moving toward you. There are no death sequences- not even of the morphing supervisor. When you defeat your opponent, or get defeated all you get is a still screen short of the robot on the floor. Beat the morphing supervisor and all you'll see is this weird still image of shattered fragments. The ending sequence, if you could call it that, is awful as well.
	To add insult to injury, the game inconceivably only uses one attack button and is sometimes woefully unresponsive. On the 2 player versus mode, player one is forced to always be the cyborg hero robot. The game will not allow you to mix and match fights, which is also an unbelievable bit of shortsightedness and, I suspect, a distinct lack of programming effort.
	The robots and backgrounds, however, do look very good. The characters are on the small side, but the computer generated technique used to create the robot fighters is quite excellent. I hope that more developers use this new system for fighters and to better overall effect- Nintendo's Killer Instinct is a good example of a similarly made fighting game that is much more then just good looking.
	In the game, you take the role of a cyborg creation that is sent to a mechanized factory in a future city to deal with a robotic revolt. The revolt is lead by the female-like morphing supervisor- a robot that is sort of like a female version of Terminator 2's T-1000. On the way, you'll encounter five other robots- all of whom are strikingly different from one another, which is a pleasant change in a fighting game. 
	One of the Rise of the Robots other big features is that your robot opponents can "learn" your fighting technique. In case Mirage didn't know, virtually every fighting game does that. Of course, most other fighting games have a lot more moves to use, which gives you the option to vary techniques. Characters in Rise have about ten moves each and the game's control can be rather stubborn and sluggish at times which doesn't help matters.
	Overall, the CD-32 version of Rise of the Robots just seems to be the Amiga floppy version copied straight over to a CD with virtually no enhancements at all. The lack of joystick support and playability is almost becoming a trademark of computer fighting games from Europe( not that there are many of them) and, unfortunately, Rise of the Robots is really no different. The game isn't a total waste, it just has a lot of wasted potential. With all the great possibilities that Mirage created in Rise of the Robots, I hope that they take a good look at the current state and sophistication of fighting games and decide to make a sequel that has more then just limited graphic appeal.
