Rise of the Robots (Arcade MAME 60Hz no commentary)

This is a play-through of all the opponents in the Arcade version of Mirage software's infamous fighting game Rise of the Robots.
When this game was being publicised and hyped (and there was a lot of hype), it was touted as a revolutionary fighting game where the computer opponents would learn from you, making them more difficult to defeat. More to the point, it shouldn't be possible to defeat them with one move. In the Amiga version, which was my first experience of the game, it was entirely possible to defeat them all with one move. My demonstration of this here:
• Rise of the Robots (...
Fortunately, in the arcade game, the AI is a little smarter than that. I wasn't able to defeat all the robots with one move. But, usually, a repeated combination of two moves would do it. In the second round of robots they become decidedly more aggressive, though I'm not convinced the AI is as smart as they suggested.
Another publicised feature was "music by Brian May"! In the Amiga version, with everything cut-down due to disk-space constraints, you only get a few chords. Here, in the arcade game, I finally heard what they were on about. It basically sounds like the soundtrack of this game is by Queen. (Though I wish they'd let up on those fancy video transitions. They're quite distracting.)
The arcade game also features greatly expanded CG video sequences, giving a cinematic video intro to your characters entrance into the building, and cinematic interstitial videos to introduce each robot. It gives the arcade game more character than the home computer version. But it was such early days of CG it feels like the animations could have been done with a little more sophistication to better add personality to to the robots. (The game over robot was the closest to having it right.)
Something new that wasn't in the computer versions: one-liner quips from the lead robot/cyborg. Some of the lines could be better, as could their delivery. As they are right now, I'm not sure they add to the game. They could certainly get annoying if you don't like them.
But, overall, it's an okay game. It's just the robot are a little lacking in personality, so it's no surprise games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and King of Fighters were what dominated the genre. Those were professionally animated by some very talented pixel-artists, and ooze personality. This game is just mediocre in comparison. Not surprisingly it failed its location test and wasn't produced in any quantity. There are no working hardware examples of the game, and it only exists in MAME due to one unit with badly corroded logic-boards from which the ROMs and 540MB HDD were dumped.
An excellent Nostalgia Nerd episode on Rise of the Robots:
• They Lied to Us | Nost...
Wikipedia entry for Rise of the Robots:
en.wikipedia.o...
Arcade Museum entry on Rise of the Robots:
www.arcade-mus...

[@faceheadman]

the cutscenes being sped to to hid the choppiness is pretty funny

[@buwayanialt]

I feel more like it was because the original cutscenes were too boring tbh

[@JamesEmirzianWaldementer]

14:31 Message to bad user and bad people.

[@jorgelunaYT]

O_O

[@tiagobettencourt9151]

14:32 Is he flipping the bird?

[@ulysses2162]

Is this version any better than the home versions?

[@marcioaraujo9855]

Even though there is almost no music, at least we can choose the robots, so much so that the gameplay is faster, so in my opinion, the Arcade version is less worse.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Marginally.

[@alleykat1750]

These graphics are slightly better than Killer Instinct.

[@RonaldoOnRecRoom]

This works for android

[@NMAforever]

No matter the version, this game is SUPER POOR!!