Matt.. I love you, your content, and most of the stuff you promote, but you keep saying "Chomping at the bit" it's "Champing at the bit" horses "Champ" at the bit, they do not chomp at it.
DUDE I've been Streaming through Episode 1 on Twitch the last few weeks...it had been in my Library teasing me FOREVER, but I wanted to have that Fresh Experience thing with the Viewers... It's like someone reached into my demented brain and then made a Game...SUPER happy Episode 2 dropped in time for my PlayThrough to roll right in. Creme de la Creme of the Modern Retro-Resurgence FPS Games. FOR SURE.
Fun fact this game actually killed British video game journalism because apparently the game was so crap a lot of British video game magazines were literally lying to the reviews like that they can get more money from their customers and it going to a point that the video game I get seen in the industry in Britain rise of the robots basically killed video game journalism because apparently the video game magazine crash that occurred in Britain at the time and this game kind of made it even worse.
@@TheEmperorHyperion To be fair, I messed up the title. Edge very clearly states on the cover they DO care about the gameplay. It's just really funny that Mirage threw everything into the graphics and hoped to bamboozle everyone with just that.
@@notsyzagts7967 "Some people are stupid." I think it's more that if you put enough money into advertising you're bound to get a few people to buy your thing. It's like how fish might be smart enough to not bite a fishing lure, but that doesn't matter if you cast a big enough net.
I wouldn’t call it a “studio”.. I’m imagining something more like one of those Indian scam call offices. Looks like a dingy apartment with a cheap fold out table with 4 or 5 guys that all sound like Borat chain smoking Russian Marlboro reds and sharing stories about how they plan on mistreating their 15 year old wives when they get off work
@@robertmanes9333 I don't exactly thought about as an "Indian" scam call offices but yeah maybe a relativetly small business and location, the only one that might know would be one of the workers I guess.
@@cpl.barbarusc4814 they exist primarily in India and Bangladesh… wasn’t trying to say that it is something endemic amongst primarily Indian folks. Apparently the pay is substantially higher than one would expect to make in a legitimate office so when something of that nature exists, ones who can take advantage can and will
15:30 "spill your pneumatic fluids"? So, she's going to spill your air? I think the word you're searching for is "hydraulic", robot lady. Supervisor indeed!
Fun story, I played Rise of the Robots 2 to get into top 8 of UFGT9's mystery game tournament and I thought that it was the worst fighting game I ever played. Then I played Bikini Karate Babes 2 in winners top 8 and I was quickly corrected in my opinion. I'm still waiting for a young Man McMuscles to do an episode on either bikini Karate Babes games
@@LordDinosaur UFGT was the Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament. It was the tournaments that would eventually become Combo Breaker. If you're familiar with Combo Breaker and Frosty Faustings, you'll know that mystery game is one of the most popular tournaments at those events
What i love in this video, is that half of the time the background music is from the Great OMF One Must Fall 2097 PC Game, a fantastic Robot Fighting game, that Rise of the Robots tried to copy in just the worst way possible. Well Done Matt
I rather like how, just like with the Street Fighter The Movie: The Game episode of TWFG, this episode is essentially a follow up to the ROTR What Happened episode from a couple of years ago, giving people the chance to see how the game's development made it the disasterpiece we know today in one video and learning Matt's personal thoughts on several different versions of the game in another video. And it makes me glad to see that my wish to see ROTR get IN THE RING and having the game being placed in the proverbial scrap heap (just like the actual ROTR robots were presumably sent to an actual scrap heap after Rise 1 and 2 failed so miserably) has come true! =)
Man, I have a personal grudge with this game. I made my sis buy it because I liked the cover (we were poor and could only afford one game every so often, and most of the time it was bootlegs). I had an awful time trying to trade it with the other kids on the school (everyone had mk, killer instinct and street fighter).
At the time it was, together with almost all game magazines giving an unbelievably high score and thumbs up in their reviews of the game. It was the first time I was duped as a teen lol
Your statement is ironic here because as others said, many people use the exact criteria to judge game quality. You may be on a channel where the UA-camr has a balanced opinion but that's not as common as you think.
Technically speaking, the graphics themselves are impressive for their time. But the animations, art direction, and backgrounds are kinda mediocre at best in my opinion. Sentry looks alright though. And builder looks kinda like a scrapped mega man midboss
*Remembers Maximilian Dood's review of the game.* At least Max won't be alone when it came to playing this game. Rise of the Robots Club: Max and Matt. We need more members. Edit: Would like to see you review the sequel as well.
it's funny how there were *two* robot fighting games released in 1994 with pre-rendered graphics, two buttons, and synth music, and the one people remember is the *bad* one.
Damn. I didn't know how lucky i was for growing up with nothing but Capcom and SNK fighting games. Somehow my dad had a good eye for video games despite never playing them.
I grew up with pretty much everything, and I feel like I appreciate the Capcom and SNK fighters so much more because I was also exposed to the garbage haha.
I used to not really get fighting games and I think it's because I kept renting ones like Rise of the Robots, Brutal Paws of Fury, and Pit Fighter. Didn't really get the ball rolling with friends until Guilty Gear X2 came out on PS2. After that we went back to all sorts of games.
The only thing I genuinely like about this game was its Continue Screen in the Arcade version where if you let the time go to zero, Prime-8 gives you the bird with the game saying "Forget You" in the background. It was kinda amusing, not gonna lie.
I thought this game was a fever dream I had. I remembered playing a robot fighting game as a child where one of the characters looked like a tiny forklift.
I had this game growing up, and back then if you owned a game you did any measure of mental gymnastics required to enjoy a game. So I thought it was BAAAADASSSS and I just wasn't able to beat it as easy as other fighters because I was "too young" so needless to say I grinded it out and beat it and thought bit was a low key cool game no one had heard of
This makes me miss Max's all too short-lived Fighting History series. I'm glad Matt picked up that particular torch and ran with it. I'd still be hyped if Max brought it back so we could have both
I still remember watching Max's stream of Rise of the Robots live... at work... during my break to eat my lunch, I had to resist the urge of laughing at the time his controller got messed up during the 1st Sentry fight... and the final run were he pretty much spammed kicks to beat every robot.
Ah memories... I picked ROTOR up for about £3 a few months after release (once I got over the disappointment of reading all of the awful reviews) and ended up formatting the 5 intro disks (of 13...!?) from the Amiga AGA version, to use for other things. Cheaper than buying blank disks in those days. I probably should have just formatted all of them :D
Seeing it as an acronym made me confused, as ROTOR is also a terrible Robocop ripoff from 1987 about a Robotic traffic cop that shoots people for speeding 😂
You have a calm, exuberant yet welcoming voice. I haven't heard your videos in almost a year but I didn't have to second guess when this auto selected this video randomly "oh its the unique happy guy!' It's like Christopher Walker or Tommy Wasoise where only one guy could ever trademark that voice.
You're just gonna skip over the surprisingly dark game over screen with Cyborg falling lifeless to the ground revealing his eye, or even worse getting his head crushed in the arcade version.
The first time I lost in ROTR (SNES version for me), that game over screen gave me nightmares. Here was young me expecting this guy to be just this emotionless tank that could take everything and thanks to the game not having ANY story itself, THATS when I learned there's abit of human in there. Quite the reveal.
It should be a rule, if you're covering Rise of the Robots you must always use the opening song from One Must Fall. Stellar work from Mr McMuscles per usual always great content. 👍
Always had a twisted love for the Rise games. I think I'm one of only 2 collectors in the world actively hunting for Rise related items and merch. I was a teenager at the time Rise was announced and it blew me away. I had a Mega Drive at the time so when the game finally hit that system I ran (awkwardly) to the nearest Blockbuster to grab my very own copy. It is the only console game (that worked) I've ever returned to the shop I bought it from within the hour. We exchanged it for MKII and good times were had by all... :) However in the last 15 years my interest was re-piqued, mainly by the rich history behind the game's development. All of the devs of the various versions seem to be genuinely nice guys as well so I was able to grab a lot of great info (and sometimes unusual items...). Not a great fighting game at all, but one made in England by a team who I genuinely believe wanted to create an amazing beatemup with Robots but bit off a little more than they could chew when the project ballooned due to multiple versions and a huge marketing campaign. Oh, but I do actually love some Rise 2...the PC version at least ;)
Just need to add: I soooo want to see Rise 2 broken apart on a competitive level. It's janky crazy combat system could be great fun. I mean even Dino Rex has tourneys...
Remember playing it as kid and not being able to quit the game, lol. I also remember in my country(Peru) there was this kids contest TV show were one of the contest was just beat this game, never remembered If anyone managed to beat it, in fact I highly doubt it.
DUUUUUDE!!! I remember being SO excited for the Game Gear "Rise of the Robots." It was an ad on the back of an instruction manual to Sonic 2 I think. I was seven years old and I thought it looked awesome! I was flatlined when I learned you couldn't change your character, WTF? A tournament fighter with one character that's a replica of a human even, so fuck pretending to be a robot....I spent all of my birthday money on it, so there was an extra sting....
I had a 3do version when I was a kid, I learned to adapt the crap factor and found enjoyment out it a little bit. Lol The 3do uses shoulder button to shift punches to kicks not start button. You can do even do combos by follow light, medium then heavy attack, left enemies to briefly stunning so you step back to avoid counter attack. There’s a weird mechanic that if you spam the same move, the enemies will turn invincible.
I knew this game would be eventually covered. Pretty solid breakdown of why the game is so bad. I definitely look forward to the day that Expect No Mercy, Ultraman for the SNES, and Dangerous Streets are covered
I remember when my neighbor was giving me shit for only having a PC while he got the SNES for christmas. And then he bragged about having his first game for it: Rise of the Robots. While at the same time I got One Must Fall as a christmas present. Guess who got the last laugh on that one. 🤣
I was a fighting game fiend as a kid, I even liked the horrible fighting games that my friends hated including Shaq-Fu, but I can still remember renting this for SNES as a kid and for the first time in my life I turned off a fighting game in less than 10 minutes. 😂
You mentioned a lot of consoles this was ported to, but missed the Sega Saturn version which is the one I played. Oh wait, Rise 2? I'm amazed they made a sequel to this. But that must have been the one I played. It was so long ago and never a fun game. It also seemed to have a bugged character selection menu where we always had to wait for the selection timer to run out instead of being able to just press a button over who we wanted. Kinda sad that is the only part the game that I can recall easily.
You brought up Dural and it made me think of Virtua Fighter 2...on the Genesis. There's little chance it goes right to the top of the poop pile, but I always wondered what was up with that game, and this is a good place to cover bad games.
People have mentioned it a few times by now, but "One Must Fall 2097" shows that it very much can be in the right hands. I played it a lot back in the day; it was actually quite ahead of its time with its secrets, tournament mode, and a few other things I don't remember being things in most fighting games of the time.
@@CharlesWorkPPL There was a game tie-in for 'Real Steel' from 2011 where you built your own robots to dominate the WRB championship (the studio that made it even worked on some of the 2K WWE games) but it got removed from the Xbox Live Arcade and the only way to play it is by emulating it.
My dad's Karate group went to one of their houses in the mid 90s and all us kids were dragged along and stayed the night one one room. I remember playing this and the 1v1 multiplayer kept us amused for a while! I kinda think it would be fun to make a game with the artwork and better mechanics
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaany years ago my father went to the.... local game supplier??? and some bastard sold this thing to him, maybe he said something like "i want a good fighting game for my son" .... i just couldn't tell him this game was wrong in so many ways, but yeah, he knew basically nothing about games and just wanted to make me happy, so i smiled and said "thanks dad, this game looks awesome".... what a scam dude.
I loved playing Resurrection Rise 2 on Saturn growing up, and was hyped to see you cover RotR in Wha Happun, and was extra hyped to wake up today to see it return today :D the Novel was... not the most well written, but I had a good time with it. sadly Rise 2 retcons the last 20 or so pages of the novel, which is a shame because it left off on quite the cliffhanger lmao. I wonder what a sequel to the novel would have been... also, I loved your pun on RotR being the 2D Queen haha
It's a shame that the arcade version never made it to market, if only because of the gorilla robot that does jerk-off motions over his fallen foe post-fatality and flips you off if you lose to him on the game over screen. He's the VIP of the whole ROTR universe just for that.
I owned this gem as a kid. I played the hell out of it because back then i didn't have a lot of options. I made the most out of it but, yeah, it was bad. the worst part was the control, very stiff. I did like the graphics though and the concept of fighting robots in general.
My friend and I used to rent this for SNES once a month or so. We could never seem to master it or get good enough at it to justify purchasing it. I always lamented my lack of skill... But NOW I can lament that AND the poor game design!
Back when this came out I got a free copy for the MSDOS version of this came through my dad's work. I remember thinking the game looked so cool and wanted to play it so badly. However, the requirements to run the game were incompatible with our PC at the time and I never got to play it or let alone even open the box. I am positive that somewhere at my parent's house there is still a factory sealed copy of this game that hasn't been touched in about 25 years. Hadn't heard anything about this game since then until I stumbled upon this video.
1:13 That's "music by the newly-knighted Sir Brian May of Queen fame!" (I believe 2 tracks that were on his album "Back To The Light"....and also "Cyborg" from his "Another World" album was used for ROTR II)
I remember picking this game out as a kid in the bargain bin. I was so disappointed, the wording on the back of the box hyped this game up so much. Lol
12:44 Oh shiet soooon, you brought so many memories. Loved Urban Champion when I was a Kid. I never played 'Rise of the Robots' but I remember reading about it in magazines and I always thought "wooow this looks so cool!" I was so stupid. On the subject of games I remember fondly but probably weren't good: I recommend you 'FX Fighter' for PC.
Oh lord the hype for this was immense, I remember this being plastered all over the gaming mags to the point it was being shoved down our throats and a UK video game TV show changed it's intro to accommodate it. Then it got released, ooohhhh boy.
Same here in Canada. I remember full page exclusives about it in magazines and being wowed by the graphics and promises of gameplay. When I finally got my hands on it as a Genesis (Mega Drive) rental, I probably played it all of 10 minutes.
I rented this and was stuck with it all weekend. Only way I could beat it was by spamming the same attack with the opponent backed to the wall. A low kick I believe.
I remember seeing all those ads and thinking it looked sick! Luckily I rented the game first at my local video store and was very disappointed you could only play as the boring robot. (I really wanted to play as the power loader from Aliens) Well, that and the game sucking, of course. I ended up bugging my parents to buy me Eternal Champions instead, which was Baller.
I had ROTR on PC, there are a few things you might not know. There was a soundtrack. This required 2 things, that you own the game(and have the CD in the drive) and that you have the little cable between the CD-Rom drive and your soundcard hooked up because the soundtrack was actually tracks on the CD. Secondly, the game ran super fast if you had the right hardware. There was 3dfx acceleration and it fully supported the GUS. The game was free with one of those but I don't remember which. I used to play it on a voodoo graphics card with the ultrasound and it was both higher resolution and faster. That being said, getting the GUS to play nice with it was a pain, that was back in the time of DIP switches and cursing. Once it worked, it was awesome compared to other games of the time.
Fun fact: in the UK during the 90s, a kids' TV show about games called Bad Influence decided to pay Mirage to make videos of the cast of Rise of the Robots posing as it was thought this was what "the kidz" wanted.
This video triggered a childhood memory of owning the *novelisation* of this game. I swear it's a thing, and from what I recall the last few chapters were the most obvious "we're approaching release and you're out of time" rush jobs I've ever read 10/10 - would read terrible novelisation of terrible fighting game again
In a UK there was a magazine called Viz, and I remember they had an advert for Rise of the Robots that was simply a logo, the picture of the protagonist and the caption "I may have a gob, but I'll bite your effin head off." It was amusing enough, but it didn't make me want to buy the game though.
I remember this game, little young me had some money left over from my summer holiday budget that would have needed to be exchanged if I wanted to use it when I got home the next day. I thought it looked so cool, I loved the robots, so I got it and eagerly popped it in when I did arrive home. The fact that I could remember most of the bulletpoints you set out in this video from having only played it for a little bit really does underpin how impressively bad it was. It forever stuck with me as a prime example of bad game design as well as a regretful purchase I could ever get a refund on.
I remember renting this from blockbuster for the SNES and man after about 2 hrs it sat the entire weekend. Back when video game magazines hyped games based on graphics
I should have known this was a trap when it went on sale for $14.99 for PC. The Intro had my hopes sky high until I pressed the punch button. I knew then, I fucked up.
I remember my dad really wanting me to buy this game. We would see it on the shelf at one computer store we used to frequent, and he, a non-gamer, was convinced that it was going to be great because the box art reminded him of the T-1000. I saved up my allowance to buy a game, but opted instead to get a recently-released title I'd never heard of called Unreal.
In every mode, player 1 is locked to the cyborg. This means that they didn't need to create anything to connect the others bots to the player 1 at all. No need for palette swaps for any of the bots, no need to map the inputs for the special moves for any on the other characters, or anything like that. They didn't even need to build an AI for the Cyborg at all, or for any of the other bots fighting the other bots. Hell, any of the programming they would have needed to build to have the other bots fight each other didn't have to get made. Even with the tiny roster, that would be exponentially more work.
SvC Chaos - That's my jam! Ultra Vortek - Wait, people actually hate this? Pit-Fighter - Fantastic! ...at the arcade, and fine on the Mega Drive Street Fighter 1 - A classic, especially for its time. People need to put more respect on its name Urban Champion - Love the strategy and mind-games that go into it. Rise of the Robots - oh good lord no...
I was pumped when I got this on SNES. I had actually seen it about a year before it came out at Comdex in Las Vegas. My young brain saw robots and that's about all it took to get me on board.
Still better than Dangerous Streets, even though the latter one has the hilarious speech in its favor. (And to answer the question at 14:00: The Amiga version plays worse. Fewer animations and only one joystick button.)
I remember playing the MD version of this game at a friend's place and being blown away with how impressive it looked. My 11 year old self was unimpressed with the gameplay though - I could see younger kids being fooled with the visuals and forcing their parents to buy this for them.
CLICK HERE to check out Turbo Overkill on Steam/GOG PLUS giveaways! ➤ apo.gg/TurboMatt
Matt.. I love you, your content, and most of the stuff you promote, but you keep saying "Chomping at the bit" it's "Champing at the bit" horses "Champ" at the bit, they do not chomp at it.
DUDE I've been Streaming through Episode 1 on Twitch the last few weeks...it had been in my Library teasing me FOREVER, but I wanted to have that Fresh Experience thing with the Viewers...
It's like someone reached into my demented brain and then made a Game...SUPER happy Episode 2 dropped in time for my PlayThrough to roll right in.
Creme de la Creme of the Modern Retro-Resurgence FPS Games. FOR SURE.
Fun fact this game actually killed British video game journalism because apparently the game was so crap a lot of British video game magazines were literally lying to the reviews like that they can get more money from their customers and it going to a point that the video game I get seen in the industry in Britain rise of the robots basically killed video game journalism because apparently the video game magazine crash that occurred in Britain at the time and this game kind of made it even worse.
You should check 'steel league clan clash' a fighting game but on dvd
It's "champing at the bit". I'm not joking , look it up.
I remember asking my parents to get me this game for my birthday as a kid, and I’m really really glad I got clothes instead.
Underwear have more entertainment value than _Rise of the Robots._
Haha wow I mean....wow.....
That’s like dodging a bullet.
@@TheRogueWolf Hey, underwear gives you at least one projectile attack.
:( I did get this as a gift and yeah it was bad I didnt even want it I wanted Raw for the 32x so I could play as Kwang
I still love that Edge cover with Rise of the Robots stating "Who needs gameplay with graphics this good?" Turns out everyone needed decent gameplay!
You'd be surprised how many people believe that exact statement about games today.
Oh dear God this sounds like something Kotaku, Polygon, and IGN would say.
@@TheEmperorHyperion god no, they've all learned from that at this point!
@@TheEmperorHyperion To be fair, I messed up the title. Edge very clearly states on the cover they DO care about the gameplay. It's just really funny that Mirage threw everything into the graphics and hoped to bamboozle everyone with just that.
@@notsyzagts7967 "Some people are stupid."
I think it's more that if you put enough money into advertising you're bound to get a few people to buy your thing. It's like how fish might be smart enough to not bite a fishing lure, but that doesn't matter if you cast a big enough net.
The studio that made the game maybe should've started this as an action figute line, these robots look sick.(Godamn automatic corrector)
I would assume that was the idea they were going for, too bad the game stunk enough that it never got to the point of selling merchandise.
That’s why I bought it. That’s why everyone bought it.
I wouldn’t call it a “studio”.. I’m imagining something more like one of those Indian scam call offices. Looks like a dingy apartment with a cheap fold out table with 4 or 5 guys that all sound like Borat chain smoking Russian Marlboro reds and sharing stories about how they plan on mistreating their 15 year old wives when they get off work
@@robertmanes9333 I don't exactly thought about as an "Indian" scam call offices but yeah maybe a relativetly small business and location, the only one that might know would be one of the workers I guess.
@@cpl.barbarusc4814 they exist primarily in India and Bangladesh… wasn’t trying to say that it is something endemic amongst primarily Indian folks. Apparently the pay is substantially higher than one would expect to make in a legitimate office so when something of that nature exists, ones who can take advantage can and will
15:30 "spill your pneumatic fluids"? So, she's going to spill your air? I think the word you're searching for is "hydraulic", robot lady. Supervisor indeed!
Ngl "pneumatic fluids" sounds creepier
I mean, in physics air is a fluid
Fun story, I played Rise of the Robots 2 to get into top 8 of UFGT9's mystery game tournament and I thought that it was the worst fighting game I ever played.
Then I played Bikini Karate Babes 2 in winners top 8 and I was quickly corrected in my opinion. I'm still waiting for a young Man McMuscles to do an episode on either bikini Karate Babes games
Can I get a translation on UFGT9? What was it and do they usually do mystery game tourneys?
@@LordDinosaur UFGT was the Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament. It was the tournaments that would eventually become Combo Breaker. If you're familiar with Combo Breaker and Frosty Faustings, you'll know that mystery game is one of the most popular tournaments at those events
ROTR could brag about graphics, did BKB brag about something like that?
What i love in this video, is that half of the time the background music is from the Great OMF One Must Fall 2097 PC Game, a fantastic Robot Fighting game, that Rise of the Robots tried to copy in just the worst way possible. Well Done Matt
I rather like how, just like with the Street Fighter The Movie: The Game episode of TWFG, this episode is essentially a follow up to the ROTR What Happened episode from a couple of years ago, giving people the chance to see how the game's development made it the disasterpiece we know today in one video and learning Matt's personal thoughts on several different versions of the game in another video.
And it makes me glad to see that my wish to see ROTR get IN THE RING and having the game being placed in the proverbial scrap heap (just like the actual ROTR robots were presumably sent to an actual scrap heap after Rise 1 and 2 failed so miserably) has come true! =)
Man, I have a personal grudge with this game. I made my sis buy it because I liked the cover (we were poor and could only afford one game every so often, and most of the time it was bootlegs). I had an awful time trying to trade it with the other kids on the school (everyone had mk, killer instinct and street fighter).
If games were only judged based on their graphics, this would be a winner!
@E E no wonder why the industry so fucked up.
At the time it was, together with almost all game magazines giving an unbelievably high score and thumbs up in their reviews of the game. It was the first time I was duped as a teen lol
Your statement is ironic here because as others said, many people use the exact criteria to judge game quality. You may be on a channel where the UA-camr has a balanced opinion but that's not as common as you think.
Technically speaking, the graphics themselves are impressive for their time. But the animations, art direction, and backgrounds are kinda mediocre at best in my opinion.
Sentry looks alright though. And builder looks kinda like a scrapped mega man midboss
People still try that approach sometimes it’s the sole concept
*Remembers Maximilian Dood's review of the game.*
At least Max won't be alone when it came to playing this game.
Rise of the Robots Club: Max and Matt.
We need more members.
Edit: Would like to see you review the sequel as well.
I like how for like 50% of the video you were using music from the 90s robot fighting game that's actually good.
OMF 2097 - I noticed that right away too.
OMF was sick as hell. I need to see if I can find that somewhere. Surely it's abandonware.
@@Kepesk It's freeware now. Been that way since '99.
it's funny how there were *two* robot fighting games released in 1994 with pre-rendered graphics, two buttons, and synth music, and the one people remember is the *bad* one.
Holy crap I just had a good flashback... dat nostalgia man.
Damn. I didn't know how lucky i was for growing up with nothing but Capcom and SNK fighting games. Somehow my dad had a good eye for video games despite never playing them.
I grew up with pretty much everything, and I feel like I appreciate the Capcom and SNK fighters so much more because I was also exposed to the garbage haha.
"I'm gonna spill your pneumatic fluids" - lol pneumatic is gas driven. They confused pneumatic and hydraulic.
I used to not really get fighting games and I think it's because I kept renting ones like Rise of the Robots, Brutal Paws of Fury, and Pit Fighter. Didn't really get the ball rolling with friends until Guilty Gear X2 came out on PS2. After that we went back to all sorts of games.
The only thing I genuinely like about this game was its Continue Screen in the Arcade version where if you let the time go to zero, Prime-8 gives you the bird with the game saying "Forget You" in the background. It was kinda amusing, not gonna lie.
I thought this game was a fever dream I had. I remembered playing a robot fighting game as a child where one of the characters looked like a tiny forklift.
So basically, you were looking at Loader (who is essentially a yellow robotic forklift according to Wiki so technically correct).
Imagine someone took the DOS version of Rise of the Robots, reverse engineered or clean decompiled it, and modernized it to play decently.
It would run well on a McDonald’s kiosk, any other use of processing power to play this crap isn’t justifiable.
Surely by now someone's ripped the sprites for use in MUGEN?
If by 'modernized' you mean 'an actual game' then yes.
5% in Amiga Power. Lol. I remember when that issue came out - "Don't Buy a Turkey This Christmas!"
Nice job putting One Must Fall 2097 music behind this. The superior 90s robot fighting game :D
Yes, the original was better! Had such style and grace. Though I still did like Resurrection. DOA on X-Box was the best I ever played.
I had this game growing up, and back then if you owned a game you did any measure of mental gymnastics required to enjoy a game. So I thought it was BAAAADASSSS and I just wasn't able to beat it as easy as other fighters because I was "too young" so needless to say I grinded it out and beat it and thought bit was a low key cool game no one had heard of
This makes me miss Max's all too short-lived Fighting History series. I'm glad Matt picked up that particular torch and ran with it. I'd still be hyped if Max brought it back so we could have both
I still remember watching Max's stream of Rise of the Robots live... at work... during my break to eat my lunch, I had to resist the urge of laughing at the time his controller got messed up during the 1st Sentry fight... and the final run were he pretty much spammed kicks to beat every robot.
Ah memories... I picked ROTOR up for about £3 a few months after release (once I got over the disappointment of reading all of the awful reviews) and ended up formatting the 5 intro disks (of 13...!?) from the Amiga AGA version, to use for other things. Cheaper than buying blank disks in those days. I probably should have just formatted all of them :D
I knew someone who bought the CD32 version, man those pictures in Amiga Format made it look great but it got 19% in the reviews 🤣
5% in Amiga Power😂
13yo me was so hyped for the previews of "Generic Cyborg boi vs the Appliances" and that one single Brian May riff. Crushing disappointment 😢
We doing an emoji chain or something? 🤨
Seeing it as an acronym made me confused, as ROTOR is also a terrible Robocop ripoff from 1987 about a Robotic traffic cop that shoots people for speeding 😂
Every time I see 'Rise of the Robots' I think 'Are they talking about One Must Fall? No, wait, that's a different game...'
You have a calm, exuberant yet welcoming voice. I haven't heard your videos in almost a year but I didn't have to second guess when this auto selected this video randomly "oh its the unique happy guy!' It's like Christopher Walker or Tommy Wasoise where only one guy could ever trademark that voice.
You're just gonna skip over the surprisingly dark game over screen with Cyborg falling lifeless to the ground revealing his eye, or even worse getting his head crushed in the arcade version.
The first time I lost in ROTR (SNES version for me), that game over screen gave me nightmares. Here was young me expecting this guy to be just this emotionless tank that could take everything and thanks to the game not having ANY story itself, THATS when I learned there's abit of human in there. Quite the reveal.
oh, he did show just a few seconds of that "getting his head crushed" scene, at 15:14!
It should be a rule, if you're covering Rise of the Robots you must always use the opening song from One Must Fall.
Stellar work from Mr McMuscles per usual always great content. 👍
This and Primal Rage were the first fighting games I ever played as a kid. Guess which one I remember fondly.
Always had a twisted love for the Rise games. I think I'm one of only 2 collectors in the world actively hunting for Rise related items and merch.
I was a teenager at the time Rise was announced and it blew me away. I had a Mega Drive at the time so when the game finally hit that system I ran (awkwardly) to the nearest Blockbuster to grab my very own copy.
It is the only console game (that worked) I've ever returned to the shop I bought it from within the hour.
We exchanged it for MKII and good times were had by all... :)
However in the last 15 years my interest was re-piqued, mainly by the rich history behind the game's development.
All of the devs of the various versions seem to be genuinely nice guys as well so I was able to grab a lot of great info (and sometimes unusual items...).
Not a great fighting game at all, but one made in England by a team who I genuinely believe wanted to create an amazing beatemup with Robots but bit off a little more than they could chew when the project ballooned due to multiple versions and a huge marketing campaign.
Oh, but I do actually love some Rise 2...the PC version at least ;)
Just need to add: I soooo want to see Rise 2 broken apart on a competitive level. It's janky crazy combat system could be great fun.
I mean even Dino Rex has tourneys...
THERE ARE DINO REX TOURNAMENTS?!💀😭
Remember playing it as kid and not being able to quit the game, lol. I also remember in my country(Peru) there was this kids contest TV show were one of the contest was just beat this game, never remembered If anyone managed to beat it, in fact I highly doubt it.
DUUUUUDE!!! I remember being SO excited for the Game Gear "Rise of the Robots." It was an ad on the back of an instruction manual to Sonic 2 I think. I was seven years old and I thought it looked awesome! I was flatlined when I learned you couldn't change your character, WTF? A tournament fighter with one character that's a replica of a human even, so fuck pretending to be a robot....I spent all of my birthday money on it, so there was an extra sting....
Now "DANGEROUS STREETS", there is a lot of material
I had a 3do version when I was a kid, I learned to adapt the crap factor and found enjoyment out it a little bit. Lol The 3do uses shoulder button to shift punches to kicks not start button. You can do even do combos by follow light, medium then heavy attack, left enemies to briefly stunning so you step back to avoid counter attack. There’s a weird mechanic that if you spam the same move, the enemies will turn invincible.
The One Must Fall: 2097 music just hits different. Might be the best menu music ever done.
Great game! My favourite scene was then the protagonist shouted "It's risin' time!" and started rising his robots all over the screen.
I love that you used music from the GOOD... uh... 2-D '90s robot fighting game in this vid!
...It's *One Must Fall 2097* for anyone keeping track.
I knew this game would be eventually covered. Pretty solid breakdown of why the game is so bad. I definitely look forward to the day that Expect No Mercy, Ultraman for the SNES, and Dangerous Streets are covered
You just have me ptsd from that game, it stinks so much!
When the Bandai Wonderswan has a better Ultraman game, you know you screwed up
Props for using the title music for OMF 2097, which conversely is an excellent robot fighting game that is also one of my favourites.
I remember when my neighbor was giving me shit for only having a PC while he got the SNES for christmas. And then he bragged about having his first game for it: Rise of the Robots. While at the same time I got One Must Fall as a christmas present.
Guess who got the last laugh on that one. 🤣
7:47 One must fall theme ! I loved playing as Electra !
Loving the use of One Must Fall music in this video.
I was a fighting game fiend as a kid, I even liked the horrible fighting games that my friends hated including Shaq-Fu, but I can still remember renting this for SNES as a kid and for the first time in my life I turned off a fighting game in less than 10 minutes. 😂
Love the One Must Fall music in the background. Ah the irony of using music from a good fighting game about robots.
You mentioned a lot of consoles this was ported to, but missed the Sega Saturn version which is the one I played. Oh wait, Rise 2? I'm amazed they made a sequel to this. But that must have been the one I played. It was so long ago and never a fun game. It also seemed to have a bugged character selection menu where we always had to wait for the selection timer to run out instead of being able to just press a button over who we wanted. Kinda sad that is the only part the game that I can recall easily.
You brought up Dural and it made me think of Virtua Fighter 2...on the Genesis. There's little chance it goes right to the top of the poop pile, but I always wondered what was up with that game, and this is a good place to cover bad games.
What song is playing at 2:07? I couldn't find it on the sound track..
Man, I so dearly wanted this game to be good back when I rented it. Fighting robots just feels like such a winning concept.
Now if only those robots were made of Real Steel.
@@RileyDia I guess Teleroboxer delivered on that premise, but sadly it’s only on the Virtual Boy.
People have mentioned it a few times by now, but "One Must Fall 2097" shows that it very much can be in the right hands. I played it a lot back in the day; it was actually quite ahead of its time with its secrets, tournament mode, and a few other things I don't remember being things in most fighting games of the time.
@@CharlesWorkPPL There was a game tie-in for 'Real Steel' from 2011 where you built your own robots to dominate the WRB championship (the studio that made it even worked on some of the 2K WWE games) but it got removed from the Xbox Live Arcade and the only way to play it is by emulating it.
My dad's Karate group went to one of their houses in the mid 90s and all us kids were dragged along and stayed the night one one room. I remember playing this and the 1v1 multiplayer kept us amused for a while!
I kinda think it would be fun to make a game with the artwork and better mechanics
How could you say this about Kenny's favourite fighting game?
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaany years ago my father went to the.... local game supplier??? and some bastard sold this thing to him, maybe he said something like "i want a good fighting game for my son" .... i just couldn't tell him this game was wrong in so many ways, but yeah, he knew basically nothing about games and just wanted to make me happy, so i smiled and said "thanks dad, this game looks awesome".... what a scam dude.
I loved playing Resurrection Rise 2 on Saturn growing up, and was hyped to see you cover RotR in Wha Happun, and was extra hyped to wake up today to see it return today :D
the Novel was... not the most well written, but I had a good time with it. sadly Rise 2 retcons the last 20 or so pages of the novel, which is a shame because it left off on quite the cliffhanger lmao. I wonder what a sequel to the novel would have been...
also, I loved your pun on RotR being the 2D Queen haha
This review is so hilarious because if the game was just SLIGHTLY worse in any aspect I think it could've derailed Criticom. Photo finish.
That soundtrack is awesome tho. I listen to “The Loader” at the gym.
It's a shame that the arcade version never made it to market, if only because of the gorilla robot that does jerk-off motions over his fallen foe post-fatality and flips you off if you lose to him on the game over screen. He's the VIP of the whole ROTR universe just for that.
I owned this gem as a kid. I played the hell out of it because back then i didn't have a lot of options. I made the most out of it but, yeah, it was bad. the worst part was the control, very stiff. I did like the graphics though and the concept of fighting robots in general.
What was your strategy for killing crusher droid (3rd robot)? I did the jump kick forward, jump kick back repeat. It was the only way I could kill it.
My friend and I used to rent this for SNES once a month or so. We could never seem to master it or get good enough at it to justify purchasing it. I always lamented my lack of skill...
But NOW I can lament that AND the poor game design!
Somehow this game was released and Lobo for SNES and Genesis didn't.
The red robot looks like a stripped down, knockoff version of the Sazabi from 'Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack'.
Fun fact: The Game Gear, SNES, and Genesis ports were made by DDI.
The ai reads your input but falls apart to basic spamming.
Back when this came out I got a free copy for the MSDOS version of this came through my dad's work. I remember thinking the game looked so cool and wanted to play it so badly. However, the requirements to run the game were incompatible with our PC at the time and I never got to play it or let alone even open the box. I am positive that somewhere at my parent's house there is still a factory sealed copy of this game that hasn't been touched in about 25 years. Hadn't heard anything about this game since then until I stumbled upon this video.
All the One Must Fall 2097 music reminds me that I would love to see a What Happened on the making of One Must Fall: Battlegrounds one day!
I'm assuming the OMF 2097 soundtrack in the background was ironically used.
I appreciate the One Must Fall music in the back!
1:13 That's "music by the newly-knighted Sir Brian May of Queen fame!" (I believe 2 tracks that were on his album "Back To The Light"....and also "Cyborg" from his "Another World" album was used for ROTR II)
I remember picking this game out as a kid in the bargain bin. I was so disappointed, the wording on the back of the box hyped this game up so much. Lol
12:44 Oh shiet soooon, you brought so many memories. Loved Urban Champion when I was a Kid.
I never played 'Rise of the Robots' but I remember reading about it in magazines and I always thought "wooow this looks so cool!" I was so stupid.
On the subject of games I remember fondly but probably weren't good: I recommend you 'FX Fighter' for PC.
Oh lord the hype for this was immense, I remember this being plastered all over the gaming mags to the point it was being shoved down our throats and a UK video game TV show changed it's intro to accommodate it.
Then it got released, ooohhhh boy.
Same here in Canada. I remember full page exclusives about it in magazines and being wowed by the graphics and promises of gameplay. When I finally got my hands on it as a Genesis (Mega Drive) rental, I probably played it all of 10 minutes.
@@tghidsgn it was a rental for me too, thank God I didn't buy it 😅
1:32 As former world record speedrun holder, I agree
7:45 Well, isn't it ironic that a game all about machines didn't take mechanics into consideration?
I rented this and was stuck with it all weekend. Only way I could beat it was by spamming the same attack with the opponent backed to the wall. A low kick I believe.
Never seen this game in action, but I remember it being advertised everywhere.
You couldn't open a single gaming mag at the time without at least one full page ad
I remember seeing all those ads and thinking it looked sick! Luckily I rented the game first at my local video store and was very disappointed you could only play as the boring robot. (I really wanted to play as the power loader from Aliens) Well, that and the game sucking, of course. I ended up bugging my parents to buy me Eternal Champions instead, which was Baller.
I loved this game when I was a kid, but then again I had very limited funds and I kinda forced myself to love it cause that was my allowance
I want a time machine so i can go back in time just to make fun of you for liking this game when you were a kid
I love it too.
It's a one Player fighting game.
A callange.
Dark souls, the fighting game if u will.
Learn every enemy, beat this game.
WTF the dude at 11:15 just dies from a hit that doesn't even closely connect??
I had ROTR on PC, there are a few things you might not know. There was a soundtrack. This required 2 things, that you own the game(and have the CD in the drive) and that you have the little cable between the CD-Rom drive and your soundcard hooked up because the soundtrack was actually tracks on the CD. Secondly, the game ran super fast if you had the right hardware. There was 3dfx acceleration and it fully supported the GUS. The game was free with one of those but I don't remember which. I used to play it on a voodoo graphics card with the ultrasound and it was both higher resolution and faster. That being said, getting the GUS to play nice with it was a pain, that was back in the time of DIP switches and cursing. Once it worked, it was awesome compared to other games of the time.
Get the infamous PC fighting game CatFight to dethrone Criticom.
Fun fact: in the UK during the 90s, a kids' TV show about games called Bad Influence decided to pay Mirage to make videos of the cast of Rise of the Robots posing as it was thought this was what "the kidz" wanted.
Got my parents to hire this from blockbuster when I was about 10. Really glad I didn't own a copy. Awful game
This video triggered a childhood memory of owning the *novelisation* of this game. I swear it's a thing, and from what I recall the last few chapters were the most obvious "we're approaching release and you're out of time" rush jobs I've ever read
10/10 - would read terrible novelisation of terrible fighting game again
To think an emulator was once made just to play the CD-i version of this game.
In a UK there was a magazine called Viz, and I remember they had an advert for Rise of the Robots that was simply a logo, the picture of the protagonist and the caption "I may have a gob, but I'll bite your effin head off."
It was amusing enough, but it didn't make me want to buy the game though.
I remember this game, little young me had some money left over from my summer holiday budget that would have needed to be exchanged if I wanted to use it when I got home the next day. I thought it looked so cool, I loved the robots, so I got it and eagerly popped it in when I did arrive home.
The fact that I could remember most of the bulletpoints you set out in this video from having only played it for a little bit really does underpin how impressively bad it was. It forever stuck with me as a prime example of bad game design as well as a regretful purchase I could ever get a refund on.
This was the first game I was aware of to become one of those every 2nd hand store had several copies available of at any time.
It’s the type of game you leave in your neighbors yard so you don’t have to be bothered to throw it away yourself
Okay I need to know how the fuck a fighting game worked on the CDi
Ah, Rise of the Robots...the game that almost led to my early retirement of fighting games...good trauma, good trauma...
This is what happens when you bank entirely on graphics, leaving yourself with no time or resources left for anything else.
It's such a shame that this game is bad. I'm a bug fan of robots is fighting games, so I would've loved a robot fighting game franchise.
I wonder if One Must Fall is ever going to be on this show with as much music as I hear from it.
It damn well better not. This channel maybe, but not The Worst Fighting Game.
I guess not even the first one, it's just a SF1 clone... the 2097 is a lot of fun.
You could easily put the sequel in a What Happened episode.
Most people don't even know it exists.
the Supervisor’s weird pointy stretching makes my teeth itch. It’s like Voldo and Jivatma had a weird time-warp robot baby.
Gotta love that music from One Must Fall 😊
I remember renting this from blockbuster for the SNES and man after about 2 hrs it sat the entire weekend. Back when video game magazines hyped games based on graphics
I was waiting for you to review this one Matt.
I should have known this was a trap when it went on sale for $14.99 for PC. The Intro had my hopes sky high until I pressed the punch button. I knew then, I fucked up.
Ooohhhh I remember this monstrosity lol. My mom came home with this game she got it for 10 bucks. Maaaan take me back
I remember my dad really wanting me to buy this game. We would see it on the shelf at one computer store we used to frequent, and he, a non-gamer, was convinced that it was going to be great because the box art reminded him of the T-1000. I saved up my allowance to buy a game, but opted instead to get a recently-released title I'd never heard of called Unreal.
In every mode, player 1 is locked to the cyborg. This means that they didn't need to create anything to connect the others bots to the player 1 at all. No need for palette swaps for any of the bots, no need to map the inputs for the special moves for any on the other characters, or anything like that. They didn't even need to build an AI for the Cyborg at all, or for any of the other bots fighting the other bots. Hell, any of the programming they would have needed to build to have the other bots fight each other didn't have to get made. Even with the tiny roster, that would be exponentially more work.
SvC Chaos - That's my jam!
Ultra Vortek - Wait, people actually hate this?
Pit-Fighter - Fantastic! ...at the arcade, and fine on the Mega Drive
Street Fighter 1 - A classic, especially for its time. People need to put more respect on its name
Urban Champion - Love the strategy and mind-games that go into it.
Rise of the Robots - oh good lord no...
I loved SvC Chaos' SF character designs, the gameplay is a bit janky but it's serviceable I guess (it's not a bad crossover, just a 4/10).
I was pumped when I got this on SNES. I had actually seen it about a year before it came out at Comdex in Las Vegas. My young brain saw robots and that's about all it took to get me on board.
Still better than Dangerous Streets, even though the latter one has the hilarious speech in its favor. (And to answer the question at 14:00: The Amiga version plays worse. Fewer animations and only one joystick button.)
Still wondering where Iron and Blood will fall into all of this. :)
This aged like fine wine, heh.
I remember playing the MD version of this game at a friend's place and being blown away with how impressive it looked. My 11 year old self was unimpressed with the gameplay though - I could see younger kids being fooled with the visuals and forcing their parents to buy this for them.