Robot Wars 2 : Extreme Destruction Review

Overall Rating

Quite realistic/
Wide range of robots/
Long life span - lots of parts, robots, and /arenas to unlock.

Graphics a little glitchy in places/
Could be a little faster/
No visible damage/
Small amounts of slowdown.

3...2...1...Activate! Robot Wars - Extreme Destruction is hitting Game Boy Advance screens as we speak. If you are unaware of what robot wars is, it is a TV show where two remote controlled robots battle each other trying to cause enough damage to immobilise their competitor.


And that is what this game is about, the destruction of robots in wars, to the extreme, hence the name. This version of the game is based on Robot Wars Extreme, rather than the first incarnation of the Robot Wars Series (Robot Wars - Advanced Destruction) which was based on the third UK championships. However, this game is a lot more than updating robot stats and the arenas.

No, not at all. The first noticeable change is the graphics. Rather than being 2D graphics made to look 3D, this is all three dimensional stuff, and it doesn't look too bad, barring a few glitches here and there. All the robots are recognisable, from the always-a-flippin' Wheely Big Cheese to the awesome Hypnodisc. There is also a section where you can create your own robotic god of the arena, where you select all sort of things, from chassis to armour, and from power to weapons.

So, once you've created your own championship winning machine, it's time to take to the arena floor. The game feels good, and rather than Robot Wars Advanced Destruction where you can only bash into each other and use the flipper or weapon, to utilise your flipper or weapon as well as possible, it helps to get under the other robot where you can really make them fly. This is a lot more realistic as it really allows the people who watch the series and yell out tactics to the TV to create a dream battle, for example, get behind Tornado and flip it from there, avoiding its destructive spinning disc.

The sound is nothing to write home about, with some average music in the background and nice crunching noises, but there are a lot better examples to be found on the GBA. Jonathon Pearce (the commentator from the UK series of Robot Wars) provides commentary, which amounts to "three, two, one, activate" and nothing much else.

There are lots of mini games to keep your fingers pushing those buttons, including a bizarre game involving a long jump using the floor flipper. In these mini games, you can unlock even more robot parts to fit to your incarnation of chaos, new competitors to destroy, and more arenas to...err..drive about in a bit. This will keep any Robot Wars fan playing away to unlock that last robot, every last robot piece, and all the arenas.

To be honest, if you watch robot wars and think "How sad are those grown men making remote control cars with little smashy things", then avoid this game. However, if you are a robo-nutter, you will absolutely love this game. It incorporates a lot of what is in the series, and generally feels, well, "Robot Warsy".