55 replies to this topic

[Phane00]

Saw the opening episode last night. Some pluses and minuses, but not bad. It's no where near Real Steel, but it's a WWE version of battlebots. Bigger bots, greater damage, completely unbelievable results, and a wrestler as the host. Poor Chris Jericho, just can't get those Rock gigs.

The Good:
Bigger bots = bigger damage. A true WWE signature, bigger opponents make the matches better. No one cares about bots the size of vacuum cleaners doing battle. But 8 foot tall bots ripping the arms off of lesser bots, and you get a better attraction.
Two pilots per bot. Creates some nice drama in and out of the arena.
Replays. Typically shown one camera at a time. Easier to witness the damage being dealt, as opposed to the 3 camera "live" action during the match.

The Bad:
Teams don't get to customize their bots. These giant bots come fully outfitted to match their perspective teams. Huge lack of originality and character. Would have preffered every team to get a basic bot to customize to their particular talents.
Robot designer in every moment of the show. I get that he made them, that he knows the bots inside and out, and he's the guru. However, teach them how to repair their bots, then get out of the way. He's the Dr. Drew of this show.
Not all the damage seen is dealt by the other bot. Another element from WWE... the scripted match. Though it's interesting to see sparks fly when a bot hits another bot, it would be a better sell if the sparks flew from the point of impact rather than a random interior spot. It's like a wrestler suddenly bleeding heavily down his face after getting "hit" by his opponent with a chair in the back. Sell it better or don't do it at all.
Hidden Kill Switches. One team was getting dominated for an entire round, then suddenly gets in a hit in the 2nd round that ruptures the hydraulics in the core of the more powerful bot. The hit sends the bot into a tsall and it loses the match. Pretty impressive, except the hit came from the already damaged arm of the first bot that barely grazes the chest of the second bot. Come on WWE, you can sell the win better than that.

There's absolutely room for improvement, but it's not a bad show. The matches are interesting, and some of the contestants are quite colorful, like Lucas' kid. But they need to customize their bots, and let the bots/teams win the matches rather than let the script win.

Edited by Phane00, Feb 27, 2013 @ 2:56 PM.

[bulldawgtownie]

It's no where near Real Steel, but it's a WWE version of battlebots.

I disagree, I look at it as a precursor to how things are in "Real Steel" and I didn't see the similarities to the WWE you saw. I also don't see the results as being unrealistic considering each robot has a specific weakness or design flaw built into it.

[Shippaisha]

I tuned it because I was a big fan of Real Steel. I wanted to like it more, but I kept questioning if the damage to the robots was prearranged, like riding the earthquake tram at Universal Studios.

At any rate, I have a soft spot for Chris Jericho as a host and fighting robots, so I'll keep watching.

[MDKNIGHT]

I liked it. I do wonder if it is like professional wrestling and fixed or not. However while I thought the come back from behind in round two for Crash or whatever that was was unlikely I didn't see it as totally impossible as I read the stats and the blue robot's weakness was it'a middle was really soft. Theoretically Crash (whose stats had endurance as it's major advantage) may have survived the hits from blue robot and gotten in a lucky shot at blue's middle where he was basically an aluminum can waiting to be crushed. So not totally convinced it's on the up and up but it might be. I might continue even if it is rigged if they make it entertaining enough. I never watched RAW but I did laugh my head off at Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling when I was a kid.

[DementedDaisy]

I plan on continuing to watch until George Lucas shows up. Curious to see how the others react to that. After that, meh. The first episode had a scripted feel to it.

[Kaoteek]

Yeah, it felt very scripted, and the fake pyro/sparks added in detract from the show, imo : according to interviews, those are supposedly produced by a pyro team watching the match in real-time, and triggering the sparks whenever they feel like it, to "enhance" the matches... and yet the suspicious synchronisms between killing blows and sparks really makes it feel like everything's written and decided beforehand.

Also, as much as i usually like him, Y2J is trying too hard in its announcing.

[Taeolas]

I'll keep watching. I just hope that all this setup was just for the first ep, and the following eps will be 2 or 3 bouts per episode.

[dmmetler]

I enjoyed it, but I preferred Battlebots, especially in the early seasons because the teams actually built their robots, flaws and all. I'll probably keep watching-I love me some robots-but honestly, I suspect the typical middle school FIRST Lego League competitor knows more about robotics engineering than many of these competitors, and if it turns out that every single match is "Find the robot's hidden flaw and exploit it", it's going to become way too predictable.

[DementedDaisy]

I forgot to mention that I don't see the need for the athlete/fighter half of the duo. The robots are barely able to punch and walk at the same time. I doubt any are going to be pulling any MMA moves during a match.

[MiniDriver]

I miss Robot Wars. This show would have been a lot better if contestants designed the robots, rather than having robots assigned to them. Also, why restrict the action to punching? It's a robot, not a human fighter! Give it a chainsaw hand, a sledgehammer fist.

[Phane00]

One of the bots has an axe for a head. If he can't or doesn't headbutt another bot with that then this show will flop.

Edited by Phane00, Mar 1, 2013 @ 12:23 PM.

[MDKNIGHT]

No love or hate for the show today? Come on there are much worse shows on now. It reminds me of a scene from Future World the sequel to West World where Blythe Danner and a guy have gigantic Rockem Sockem Robot IIRC. I'll continue watching becuase the backsories of the contestants amuse me and the battles themselves are kind of cool with hydraulic fluid spurting all over.

[Shippaisha]

A lot of this episode was blatantly telegraphed, particularly Thunderskull's DQ. And IIRC there was one point during that match where Thunderskull totally whiffed, and yet a sparks explosion went off in Brimstone's torso anyway. Pull the other one, Robot Combat League.

Commander getting bisected was sort of fun, though.

[Phane00]

The Scorpio vs. Commander bout made the show last night. It's one thing to see 2 big bots ground n pound, but to see one bot literally cut another bot in half was pretty sweet.

However, if we are to look at these bots as if this wasn't scripted, one has to wonder why Scorpio had such a better weapon than Commander. Commander had a bigger reach, and a bigger fist. Scorpio had each hand made with a blade. The blades, though prolly not really cutting through metal (more like plastic), still focuses the punches' force to a more concentrated area, thus delivering more damage to a much smaller target. A big advantage when dealing with bots that aren't controlled well as is.

The other bout was obviously going to end in a DQ before the match even got under way. The first match went well past the halfway mark of the show, and most of it was the actual fight. This one had barely 15 minutes to fight, including a commercial break or two. This was going to end quick before it began.

And enough with the fake sparks. All you're doing is covering up the fact that the bots aren't dishing any real damage.

[bairdwh]

The pyro and suspiciously breaking parts make this show stupid. They things aren't robots, they are just half-assed hydraulic puppets. They don't really walk, the are carried around on that bar behind them, their feet do nothing.

Battlebots was so much better. Maybe the robots might fight better if they didn't have 50 pounds of fireworks inside them.

The endings of these matches are so fake and telegraphed, its like watching a boxing match where one of the fighters is wrapped in dynamite and soaked in gas and the other fighter has flaming gloves.

[misterbfd]

I decided to give this show a chance, and it really is better than I had imagined it would be.

[Taeolas]

I'm enjoying it, even if it is just Rock'em Sock'em robots. The technology isn't quite there to have autonomous bipedal robots, at least not at the cost level of a Cable channel show, so I don't mind that they're puppets more than robots. I'll give the sparks and exposed hydraulic lines a pass for the first season at least, since they probably weren't sure how they would show on TV and wanted to add more pop. If it goes on for more seasons, we'll see more refinement and hopefully less sparks.

[scootypuffjr]

Taeolas, I liked your post above.

Yeah, it may be puppets or Rock'em Sock'em Robots, it may be scripted, the pyrotechnics may be off, the outcomes may be obvious and all that, but the fact remains that these robots are way cool. Imagine that thing lumbering toward you waving its arms around - when they were all being introduced to their robots last week, I was thinking if that were me there would just be a scootypuff-shaped cloud of dust standing in midair while I was running out the back door, just like in the cartoons. So intimidating!

And how much fun would it be to operate one of those things? How many people ever even get a chance like that? I was thinking they ought to take a version of this to the state or county fairs - to heck with the demolition derby, this would clean up! People would come in droves. Maybe you could even operate one (outside of a fight) for a sum - I imagine a lot of people would pay a considerable fee for the chance.

I do admit I was hoping that teams would be designing their own robots. I always liked robot shows when I could catch them - I remember one where teams designed a robot to do some task (picking up ping-pong balls and such) and it was interesting to see how different people had such differing visions on how to accomplish the same goal. This show isn't like that, but it is exciting and fun to me. I'm not complaining.

[ratgirlagogo]

One of these years I hope something comes along for Chris Jericho that allows America to see how good he is. I've been watching him since his days in the original ECW and while I'm glad he's working I wish he'd be cast in something that allowed him to really shine. Of course I do realize that that "something" probably is pro wrestling, but still - some of his promos over the years have made me laugh till my stomach hurt and I wish somebody would figure out how to make the most of his non-wrestling talents.

[DementedDaisy]

That was terrible. Yes, every robot needs strengths and weaknesses, but to give one a fatal flaw.... One punch and down is fun in a street fight, but in a match, it's boring as hell. I think the head designer (or whatever he is) realized that he screwed up with the robot and felt terrible. He seemed really upset with what happened.

Really, though, should he be surprised? The robot's "spine" was not protected. What were they supposed to do? They have to attack, otherwise, they can't win. Points are dependent on blows landed. If they spent the whole time protecting their weak spot, they wouldn't have won regardless.

Again, terrible.

[Jaune Chat]

Wow, lot of hate here I didn't expect.

I never watched Battle Bots or any of the predecessors to this show, nor have I watched professional wrestling, so maybe I'm coming at this from a different perspective, but I'm enjoying it!

I literally don't know who's going to win these fights when the walk into the arena. Usually in reality competition shows the editors do some work that focuses too much on one person or another, and hence you know they're going to be eliminated this week. By those lights, Crash should have gone home over Steel Cyclone, but instead they managed an upset that was totally unexpected. Same with Scorpio and Commander - with all the focus on Team Commander's strategy, I'd expected them to walk over Scorpio, but instead those poor guys had to play a purely defensive game until they were sawed in half. Did not see that coming!

Yeah, the pyrotechnics are not quite matching the action, but the damage itself is real as the robots rip the hoses and actuators out of each other. Even the footing seems to be a problem once the arena gets slick - the bar they're connected to is for stability and balance, but you can actually see the robots' feet sliding and them losing traction and mobility if they get wounded and start slipping in their own blood.

Also the editing needs to improve re: match length, because if they're still pretending the badly-injured robot just might make it in for the second round when there's two minutes to go before the show ends, they're not fooling anyone as to the outcome. That might just be a weakness of having a hard time slot though. They need to move the short matches, the first-round knockouts and early DQs to the first match, and show the longer matches second so there's more suspense as to the outcome.

It would be interesting if for the quarter-finals they let the teams do some modification to their robots. Once they have one match under their belts and know what the robots can and cannot do, it would be neat to see how they try to compensate for their robots' weaknesses.

Edited by Jaune Chat, Mar 13, 2013 @ 5:15 AM.

[Taeolas]

I bet the producers were disappointed that Lucas got knocked out so quickly, but at least they got a cameo from George out of it.

I briefly looked at the website, but I couldn't find the fight grid that they briefly show (ie who's fighting who). IIRC there is a wildcard bracket of some sort right? I wonder if they'll try and get her 'bot in that bracket.

I suspect they tried to have some variety by having the robots have a variety of strengths and weaknesses, that in theory would have balanced out. In RoboHammer's case, the weakness was probably too weak.

The matches do seem to be filmed sequentially, since we do see teams talking about the previous matches. That would make it difficult to shake up the film order. I do wonder what might happen if we get 2 or 3 quick kills in a row; that ep would end up with a lot of filler I guess.

[Booklord]

I'm losing interest.

The Good
------------------
these robots are hitting hard.

The Bad
-------------------
I am not seeing how skill is playing any part of this. Of the two fights last night we had one where the robot had a major arm weakness. "Game Over" was either breaking to easily from glancing arm hits or it was swinging so hard it was breaking its own arms. In the next fight we had a robot with an exposed midsection fighting a robot with fake machine guns as hands giving it an extended reach jabbing attack.

It was all luck. If you were lucky enough to get the better robot you won. If not you lost.

[Phane00]

I'm losing interest.

Agreed.

It's boring when it's predictable, and this one is getting worse. Again, part of the problem is that these teams are given predesgined robots rather than building the bots on their own. But the fights are all the same now.
The bots come at each other swinging wide haymakers. So the whole MMA/Boxing/military trained means nothing when everybody is doing the same thing.
Some bots are built better than others. AXE gets an extra attack from its head, yet Robohammer's midsection was exposed. Bad luck of the draw on bots.
Bad pyro and too much fluid released. It's bad enough when the bots start sparking from hits that never landed. But after seeing the bout with Axe, the fluid is obviously a plant as well. The other bot was standing in a lake of the stuff, and yet it was still able to move both arms and legs. If a car lost that much fluid from its brakes, coolant, oil, etc... the car would not function properly for very long... like seconds. And they never refill, repair, or replace the lines during the repair time. So the bots don't use all of that fluid. It's the robot version of blood pacs, another WWE staple.

If this sorry excuse for a "competition" has a 2nd season, then next time let the teams design, build, and fight their own bots. If they need to be set to a series of standards for better air time, that's fine. But this is no longer interesting, and its fast losing its entertainment value.

Also, the time constraints are an issue. It's stupid to have more than one bout a night in a true competition. The fights could go for 30 mins, or they could last 10 mins. Either is fine, but when two matches are in the same episode, and the first match runs long, then everyone knows that the 2nd one is just an epic beatdown.

[Shippaisha]

I was pretty disappointed that we lost two all-girl teams on the same night. Are there any left?

Word to the endless haymakers being boring. I guess I'll keep watching, but I expected more out of the bots.

[xaxat]

I caught the last couple of episodes and agree, it looks like luck plays more of a role in the outcome than skill.

That being said, I would love to drive one of those robots!

[Kaoteek]

Twice now has a robot crumbled on itself, not due to the opponent's blows, but because of the strain pilots put on the bots' joints/structure by moving and trying to avoid the opponent. Not impressed.

[Kromm]

The pyro stuff is a bit stupid, but I actually think the hydraulic damage is somewhat real (the hit is real, but the extent of the spurting is fake), and interesting.

One of the faker aspects though is how unbalanced the builds of the robots appear to be.

Overall though, its actually quite fun viewing.

Edited by Kromm, Mar 14, 2013 @ 5:09 AM.

[MDKNIGHT]

I'm enjoying this.I also predict Team Scorpio will marry each other at the next Comic Con. They are like some nerd fantasy super couple. We team build by ballroom dancing...this is the first time a beautiful woman does what I tell her etc He's a toy designer who now gets to play with big toys like in the movie Big with the giant piano and she's one school girl uniform away from being a stock anime character (there are a million cartoons where tiny Japanese school girls build giant robots). I'll keep watching.

[Shippaisha]

I cracked up when A.X.E. got cut in half by Scorpio. I almost want this to happen in every one of Scorpio's fights.

But the editing in this episode was terrible. I would rather they had cut down on Team A.X.E.'s drama and the pre-fight whatever and just given us the full Crash/Brimstone fight as well.