Rise Of The Robots

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Rise takes you into a highly industrialized future world where technologies have developed and crashed together to create a supreme super-tech society. The servants of this society are robots. Metropolis 4, the city-state setting in Rise, is the home to ElectroCorp, the planet's major robot manufacturer. ElectroCorp produce a huge range of machines for all possible applications, ranging from crude industrial droids to highly sophisticated military models. But those droids and robots are now infected by a virus that corrupts their behavior programming and creates a vicious psychotic personality. Your mission is to control a Cyborg and seek out and destroy those infected droids and robots.
Rise of the Robots was very similar in style and gameplay to other popular fighting games of the time like Street Fighter II, yet the characters within Rise of the Robots are all robots and the plot is heavily based on the cyberpunk genre and more specifically on blockbuster movies like Blade Runner, Robocop and The Terminator.
There are only 7 characters to select from, which is rather limited. Apart from the limited roster of fighters, there are not many moves or combos available during gameplay but at least there are a few "secret" moves available, like i.e. becoming invisible and hit the opponent by surprise. A negative feature of the game is that the characters cannot turn around or dace in the opposite direction.
The gameplay is rather repetitive although you have the option to play the game either in single player or in two players versus mode.
Overall, Rise Of The Robots is certainly a cool looking tech demo, but in case you want a more playable Amiga fighting game, it does not cover up all the necessary sections.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Rise of the Robots was considered years ahead of its time in terms of graphics, supporting up to 230 colors on the DOS version, almost double the colors of the Amiga AGA version. The graphics are exceptional and all the characters are pre-rendered whilst the backdrops are stunning, with great and colorful details. Also, the DOS version runs in a higher resolution (640x480). The characters move quite smooth and faster than the Amiga versions but we would expect more frames per second. Before each fighting scene there is a nicely pre-rendered animated sequence showing your next opponent. The game opens with an eye popping intro, cinematic shots of all the combatants with reasonably smooth animation. Surely the graphics are the game's strongest point, but unfortunately it's not enough as the gameplay is somewhat flat and repetitive.
The sound on the DOS computers supports SoundBlaster audio hardware and includes an introductory guitar tune composed by Brian May, and only a few sampled sound effects but during gameplay.