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Review: CyberBots |
CyberBots is one of Capcom’s least known fighting games. Released in arcades only in Japan in 1995, around the time of the original Darkstalkers and SSF2T - CyberBots is relatively unique in 2D fighting terms for its use of giant Mechs and heavy weaponry.
Choosing first of all a pilot (from six available at the start) - whom will affect the story, and then one of eight Mechs to control, you must face the usual characters and eventually a boss (also controllable in the end)
While commendable for its use of an actual storyline, the fact that there is no English language option, nor an English version available means you’ll basically be skipping reams and reams of Japanese text, with no knowledge of what the hell is actually going on.
The characters are an unusual bunch, from the icy-cool female pilot, two caveman, a Middle-Ages-style Knight, and a young princess, a mad professor and Frankensteins’ monster (all piloting one Mech!) - but the fact you can’t understand anything they say….or even know their names, means that you don’t get to know and like/ dislike them the way you might in say, the King of Fighters series, and thus there’s no real impetus to find out what happens to each character.
The Mechs too are varied in their design. From the standard, bipedal forms (complete with fireballs and dragon punches) to more outlandish designs, Mechs with giant tank treads, ones that look like insects, or animals - there’s certainly a lot more choice than your standard people fighting game, though don’t expect to get too attached to the machines either - with names like “GP-V4 G-VISE” and “GP-N1 GULDIN” you can see why.
The controls too are different, and original. Instead of punches and kicks, each character is controlled with four buttons - a weak attack, a strong attack, a weapon button and a boost button. Weak and strong attacks are fairly self-explanatory - the weapon button will usually activate either a laser or missile launcher, which overheat fairly quickly to prevent abuse, but still cheapens the gameplay. Imagine if Streetfighter had a ‘fireball’ button. You see?
The boost, which also runs out quickly is basically a dash, that can be used in the air, for limited flight, and also helps in combos. This adds some new tactics, and flying up after your opponent and then blasting them with a laser is quite satisfying.
The moves tend towards the more outlandish, vs. style attacks - big blasts of energy, multi-hitting rushes, generally lots of pyrotechnics, activated with your standard Capcom commands, quarter circles, charges, and double quarter circles for supers. Each character only has 2 or three moves, and only one character has more than one super. Combos are you standard two-in-ones and chain hits, though the bizarrity of some attacks, the strange shapes of the Mechs and the relative unresponsiveness of the controls means it never really feels like a tactical battle of minds, more a button-mashing competition.
There are a couple of interesting additions - the super bar can be charged manually - like King of Fighters 94, 95 and 96, and every character has an ‘arm rip’ command - which, well, rips off one of your enemies limbs, which is marginally funny…for a few minutes.
The Mechs are generally well animated, though there are a couple of jerky motions, plus some slow-down in certain circumstances. Having never seen the arcade version, I can’t compare it, but there does seem to be bits (such as the defeated Mech exploding) that are very poorly animated, and the overall resolution is a lot lower than more recent Saturn games.
The backgrounds vary from dull to very well drawn, a great feature is how your actions affect the BGs in some ways. Knocking your opponent over in front of a building in the city stage will damage it, and in the second round you may see some tiny fire trucks attempting to put out the blaze you started. Little “oh, look at that” touches abound through this game, and the final stage, fighting the boss Mech as the space station you were in plummets towards Earth, with both it, and you, burning up on re-entry is a phenomenal experience.
This comes with a price, although supporting the 4mb RAM cart (though there is very little difference without it), there is still a lot of loading, with the between-fight wait lasting over 30 seconds.
The sound is average - the music sounds extremely like Darkstalkers in some points, the impacts and explosions are a bit weak, and the announcer is your standard cyber-enhanced weirdo, who pronounces the word “combo” as “comb-bo” - stange.
There are also very few game options. You have One-Player, Versus and Options. And that’s it. The options are just difficulty, sound and sound tests too, so nothing great there. The presentation is also very dull - the title screen for instance, a crappy logo and the three
options hardly inspires you to play it. And the intro is so memorable I can’t even remember what it was.
Replayablity is also questionable - beating the game without losing a round allows you access to the games most famous secret character, Zero-Gouki, a giant robotic version of Streetfighters’ infamous demon warrior. Repeated play will also enable the bosses to be playable, bringing the total number of character….to twelve. But seeing as I didn’t know their names or stories or anything at all about them - I just couldn’t be bothered.
There are a few recognisable faces here. Zero-Gouki you know, Devilot, the princess, scientist and monster trio that appeared as a secret opponent in Puzzle Fighter and as a helper in Marvel vs. Capcom is a mid-boss - though which one is actually called Devilot and what the hell they are actually supposed to be doing is beyond me. They do fly the Super-8 - a huge Octopus-shaped Mech - who provides one of the games’ more interesting. and impressive fights.
The main character is Jin - who most recently appeared, along with his Mech the Blodia, in Marvel vs. Capcom - though he doesn’t appear to be such a shouting, screaming, burning, underwear-flashing maniac in this game. Thank god.
I think CyberBots’ biggest problem is it is just so outdated. Since it was made, Capcom have given us two more Vampire games, the Versus sries, the Alpha series and the SF3 series. And CyberBots can’t compare to any of them.
If I’d have seen this game when it first came out - I’d have loved it, as it was fairly cutting-edge for it’s time, but these days it just can’t hack it. It’s not as well animated or weird as the Vampire games, as insane and spectacular as the Vs. games, or as technical and precise as the Alpha and ‘Three’ games.
It just doesn’t offer anything amazing (apart from the last battle) and as such can only really be thought of really as a “novelty” purchase.
It’s a shame really, but I can’t really recommend CyberBots to anyone but the crazed Capcom completist. Such a pity….
