Rise of the Robots

Philips CD-i · 1994 · EU

Also known as: Rise Of The Robots

Philips Interactive Media Mirage Technologies

Publisher: Philips Interactive Media · Developer: Mirage Technologies

Rise of the Robots is a 2.5D fighting game. You play as the cyborg Eco35-2, half-man half-robot, created by the Electrocorp company, in order to counter the mutiny that is brewing in their Metropolis 4 factory, following the reprogramming of certain robots by injecting them with the EGO virus, making them aware of their situation and therefore aggressive. You will have to fight them one by one in duel battles to stop this rebellion. The title was intended to be graphically revolutionary. But although the fighting robots are quite nice (with 3D sprites transcribed in a 2D universe), the scenery is only in dull static 2D. Also, the in-game animation is slow, even quite "heavy", directly impacting the handling. The slowness of your robot and the varying power of the enemies (to the point that some robots are ultra powerful and atomize you in two shots) quickly make the fights unbalanced.