Robot Combat League (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

SyFy starts season 1 tonight. Its not battlebots, but I will give it a go

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I forgot to watch. Was it worth checking out?

 

[mattCR]

Too much talking and nothing, not enough fighting. I miss battlebots. The problem with these humanoid robots that are stood up on skids to trade blows is that there isn't that much action. When you'd watch battlebots and someone would come out with a chainsaw attached you knew something good might happen. Here, there just isn't that much robot diversity, they are all too much alike, so you don't get to see wildly different strategies. People forget how really awesome something like Battlebots was. People building their own robots and beating the hell out of them in wild and creative ways. But in Robot Combat League, all of the robots are the same format. They are slow moving. The people are just controllers, so they don't have a lot of insight into rapid repairs or strategy. In something like Battlebots, week to week people were changing their robots to make them different against new competition. Robot Combat League was something I had hoped would bring back everything I loved about Battlebots, where a 30 minute show could bring you 3 good fights and some interviews. Instead, an hour long show brought you 4 minutes of fairly boring fighting and a lot of reality-show TV picking of teams and stupid games of skill.

 

[ChristopherG]

Battlebots was freaking awesome and I miss it as well. What a great concept it was - kind of hard to believe that somehow somewhere it didn't get picked back up.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Robot Combat League was something I had hoped would bring back everything I loved about Battlebots, where a 30 minute show could bring you 3 good fights and some interviews.  Instead, an hour long show brought you 4 minutes of fairly boring fighting and a lot of reality-show TV picking of teams and stupid games of skill.

That's a shame.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

The promos made it look like Rock'em Sock'em Robots with a better interface but about as creative and strategic (i.e. almost none).

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Chuck Anstey
The promos made it look like Rock'em Sock'em Robots with a better interface but about as creative and strategic (i.e. almost none).

And that's exactly what it is. This is what hurts most because it's what made Battlebots brilliant was the strategy of such wildly different and mobile robots.

 

[DaveF]

I'm pre-disposed to hate this show, as the annoying pop-up ads intrude on Face/Off. Still, I caught an episode randomly. It was really quite interesting, until the actual Robot Combat League part started. Then it was a total snooze. The lead up, showing the design, test, and practice with the hardware was interesting. A little like Mythusters. Unfortunately, the actual fighting showed what sad excuses for "robots" these are. They don't really fight; they more lurch and flop into each other, the controllers doing Hollywood style fight technique and the machines clumsily echoing it. And there were strange, added sparks and explosions to enhance the otherwise lackluster trading of punches. So meh. And I hope the ads go away from Face/Off.

 

[dmiller68]

I thought it was lame... I hat to say it but I wasn't impressed at all. I agree with some of the other comments about it just not being the same. It almost looked fake at times.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I made it through the first episode and was greatly disappointed. But I gave up midway through Ep. 2 when the robots were fighting and exactly the same sort of thing happened as happened in ep 1. That is. One robot punches another, robot 2 lights up (Huh??? lights??) and then some gold-looking oil squirts out. Oil? What the heck do these things need with oil, enough that it actually spurts? IMHO, this show is lame and probably fake. I dearly, dearly miss Battlebots and was really hoping this could be at least a pale imitation. Not so. Speaking of Battlebots, although I can't really find anything about this on the internet (maybe I didn't look hard enough), but I thought at the time there was a rumor that the show got canceled because of liability issues. That is, some of the bots might have crashed through the box or spewed parts through or over it and possibly hurt someone. Anybody else remember that?

 

[mattCR]

There weren't ever any incidents, but comedy central began worrying about people building at home and injuring/killing themselves ... That was the official reason. They still run battlebot tournies, just not broadcast . but your right about how fake this show feels, especially in comparison