Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness - TFG Review (2024)

REVIEW:A previously "Japanese-only" fighting game,Cyberbots is the successor to thebeat-em-up title known as Armored Warriors. Unlike Armored Warriors, Cyberbotsplays like a traditional 2D fighting game. Players first select their character, and then the"mecha" they want their character to pilot and fight with. Cyberbotswas a much lesser known fighting game by Capcom, rarely seen outside of Japanarcades. The game was later ported to PS1 and SegaSaturn, and again, neither of the console ports saw a release outside of Japan. Over 15 years after the initial release, Cyberbots finally became available on PSNin North America as a downloadable PS One Classic.

Even as a hardcore Capcom fan since the late 80's, I had never even known about Cyberbotsuntil Jin Saotome and Devilot appeared in Marvel VS Capcom (and I knowI'm not the only one). That's why it was a no-brainer when Cyberbotsfinally hit PSN for only $5.99. Truth be told, I'm not much of a fan of Japanese"mechs"or robot fighting games, but I decided to give Cyberbots a fair shake anyway.

For fans of Japanese robots, the cast of Cyberbots is diverse andinteresting... which isn't surprising coming from the makers of StreetFighter. Each "mecha" has a generous selection of special moves,comparable to that of aStreet Fighter character. Cyberbotsuses a 4-button layout instead of the classic 6-button setup used in most Capcomfighting games. There are 2 attack buttons, a hover / dash button and a projectilebutton. Under the health gauge, there is a super combo gauge and a gaugedisplaying the limit of the projectile gun.

Cyberbots

also features selectable options,parts, and mecha, allowing players to format their play style to theirpreference. Similar to the Armored Core series, players have access to different legs (whichaffect movement abilities), arms (which affect reach and melee capabilities) andweapons can be mixed and matched between the selectable robots.

Most 2D fighting game fundamentals are present in Cyberbots, and the gameis actually very "easy" to play.

The basic Hadouken & Shoryuken inputswill get your special / super moves on the screen, and there are even quite a few"1-button" special attacks, most of which being projectiles. On thatnote, spamming projectiles like crazy can actually be pretty effective in thisgame.

During a typical fight, there will be a crazy amount of projectiles being thrownevery which way. To counteract these, many of the mechas have long-reachingpriorities and special attacks - with some of the mechas able to reach acrossthe entire screen to damage their opponent. Cyberbots isn't a verycombo-oriented game... it's more of a "projectile & poke" type offighting game. Overall, the gameplay feels a bit "cramped". Ithink a super jump ability would've suited the game nicely. I'm actuallysurprised Cyberbots doesn't feature a super jump, since Capcom's X-Men:Children of the Atom came out around the same time.

From the opening movie to the game's soundtrack,Cyberbots looks and sounds like several other Capcom fighting games ofthe era. The intro is comparable to the style of the Street Fighter Alphaseries, and some of the game's BGMs sound like they could come straightfrom X-Men VS Street Fighter (released about a year after Cyberbots). However, Cyberbotsdoesn't quite live up to Capcom's other smash hits when it comes tographics.

For one, the hand drawn backgrounds are noticeably less polished than other recentfighting games. Partly due to the nature of the game, the in-game graphics aren't what I'd call"pretty". Most of the 2D sprites for the mechs don't quite convincethe player that they're actually fighting with "mile high" robots.Some of the mechs appear pretty "small" on-screen, but the pixelart is pretty clean otherwise. On the flipside, I suppose the small-ish spriteswon't bother Japanese robot fans with good imaginations. Also, I think some of the explosions could look better. I can actually recall afew SNES games with more satisfying explosions.

In the PlayStation version, the main menu is very plain (and might give youflashbacks of X-Men: Children of the Atom if you remember the PS1version). The modes of Cyberbots consist of: Arcade, Versus & Option... that'sall folks. The options menu also looks like it was ripped straight from any classicconsole version of Street Fighter 2! ...Nostalgia factor!

While the graphics don't really impress me overall, the in-game characterartwork is quality stuff. On that note, the Arcade Mode of Cyberbots isn't thetypical fare. It actually plays out more like a Story Mode (definitely ahead ofits time). I'm basing my review off of the Japanese version of the game, so Ican't understand most of the actual story content. From what I can grasp,however, the story scenes range from semi-serious & emotional to comedic (especially when Devilot is involved). In one scene, Devilot is talking trash to her opponent while taking a bath, inher bath tub... (inside her mecha, of course). Hilarity ensues.

I can't think of any other fighting games of the mid 90's that featured fullyvoiced character interaction cut-scenes before and after each battle. While Cyberbots might not stack up against other "competitive" fightinggames of the era, theeffort behind the 1-player experience certainly doesn't go unnoticed. There arean impressive variety of character artworks used in Story Mode, all of whichfeature subtle animations as characters talk. The overall presentation of thecut-scenes could be a bit more exciting, but it's certainly better than whatmost mid 90's fighting games put out in terms of story.Besides the long load times, the 1-player experience of Cyberbots is actually halfway interesting.