Plunderbird/Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox)

"Here comes Plunderbird 5!"

- Jonathan Pearce's in-game commentary

Plunderbird was a series of wedge box-shaped robots that fought in the first five series of Robot Wars. It was orignally armed with interchangeable weaponry, with the choice of either a spike or a saw. This was replaced with a ram the following year, before being changed again to be replaced by a single circular saw. The series then remained with a hydraulic claw. Plunderbird had some success in Robot Wars, it reached the Semi-Finals of Series 2, also winning the Sportsmanship Award the same series. It also won the Best Design Award in Series 1, and came third alongside Bigger Brother in the first Tag Team Terror. The robot was very quick in the later series, it maintained this speed in-game.

Appearance and Armament
Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox) is one of two Robot Wars video games that Plunderbird featured in. The game was based on Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1, during the time that the Plunderbird series was being represented by its fifth incarnation, it is indeed Plunderbird 5 that features in this game. The rough scale of the robot is quite accurate, and the detail of the writing, front blade etc. is fairly complete. The armour is almost equally strong in the game as it is in real life too. However, like the minibot Plunderbird 5, it suffers from having a badly proportioned "slicer dicer", however the game version of the robot suffers from it being slightly too small, rather than too big. The speed of Plunderbird 5 was also quite high (20mph in fact), however the game puts great emphasis on this, making Plunderbird 5 so fast that it can just glide over the open pit as if it's still closed. Also, if it's flipped, Plunderbird 5 won't self right, just like in real life, but whether it's activated or not, the presence of the claw will make the overturned robot hobble across the arena floor, this still happens even after it has been counted out. This movement will only stop if Plunderbird 5 loses its claw, which doesn't happen as often as it does to other robots' weapons.

Using Plunderbird
Plunderbird's turn of speed can be used to your advantage, if you're a good driver, slamming into other robots from a distance can cause damage, through them off balance, or even enable you to push them around. Also, gripping onto other robots using the "slicer dicer" and dragging robots towards and into the pit is a very efficient way of defeating robots as Plunderbird 5.

Against Plunderbird
Keeping away from the "slicer dicer" to prevent Plunderbird 5 from dragging you into the pit should be a priority, although this is hard due to Plunderbird 5's turn of pace. Lingering near an arena side wall can put Plunderbird 5 off balance enough to topple over onto its back, as long as it charges into the wall, this could also work using the pit instead of the arena side wall, if Plunderbird 5 hits you gliding over the pit, it will only fall in. Also, catching Plunderbird 5 side on will enable you to flip it, as long as you have a flipper, you'll have little luck in pushing them around.

Differences between game and real life

 * The "slicer dicer" is fairly undersized in the game.
 * The speed of the game version is far greater than that of its real-life counterpart.