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

101 in Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox).

"It might look simple, but 101 hides a lot of sophisticated work in that deceptive shell. Proximity sensors on the spike, backed up with enormous thrust, enables it to damage just about anything, and makes this a strong, and innovative competitor"

— Jonathan Pearce's in-game commentary

101 is a low tracked robot armed with a small spike weapon. It was notable for being named 101 as it was rumoured that the whole robot only cost £1.01 to build. It actually cost slightly more than this at £5, and the name actually came from the length (101cm) and a team member's love of 101 Dalmatians, but was still remarkably inexpensive. 101 was fairly successful in Robot Wars, reaching the second round of the Semi-Finals of Series 3, reaching the heat final of Series 4, and winning the Series 4 Tag-Team Terror Tournament, alongside King B3, before suffering a disappointing first round exit in the Fifth Wars against Fluffy. Because of its tracks, 101 could run inverted when flipped, and this ability was maintained in-game.

Appearance and Armament

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox) is one of three Robot Wars video games that 101 featured in. This game was based on Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1, the concurrent Extreme series to Series 5. However, 101 shows more resemblance to its Series 3 appearance. Although the robot barely changed over the course of its Robot Wars career, the Series 5 model had two yellow guiding wedges at the front, which aren't present on the game version. Also, the game version has a fairly pale grey shell, a tone that bares more resemblance to the Series 3 incarnation of the machine. The speed of the game version is quite similar to the real life counterpart, as is the strength of the armour, and the very low ground clearance. However, the robot isn't quite as quick as it was in real life, and subsequently lacks some of the pushing capability that its real life counterpart held. As explained above, both the game version and the real life version can run inverted when flipped. However, in real life, the spike weapon would automatically fire, when a robot was in front of it, but the weapon has to be manually fired in the game.

Strategies

Using 101

The spike poses little threat to any opposition, as it bares little destructive capability, so using this would be a useless tactic. The speed of the machine isn't spectacular, but 101 can be used to ram and push robots around, forcing opponents into obstacles and hazards. The armour isn't particularly strong, so it is wise to avoid as much of any other robots' damaging weaponry as possible.

Against 101

Due to the fact that it has a low ground clearance, and can run inverted anyway, attempting to flip 101 would prove a useless gesture, but will show aggression (but shouldn't really be relied on in the event of a judges' decision) and can damage the armour somewhat. Nevertheless, the armour of 101 is fairly flimsy, and can be easily peeled away by most weapons. Catching the sluggish 101 side on and trying to push it will also cause damage to the armour of 101, easily causing it to peel away. This may not finish 101 off, but will at least put it in bad stead for a judges' decision.

Differences from Real Life

• The spike automatically fires in real life, but has to be operated manually in-game.