Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (GBA)

For the PC and Xbox release with the same title, see Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox).

"Robot combat has never been this real – engage in the most ferocious battles ever to grace the Game Boy Advance!"

— From the back of the Extreme Destruction box

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction was the fourth out of five Robot Wars video games to be released. The Game Boy Advance version was developed by Warthog Games and released by BBC Multimedia in 2002. Despite both versions of Extreme Destruction sharing the same name, the gameplay, arenas and roster of playable robots in the Game Boy Advance version are very different from those in the PC/Xbox version.

Arenas[]

The game features six different arenas, each with a variety of hazards including the Pit, Floor Flipper, Angle Grinders, pressurised Jets set into the floor (which varied between arenas), and the newly added Drop Zone and Floor Spinner/Disc of Doom. The arenas are as follows:

Arena	Description	Image
Studio	The Series 6 and US Season 2 version of the Robot Wars Arena, with the Pit of Oblivion, Disc of Doom, Drop Zone and flame/CO₂ jets set into the floor.
Melting Pot	A foundry-themed arena with flame/sulphur jets, the Disc of Doom and a large central container filled with boiling molten steel acting as the Pit.
Acid Bath	An arena themed to a chemical plant, with corrosive acid/sulphur jets, the Disc of Doom, and a large central pit of toxic acid acting as the Pit.
Deep Freeze	An arena set in what is presumed to be an Arctic weather station, with the Pit, Disc of Doom, Nitrogen/CO₂ jets, and slippery floors.
Desert Storm	An arena located within an Oil refinery in the middle of the desert, with Sand/Acid jets, the Pit and Disc of Doom.
Red Planet Rumble	An arena located on the surface of Mars, with sand/flame jets, the Disc of Doom and Pit, and much weaker gravity than the other arenas, allowing flippers to potentially throw opponents extremely high.

Arena Editor[]

In addition to the above arenas, the game also features an Arena Editor, which the player can unlock by winning the Red Planet Rumble Mayhem event on Gold difficulty. The Arena Editor, accessible in Workshop under Edit Arena, enables the player to make up to three custom arenas using any of the six arena locations and eight hazards available. Selectable hazards, which can be placed on most floor or wall tiles, include:

Hazards[]

Hazard	Type	Arena(s)	In-Game Description
Pit	Floor	All	Immobilizes robot, eliminates robot from game should it fall in.
Disc of Doom	Floor	All	A high speed turntable that causes extreme damage to the underside of robots as well as knocking them off course.
Spikes	Floor	All	Hydraulic steel spikes for overturning or impaling robots.
Drop Zone	Floor	All	An execution area for disabled robots.
Flipper	Floor	All	A hydraulic catapult that launches robots into the air.
Flame Jet	Floor	Studio Melting Pot	Floor based hazard which damages non metallic armour.
CO2 Jet	Floor	Studio Acid Bath Deep Freeze	Floor based hazard which obscures view of robot.
Steam Jet	Floor	Melting Pot Red Planet Rumble	Floor based hazard which causes robots to behave erratically.
Acid Jet	Floor	Acid Bath Desert Storm	Floor based hazard which causes corrosive damage to armour.
Nitrogen Jet	Floor	Deep Freeze	Floor based hazard which weakens robot armour temporarily.
Sand Jet	Floor	Desert Storm Red Planet Rumble	Floor based hazard which increases chance of failure of robots drive mechanism.
Circular Saw	Wall	All	A high-speed steelblade; causes huge damage to armour.

While no hazards can be added to the corner floor or wall tiles, no House Robots are seen in the CPZs when players opt to play in any custom arenas.

Features[]

Making a Robot[]

The player builds and edits their custom robots in Workshop, accessible from the main menu. Up to five slots are available per game for the player to save custom robots.

Workshop differs from the PC/Xbox version's Robot Builder in that a money/credits system is absent. Instead, the player can instantly select and install any unlocked components on their robots, including chassis (only available if "New Robot" is selected), power, traction (e.g. wheels, tracks), armour and up to two weapons. As in the real show, custom-built robots in the game must adhere to a weight limit of 100kg. Along with these features, players can choose to equip their robots with up to two Special Moves, offering enhanced abilities including "Power Slide", "Automatic Opponent Lock-On" and "CPZ Evasion". As in-game power-ups, Special Moves do not contribute to the robot's overall weight.

Some components and Special Moves are available to the player from the start, while others can be unlocked by completing certain events. A Quick Build option enables a custom robot to be assembled from unlocked parts based on chosen stats for "Offence", "Defence", "Speed" and "Control". In New/Edit Robot, Quick Finish enables a new or already-saved robot design to be completed automatically using randomised parts.

Game Modes[]

Quickstart[]

Accessible from the main menu, Quickstart is a single-player mode consisting of a one-on-one battle between a randomly-selected player robot and a randomly-selected AI robot. All three difficulty levels are unlocked from the start. No unlockable features can be won upon winning the battle regardless of difficulty level.

Single Player[]

The player fights one or more AI robots in various tournaments and events in order to unlock more features, including robot parts, playable 'All-Star' robots from the TV show and new arenas.

Every event has three difficulty levels - Bronze, Silver and Gold - each with its own objectives or selection of AI robots to fight against. Initially, only the easiest Bronze level events are available, completion of which unlocks the more difficult Silver level. Gold level - the hardest difficulty available - is unlocked upon completing the event at Silver difficulty.

The following combat-based Single Player modes are available:

Tournament - Four one-on-one battles structured in a similar way to the televised Extreme 1 All-Stars (Heats, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Final). Player robots must win all four of these to complete the event on every available difficulty level.
Mayhem - A four-way melee, which can be fought in all available arenas and difficulty levels.
Bash 'n' Dash - All three opponents are teamed up against the player in a melee-style battle; the player's robot only needs to survive to the end of the battle to win. Available for all arenas and difficulty levels.

Gauntlet[]

Also available in Single Player mode, Gauntlet provides six unique challenges for the player to complete, each with Bronze, Silver, and Gold difficulty levels as with the Single Player battle modes. The available challenges are:

Slalom - Players guide their robot along a slalom course, marked by traffic cones. They may not touch the cones or go off the path.
Skittles - Players must knock down all of the bowling pins within the given time limit.
Long Jump - Players drive their robots onto the Floor Flipper and land in the end zone to win. The distance required to win varies between all three difficulty levels.
Sumo Basho - Players try to push Shunt out of the ring or immobilise him within the time limit. Unlike the real-life Sumo events, robots can use their weapons to attack and cause damage. The amount of time required to defeat Shunt varies between levels (from 1:30 on bronze to only 0:30 on gold), and Shunt is allowed to use his axe at Gold difficulty.
Dump - Players must push all of the Drop Zone items into the pit within a given time limit. The player loses if they fall into the pit themselves or run out of time.
Drop Zone - Four Drop Zones are constantly dropping barrels; players must destroy a specified number to win. Green barrels damage the player's robot on contact.

Multiplayer[]

Both the Bash 'n' Dash and Mayhem battle modes are also available as multiplayer modes, and can be played with up to four players. There is also a Grudge Match mode, exclusively for two players, in which each person gets to choose a robot to battle with.

Playable Robots[]

The Game Boy Advance version includes a total of 17 playable 'All-Star' competitor robots from the televised show, most of which must be unlocked through winning specific tournaments and challenges. Twelve of these are competitors from the original UK series, joined by five US robots from Season 2 of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors.

Also listed below are the difficulty levels each robot can be fought against. Note that Stinger can only be played as and is never fought against.

Robot	Weapon	Difficulty class
Stinger	Thwackbot/ overhead mace	Playable only (unlocked by default)
101	Spike	Bronze (unlocked by default)
Bigger Brother	Flipper	Bronze (unlocked by default)
Dominator 2	Axe	Bronze (unlocked by default)
Firestorm 3	Front-hinged flipper	Bronze (unlocked by default)
Thermidor 2	Flipper and claws	Bronze/Silver
Tornado	Cutting disc and spikes	Bronze/Silver
Wheely Big Cheese	Flipper	Bronze/Silver
Chaos 2	Flipper	Silver/Gold
Hypno-Disc	Horizontal spinner	Silver/Gold
Pussycat	Cutting disc	Silver/Gold
Destructive Criticism	Horizontal spinner	Gold
Panzer Mk 4	Flipper	Gold
Propeller-Head	Horizontal spinner	Gold
Razer	Crusher	Gold
Rosie the Riveter 2	Cutting disc	Gold
Tricerabot 3.0	Flipper and spikes	Gold

Cheats[]

Giving your robot these names unlocks the following:

Code	Menu	Effect
GLADIATOR	Workshop	Unlocks the Arena Editor, as well as all available arenas to play in.
SCRAP METAL	Workshop	Unlocks all parts, with the exception of Gold Parts.
CONVERSE	Workshop	Unlocks every all-star robot to the player.
HARD CASE	Workshop	Makes your robot immune to damage in single player modes; however, it can still lose fights through being flipped or pitted.

When inputting these codes, an unintelligible robotic voice will play if entered successfully.

Voice Artists[]

Though there is no commentary in this game, two soundbites of Jonathan Pearce are used in all gameplay modes. The first is of him calling out "3... 2... 1... Activate!" at the beginning of a battle or Gauntlet challenge. The second is of him calling "Cease!", and is enabled whenever the event ends; the player/AI robot(s) becomes immobilised; or the player goes out of bounds in certain Gauntlet challenges (e.g. Slalom, Sumo Basho).

Notes[]

The cartridge with the instruction book and box

Poster in Issue Two of Robot Wars: The Official Magazine, promoting the game

Poster promoting the release of the game

Propeller-Head, Panzer Mk 4 and the House Robots are equipped with srimechs in order to balance out the game, since every other robot is either invertible or can self-right. Some robots self-right in a different way than in real life, for example, Hypno-Disc flips itself from front to back rather than lifting itself back over sideways.
Interestingly, Rosie the Riveter 2, Tricerabot 3.0, Thermidor 2 and Wheely Big Cheese are incapable of running inverted, even though they can in real life.
Despite the immense power of the robots' flippers, out of the arena flips are not possible because every arena, including the main one, is completely enclosed.
If the player completes a type of battle on a gold difficulty level and then plays it again, they will face the House Robots instead of normal competitors.
- After beating the House Robots, there is a chance the player will either receive one of six Gold Parts, or will gain better weapons and motors.
- A secret robot, dubbed The Goldbot, is obtainable upon collecting all six Gold Parts and using them to assemble a custom robot in the Workshop.
In a similar fashion to their real-life counterparts, Hypno-Disc and Propeller-Head's weapons slow down upon hitting an opponent and armour being ripped away is depicted as small grey chunks flying from the robot. However, Destructive Criticism's disc is instead shown functioning similarly to a saw type weapon, and simply cuts into opponents while continuously spinning.
All rotating weapons are automatic, and keep spinning during battles, whereas the real-life counterparts of robots such as Hypno-Disc have rotating weapons that are activated through pressing a button.
This is the only Robot Wars game released to not include Behemoth, Diotoir or Panic Attack as playable robots. Had they appeared here, they would have been the only other competitors alongside Chaos 2 and Pussycat to appear in every Robot Wars video game.

Credits[]

With thanks to all at Mentorn and special thanks to Steve Carsey, Tom Gutteridge, Bill Hobbins, Stuart McDonald, Julian Fullalove, Chris Reynolds, Derek Foxwell
Robot Wars theme tune by Golden Break Music
Game commentary by Jonathan Pearce

BBC Credits[]

Producer: Gigi Misra
Executive Producer: Dave Anderson
Head of Rights and Acquisitions: Nick Lowe
Testing Manager: Adrian Wood-Jones
Technical Manager: Kish Hirani
Acting Localisation Manager: Anton Lorton
Localisation Assistant: Alejandra Jimenez
Product Development Director: Sarah Hennings
Director of Multimedia: Dave Lee

Warthog Credits[]

Producer: Trevor Jones
VP Mobile and Handheld: Tim Couple
Design: Strangely Brown
Programming: Tim Coupe, John Gibson, Paul A. Hodgson, Dave Mann, Andy Whyte
Art: Mike Bareham, Brian Flanagan
Audio: Semi Precious
QA Manager: Tim Welch
QA: John Radcliffe, Stuart Cook
Special thanks to Paul Hughes
With special thanks to the roboteers as there just would not be a show without them

Robot Team Members[]

101: Mike Franklin (Capt.), Amy Franklin, Steve Bickle
Dominator 2: Peter Halloway (Capt.), Chris Hall, Elliott Smart
Firestorm III: Graham Bone (Capt.), Alex Mordue, Hazel Heslop
Bigger Brother: Joe Watts (Capt.), Ian Watts, Ellie Watts
Stinger: Kevin Scott (Capt.), Karl Skinner, Tim Mann
Thermidor II: David Harding (Capt.), Ian Harvey
Tornado: Andrew Marchant (Capt.), David Gamble, Bryan Moss
Wheely Big Cheese: Roger Plant (Capt.), John McGugan, Murray Wharf
Hypno-Disc: Dave Rose (Capt.), Derek Rose, Ken Rose
Chaos II: George Francis (Capt.), Ian Swann, Richard Swann
Pussycat: Alan Gribble (Capt.), David Gribble, Robert Bettington
Razer: Simon Scott (Capt.), Ian Lewis, Vincent Blood
Tricerabot 3.0: Mike Morrow (Capt.), Nicole Morrow, Ron Ender
Rosie the Riveter II: Chris Gattman (Capt.), Sharon Gattman, Thomas Vaeretti
Propeller-Head: Mike Konshak (Capt.), Becky Konshak, Jacob Holland
Destructive Criticism: Randy Eubanks (Capt.), Christian Gomez, Barry Young
Panzer Mk4: Todd Mendenhall (Capt.), Valerie Mendenhall, Jim Hart