Robot Combat League premieres Tuesday, February 26 at 10 p.m.on Syfy Channel
You can actually watch the first
episode for free right now.
SyFy is getting a new show Feb 26th in the form of a Robot Combat League. It's been catching my eye via commercials and the internet for a few weeks now. Who doesn't want to see humanoid robots wail on each other until sparks fly? You, yes you in the back! You don't? That's a bit disturbing. Would you rather have some tea and watch a cooking show? Then wait for Esquire Network due in April, oh G4 you will be missed.
Back to robots killing each other. Robots hit each other like the old-school game rock-em sock-em game, can't wait until Hasbro makes that into...oh yeah Real Steal.
So how those the combat work? Robots are piloted by two people. One person controls the legs, the other controls the arms. I don't know why the two had to be separated, but it creates a large dynamic of yelling at each other. Each team of two has an fighter and engineer to fix problems that arise. Fighter for the arms, engineer for the legs.
Each of the teams stand out like a G.I. Joe character with each of them having to be diverse enough to be on the show. Robots due have some creativity behind them, they all have a different style. I'd say just bring in more of the camp and have the National Guard pilot or race driver dress like they do for their jobs.Then have the robots match that style, but it's more of , "you get this one!"
Robots wail on each other until they break and I have to say it looks fake when they do. Pieces of armor fall off, but I think there designed to come off after so many hits. Sparks fly and green hydraulic fluid spills out in the first match I witnessed. Something has to have been done that sparks and "green blood" flow out of these robots. I was just wondering when one of there heads would pop off.
Mark Setrakian who created the robots has too much control over whats going on. In the first episode he goes into the repair bay with a team engineer and tells him what to do and what he can't do. Teams are treated like children when they should be allowed to use some duct tape or whatever they want to do to repair their robots. This doesn't happen, making moments where the engineer looks like a wuss. Since Mark designed every robot, you have less of a connect with the team and their robots. They didn't build them, it's not like
"BattleBots" where you created your own machine, it gives the show a fake feel.
The show also goes through the paces of having the confessional moments, where people talk about how they feel, which is honestly in too many shows right now. It's fine just to show a competition series with some fights and talk before and after battle with the competitors.
Chris Jericho is a nice enough host, but it's not like he knows anything about robotics, so most of what he has to say is useless banter.
Geoerge Lucas' daughter is in the show just because she's George Lucas' daughter. She's a boxer, weird.
