If you haven’t heard of One Must Fall 2097, it is quite literally the best PC exclusive fighter to ever exist on the platform. It’s a game about human-driven robots beating the snot out of each other, although there’s also a whole lot of backstory about an evil corporation and someone doing something in space.
It’s a bit great, and I’m a little sad that Epic hasn’t remade or re-released the game since the 1990’s. But that’s OK, because MegaBots is going one step further.
[credit provider=”MegaBots, Inc.”]
TechCrunch has reported that MegaBots, a start-up company in California, has raised US$2.4 million in seed funding to create a new sport involving internally piloted robots. They’re not small buggers: the robots are more than four and a half metres tall and weigh thousands of kilos.
It comes after MegaBots issued a public challenge last year to Suidobashi Heavy Industries, a Japanese robotics firm. Suidobashi accepted the bout and they’re building a special version of their Kuratas robot. Just watch the promo video. It’s ridiculous.
For the Californians, they’re building a special version of their MkII bot that will supposedly weigh almost 7000kg. But while the robots are in production, a venue and date hasn’t been finalised. That’s understandable: you can’t just airlift several thousand kilos of armoured pain across international borders, because the Third Impact hasn’t actually happened.
But MegaBots aren’t just stopping with one duel. They’ll be using the money raised to partner with law firm Latham Watkins to establish an framework for an international league, supposedly adopting a model akin to the Olympics.
Michael Kwatinetz, general partner of Azure Capital Partners, added that he invested in the robot bash-a-thon because it’d make for a good live event. “There is a giant opportunity for live events that stimulate people’s interest. That much is obvious from examples like the WWE or Nascar,” he was quoted as saying.
MegaBots showed off a little of their wares at New York ComicCon, although firing paintballs at 120km/hr at something that shoots back is another matter altogether.
Either way, there’s no element of this that isn’t awesome. Hey MegaBots: I’ll even sign up to help. Try this for your theme music.
Comments
4 responses to “Giant Fighting Robots Are Getting Their Own Olympics”
It looks like the game series Front Mission brought to life!
I remember reading a similar article a year or 2 ago =)
I played sooooo much OMF, mastered every character with fatalities and everything. Pretty sure I downloaded move lists off of BBS’s hahaha, good old 14.4k modem days.
Was it ‘One Must Fall 2097’ that copped ridiculous flak (and rightly so if it’s the one I’m thinking of) for giving you absolutely no choice over the 2p character when playing against a human opponent?
edit: Ahh, sorry, I was thinking of Rise of the Robots haha, after checking out the link towards the start of the article it came flooding back with fond memories playing OMF2097 on PC with siblings, but being very disappointed when I borrowed Rise of the Robots from a friend.
😀