So after going on a bingefest of Robot Wars over the past week, I cannot overstate how glad I am for it to be back. See, for those of you not in the know, Robot Wars continues the chain of 90’s era television reboots that have found their way back to television in recent years. The rules of Robot Wars is simple, you have two heats made up of four robots each. These robots try to eliminate one another through various means of immobilization. The most common is to push the opposing robots into a pit in the floor at the far side of the arena. Alternatively, competitors may throw each other out of the ring, or go whole hog and beat the circuitry out of each other until one robot no longer works. There’s also a judge’s panel in case neither robots is put out of commission, but that’s lame and we’re here for violence.
The first match involves throwing the two heats in separate matches. The two robots remaining from both four way battles move on to the group stage. The group stage functions the same as the heat stage, however instead of a four way free for all, it is broken down into a series of one on one matches. In the group stage, each robot will have fought each other at least once. In the one on one matches, a successful immobilization is worth three points, and a victory by judges’ decision is worth two points. The two robots with the most points move on to the grand final for a proper dramatic final showdown. The show is predicated on robot on robot violence in an area filled with hazards such as fire and pit falls. But fittingly the best hazards are other robots, and not necessarily the competition either. Patrolling the arena are the house robots, specially created robots that are controlled by in house staff. These robots are bigger, meaner, and nastier than anything creators come up with. The house robots are just as much the stars of the show as the competitors are. I mean yes spinning discs are cool, but the house robots with the saw blade and scorpion jaws, or with a fully functioning lance is much more exciting to watch.
Robot Wars is oddly heartwarming too. The teams that go out and perform clearly love what they do and like each other. There are teams of engineers, teachers, and even families with their young sons and daughters that have contributed to building the robots. On one episode there was a robot named Glitter Bomb, colored hot pink from body to weapon, and on the controls for the weapon was a 10 year old girl who was having the time of her life. Why Robot Wars worked, where many reboots failed, is because very little changed. Aside from the hosts, who still include a snarky British man and woman, and upgrades to the house robots, the show is the same. There is no effort to make it more “with the times”, what we liked was robot on robot violence, and that is what the reboot delivers.
