Project Giant Robot is a game that doesn't pull any punches. At least, it doesn't if you're playing it properly. In fact, it isn't even technically a real game. A "tech demo" from legendary Zelda and Mario designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Project Giant Robot is one of two concept games Nintendo showed off at the giant games convention E3 a few weeks ago, as an example of the sort of thing the Wii U can do - a game that makes use of all of the GamePad's functionality, while also giving an insight into what goes on in the mind of a Japanese games developer when they're in between projects. Unsurprisingly, it involves giant robots.
But in traditional Nintendo fashion, it's also a heck of a lot of fun. At a recent Post E3 event, we got to go hands-on with the new game for ourselves, which is probably best described as a kind of robot Sumo. Using an analogue stick to control each of your robot's arms, and holding the right shoulder button to make it move forwards, it's a game of weight, momentum, and gingerly poking your opponent to try to get them to topple over - and it's one you grin all the way through.
Of course, before you can do battle with anyone, you have to have a robot first - and despite being little more than a tech demo, Project Giant Robot came with hundreds of different parts and components you could bolt on, each of which could be stretched, squished, and re-proportioned to within an inch of its life, regardless of how daft the robot head looked when you made it the shape of a straw. Better yet, none of the parts really give you any particular advantage or disadvantage, with the shape and weight distribution of your robot being more important than anything else (although it's nowhere near as technical as that makes it sound) - and you can bolt bits on anywhere you want. If you think your robot looks better with a spring for a head (as we did), then you can feel free to give it a spring for a head. And so our robot ended up with the top of a Russian doll (stretched out) for its one arm, a transformer style robot head for its other arm, and two springs for its feet. We call it, the Springamajig.
It lives!
With the robot created, it was on into the first battle, where we were banking on a simple tactic. With very, very long arms that were also quite wide, the strategy here was to literally hold our opponents at arm's length. If they can't get near to us, they can't hurt us was the plan - and our first combatant, a fearsome, gigantic (and also entirely stationary) robot made of wooden blocks. Lamenting the fact we'd forgotten to bring our flamethrower, we cautiously edged towards our foe, holding the R Button to shuffle forward. Using the GamePad's screen you can look around, giving us a robot-eye view of the surly brute's wooden, block like face. Whoever'd designed it seemed to have carelessly forgotten to even give their giant robot a face. Ours had two. Even if they were in place of its hands.
By using an odd combination of tilting the gamepad and moving the analogue sticks, you can actually get a surprising amount of control over your robot's arms. Tilting the gamepad controls your robot's torso, while you can stretch and wiggle your arms about with the analogue sticks - and so if you play your cards right, it's actually possible to give your opponent an upper cut. As these are giant robots, surrounded by tower blocks and skyscrapers that you dwarf, though, they don't exactly move that fast. In fact, it's kind of like watching two drunk fat blokes battle it out, as they stagger and sway towards each other, desperate to stay up right.
Because it's so hard to get any speed up, you don't tend to knock your opponent down in a single KO. Instead, your fist (or Russian doll head) will connect, and then it's up to you to push them and prod them to make them overbalance. Whether you want to try and lift their leg up to send them tumbling down, or prefer pie facing them in the hope of exploiting their centre of gravity, there are plenty of strategies to try, including our own, of a slow-mo uppercut to the crotch. Having expected less resistance than there actually was, this almost backfired for us, as our robot strained and flexed under having to effectively try and lift the other robot - but slowly but surely, physics won out, and the robot collapsed, groin first. Round one - the springamajig. And there was more to come.
Here goes nothing...
Next up, in our second and final battle, we found ourselves surrounded. This time, not only were there three robots coming up against us - but they could move, too. Looking kind of like a robotic version of that guy from the Wild Thornberry's face, the robots slowly trundled towards us, one by one - and this is where our extra long hands came in. Reaching one hand out to the left, we could hold at least one of our foes at bay while we poked and prodded at the nearest one in the hope of finding their weak point, in a match that essentially just generated into us walking into each other, before they tripped on an old lady's cottage and stumbled. A quick push from us sealed their fate - but there were still two left to go.
Luckily, the physics engine on this is more realistic than you'd probably expect from a game called Project Giant Robot, and so the bits and pieces of their fallen comrade didn't exactly help the other two robo-sumos. Staggering towards us, one slipped on his buddy's broken arm, which was lying awkwardly on the floor, before crashing into his one remaining friend and staggering him too. A quick one-two shove from our doll/robot head fists, and it was all over. Ding ding ding - here is your winner, and new reigning robot heavyweight champion of the world - the Springamajig!
We WON!
As you can probably tell, Project Giant Robot is a lot of fun, and a game to make use of the Wii U's GamePad - even if there isn't really anything it specifically does that couldn't be achieved with a PS4/PS3 controller, seeing as the screen isn't really essential to the gameplay. In fact, the only real problem is that we have no idea if we'll ever see it again. While tech demos/ideas like this do have a tendency to work their way into proper games (every mini-games that was used to demonstrate the Wii U ended up in either Nintendo Land or Game and Wario), barring another mini-game collection, of which it'd be hard to see where this would fit, Project Giant Robot may end up being consigned to scrap heap, as it'd be hard to see how this could be fleshed out into a full game. In a best case scenario - although it's probably the least likely - Nintendo would put Project Giant Robot, as it is now, up for download on the Wii U eShop. Either for free, as a loyalty bonus for Nintendo's fans, or for a couple of quid, it'd likely get plenty of downloads from fans eager to see Miyamoto's latest creation - along with being well worth a small flutter for the novelty value and robot creating fun alone.
While its future is anything but certain, it'd be a travesty if we never heard off Project Giant Robot again. Fingers crossed this one gets the release it deserves.
