If there’s one golden rule to follow in the gaming world, it’s this: If it started as a movie, don’t play it. If it started as a game, don’t watch it. If you don’t understand that, it basically means don’t play movie games and dont watch game movies.
The reason this tulle holds up is because video games based on movies tend to fail each and every time they’re attempted. Real Steel set out to destroy this gaming commandment, developed by YUKE’s CO., Ltd for both XBLA and PSN, it certainly is… Something.
Remember War Worlds? That god forsaken game I was set out to review a few weeks ago? Yes? Good. Now, think back to when you were a young kid and you had a upset stomach and were stuck on the pottie for a little longer than normal? And you looked down after finishing and simply mumbled “dear lord,” to yourself as you went to flush the toilet? Well, one day after eating a big serving of Fight Night, War World decided it needed to make a bowel movement. But when it looked down, all it saw was the robot mess known as Real Steel.
In a nutshell, Real Steel is a robot boxing simulator where you can actually build your own robot and fight in a Fight Night-ish setting. Remember how Fight Night has those great graphics, lifelike replays, solid game play, and amazing story? Wouldn’t it be simply amazing if this kind of Triple-A game was to come to Xbox Live Arcade!? Yeah, keep dreaming.
Real Steel had the potential to be a decent game; it has both local and Xbox Live multiplayer, somewhat decent game play – after you figure out the controls, since there is no tutorial – and even a full set of customization options! But that’s where the game really starts to get its proverbial saggy diaper.
Customization is key to making great, long lasting games, or so the developers of Real Steel think. You can customize literally everything about your robot. Normally that’d be a good thing, not in Real Steel though. YUKE’S CO. decided not to tell you an absolute single thing about what any of your upgrades do. Want to upgrade your robots motherboard? How about their core processor? Go ahead! But don’t try to find out what it does, they simply do not tell you anywhere.
One final complaint I’ve had with Real Steel is the text throughout the game. It’s very abnormally small and illegible nine out of ten times. While this may not seem like a problem for some people who live in 40,000 square acre houses and have 50” LCD TV’s, those of us with 15” plasma screens can’t read 5 point text. This may seem minor but it left me squinting at the TV on multiple occasions.So, do you want to play a good fighting for only ten dollars? Save yourself the bandwidth and go out to your local GameStop for a used copy of Fight Night for cheaper and less frustration. Want to buy an Xbox Live Arcade game that’ll make you want to shoot up the development building of YORK’S Co.? Then buy Real Steel.
I actually thought this game was pretty good, until I found out that the game play is so unbalanced. if you’re rich enough to buy expensive parts with MS points, there is no skill involved to knock down the opponent. just keep pressing the same button over and over, and here comes victory. this game had a potential. too bad.
Why you always get stuck with God-awful games? lol. Thanks for the review. The movie looks awesome.
Thanks for sharing your experience here. I really appreciate it.