6th March 2011, 11:17 AM
I watched that just to see ROB, actually Weltall he's not just cussing and drinking to be funny this time. It was pretty amusing.
I do in fact own a ROB, though I only had Gyromite, not Stackem. The speed of the arms was part of the challenge, and though what he shows seems like it would be horrible, the game itself was pretty generous. It wasn't really much of a platformer and was much more like Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle (incidentally, I actually liked that game as a kid).
Even though Nintendo has recently been bringing back ROB as a retro-cool thing in Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and so on, the fact is it was a pretty lame accessory. I first found out about it as a kid reading about NES accessories and it's description was something that any kid would love, a ROBOT THAT PLAYED VIDEO GAMES WITH YOU. The reality was... less than stellar. In fact, I'd say Rob is the quintessential 80's robot, he's really got it all.
Anyway, he worked pretty well for what he did, but in the end, there was not one thing about Rob that couldn't just be done in-game. A virtual Rob in-game could control gyros and blocks just as well as an actual one, and aside from the "gee wiz" factor he didn't add anything, even potentially, to the experience. That's the reason only two games were ever made with Rob in mind, and why no one actually bothered to buy the thing (sales were actually pretty bad, and come to think of it I never knew anyone as a kid who actually had the thing).
At this point, the most fun you can have with Rob is in games where he's a selectable character. I do sort of wish they'd bring back the professor from those games though... His portly look makes him seem like a Nintendo version of Dr. Light.
I do in fact own a ROB, though I only had Gyromite, not Stackem. The speed of the arms was part of the challenge, and though what he shows seems like it would be horrible, the game itself was pretty generous. It wasn't really much of a platformer and was much more like Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle (incidentally, I actually liked that game as a kid).
Even though Nintendo has recently been bringing back ROB as a retro-cool thing in Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and so on, the fact is it was a pretty lame accessory. I first found out about it as a kid reading about NES accessories and it's description was something that any kid would love, a ROBOT THAT PLAYED VIDEO GAMES WITH YOU. The reality was... less than stellar. In fact, I'd say Rob is the quintessential 80's robot, he's really got it all.
Anyway, he worked pretty well for what he did, but in the end, there was not one thing about Rob that couldn't just be done in-game. A virtual Rob in-game could control gyros and blocks just as well as an actual one, and aside from the "gee wiz" factor he didn't add anything, even potentially, to the experience. That's the reason only two games were ever made with Rob in mind, and why no one actually bothered to buy the thing (sales were actually pretty bad, and come to think of it I never knew anyone as a kid who actually had the thing).
At this point, the most fun you can have with Rob is in games where he's a selectable character. I do sort of wish they'd bring back the professor from those games though... His portly look makes him seem like a Nintendo version of Dr. Light.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)