I honestly don’t remember if I had anything like Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots when I was a kid, but I always thought they looked like fun.  Armor Games has attempted to recapture that magic in the form of Drastic Plastic, and they do a pretty good job of it.  The basic scenario is that you must battle your robot against six different opponents.  As you win bouts you can buy upgrades for your robot’s head, torso, arms and legs.  There are two upgrades to each body part, and unless you’re really good (which I’m apparently not), you’ll need to get certain upgrades to advance to the next bout.  Don’t confuse this with me saying that you need the upgrades to unlock the next bout, because a new fight is available as soon as you defeat a robot for the first time.

The control scheme is simple.  You have a picture of a glove in each of the two lower corners of the screen, and these allow you to throw punches.  You tilt the device left and right to move your robot towards the center or edge of the ring.  Retreating gives you a moment to regain some energy, though you can never regain full strength once you’ve been hit.  Two rounds wins a match, and if you get defeated you don’t lose anything except a few minutes of time.  The two biggest drawbacks to Drastic Plastic are that you will have to replay easy matches several times to earn enough money for upgrades, and there really isn’t any replay value once you’ve beaten the game.  If you’re not patient about advancement then this game probably isn’t for you.  If you want something to play over and over again you’ll want to pass as well.

Fighting A Wood Chipper

Graphically, the game is quite enjoyable.  All the robots look drastically different, and you even get to fight a cockroach at one point, among other things.  There are some details that are neat, like the finger that comes down to fix a robot back up the first time it’s been knocked out in a match.  They really did a good job of simulating the playing field for the game they were trying to emulate.  The sound effects are what you’d expect for this type of game, and actually work pretty well.  The music is pretty decent too, including a separate track for each robot.

While  I enjoyed the game, I’m a bit on the fence about recommending because of the somewhat tedious nature of replaying weak matches and the lack of any replay value once you’ve beaten the game.  However, the game is free, so as long as you can tolerate the download time I think in the end it’s worth it for the hour or two of entertainment you’ll get.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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