Battlebots (PS2/Gamecube)

**BattleBots** was a planned 2002 video game produced by Warthog Games and was set to be published by THQ. It was set to be released in November of 2002, before being delayed to February of 2003, then May of 2003, before being eventually cancelled.

A February 2018 issue of Retro Gamer said that ''Despite being at an advanced stage of development, THQ pulled the plug on BattleBots.'', suggesting that the higher-ups of THQ may have been responsible for the cancellation of the game and not Warthog, though this is unconfirmed.

## Goal

The player would play as a robot of their choosing to fight another robot in a variety of weight classes. They could choose a variety of robots that appeared in the television series, including Nightmare, Ziggo, Hazard, Toro and Vlad the Impaler. There was also 5 custom built robots in each weight class for the player to choose too. Each fight took place in the ''BattleBox'', a square arena with a variety of hazards, including pistons and hammers. Each robot has 3 minutes to destroy one another, or immobilize them. If neither is immobilized after 3 minutes, the fight would go to a judges decision, where a winner would be chosen based on their performance. There were 4 different modes the player could choose from.

### **Quick Play**

The player would choose one robot to control and another robot to fight against in a head to head. The player could only choose robots that they have unlocked up to that point.

### **Arcade Mode**

The player would choose a robot to play as. They would then face a variety of robots in head to head matchups, and according to the THQ official description, power-ups would spawn to gain an advantage. By playing this mode, they could unlock more robots from the show to play as in Quick Play or Arcade.

"*Attempt to unlock all 80 bots when you battle in wide-open arenas with power-ups.*"
— Official description from THQ.
### **Tournament Mode**

The player would build a robot from scratch, with a finite budget and limited component choice. They would then test their robot before submitting them to competitions and playing in them.

"*Battle against bots from the show in a tournament structure with arenas and hazards seen on the TV show.*"
— Official description from THQ.
### **Multi-Player Mode**

As the name would suggest, this mode allowed people to wire up their controller in local play matches. Up to 4 players could play together, in a league style format.

## Why it was cancelled

1. Due to the fact that Warthog Games was based in the U.K. and THQ Quality Assurance was based in California, progress on the game was consistently slow and tedious.
2. Ahead of it being sold to Viacom in September 2002, Comedy Central, who was the only channel broadcasting BattleBots at the time, decided to not renew BattleBots for a Season 6.0 due to poor ratings on the channel.
"*Much to our dismay, Comedy Central has decided NOT to renew its option for a Phase 6.0 taping at this time. Without this television funding from Comedy Central, BattleBots Inc. simply cannot afford to hold a live competition.*"
— Part of the email sent to builders by Trey Roski and Greg Munson
3. THQ saw no reason to continue development on the BattleBots game since the show had been cancelled, so it was shelved in turn for new projects.

## Results

* The game would be cancelled permanently.
* Warthog disbanded in 2006, effectively killing any hope of the game being finished.
* In May of 2022, a Youtube content creator called Gatorbox found the Gamecube version 4.6 prototype of the game and distributed it as a ROM, making it the first time people could publicly play the game.
	+ A version 4.7 of the game exists, however it is currently only in possession of BattleBots show co-producer Trey Roski. It is unknown if he will distribute this version in the future.

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030213024520/http://battlebots.com/store/store\_search\_results.asp?ID=9
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030413050652/http://battlebots.com/store/store\_search\_results.asp?ID=9
3. ↑ https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20180222/281651075574034
4. ↑ https://groups.google.com/g/alt.robotwars/c/ZhhbETjy4qo/m/JUPsk7DqxWAJ?pli=1
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/GatorboxDraco/status/1522723733865181186