Aug 19th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Robot Football
The other day I was talking with friends and the subject came up that I have a strong recollection of some old video game (NES, SNES, or Genesis) that was basically a football game, except the players were robots and they had awesome battle robot capabilities. This seems like the kind of thing Google ought to be able to shed light on, but I can’t really find the name. Does anyone else remember this? Or have I lost my mind?
38 Responses to “Robot Football”
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August 19th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Cyberball? Definitely robots playing football, although I don’t remember the NES port being terribly fun.
Also, if you’re looking for the same thing in baseball form, I dropped quite a few hours into Basewars on the NES back in the day.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Are you sure you’re not talking about Mutant League Football? It fits the description except it was monsters, and not robots. You could kill people in all sorts of gruesome ways, including by farting on them. Bill Bennett would have had a seizure if he had ever found out about it.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Don’t recall any robot football games, but I do recall Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball for SNES.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Man, the Center for American Progress is really getting their money’s worth today.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:46 am
(Secretly jealous because I only had like three NES games.)
August 19th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Mutant League Football for Genesis. There’s at least one all-robot team. I think it was recently ported to PSP via some classic EA game aggregator.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I suspect that Matt is thinking of Cyberball. I do not know about the console ports, but it was a popular arcade game.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I remember the game –can’t remember the name. (My brother-in-law had it and my young son and nephews loved it.) As I recall, opposing players each dialed in their play and then the game program executed it and showed the teams on the screen executing the plays (actually, more like the end result of the conflict between the chosen plays).
What was neat was that when a football robot on side A successfully cut through the line and sacked a robot on the opposing team B, the sacked robot exploded. Then a little flying saucer flew out over the field and beamed up(teleported) the debris.
Meanwhile, the victorius robot went “Ha ha ha” in a deep voice. Kinda like Putin on the phone to Bush.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I don’t remember a football game like that, but NES had a baseball game called Basewars, where the robots would battle each other with weapons for each base.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:27 am
maybe it was “base wars,” a robot baseball game? i wasted many an afternoon playing that..
August 19th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Its definitely Mutant League Football. One of my favorites from that time period.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am
That sounds like Cyberball. The football itself would also explode after a set amount of time, which, if aimed carefully, meant you could literally throw a bomb at the other team. Good times! There was a pretty decent version for the Genesis, I think.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Cyberball.
And it is playable in all of its glory on the XBox Live Arcade service for about $5. It’s a 3 minute dowload away:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/cyberball2072xboxlivearcade/
Now as for how a 34 year old professional knows this information instantly . ..
August 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am
IT was an ARCADE GAME — with a console that allowed up to 4 players. I think the other posters are right about it being called Cyberball –see http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10175 .
You can still find the Arcade Console for sale on Ebay.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Cyberball, baby. When I was a teenager, it was always the most popular arcade game in UCLA’s Ackerman Union arcade. There would be a huge crowd gathered around. I especially liked the halfback passes.
Tournament Cyberball developed such a following in the late 80’s that many fans of the game from all over the world still play regular matches today using emulators, as well as tournaments and leagues using physical machines in arcades.
As other commenters have noted, you can still fulfill your Cyberball jones:
“Cyberball 2072 was released in Midway Arcade Treasures 2, a disc featuring a collection of arcade games, for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in October of 2004.
It was also released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on September 5, 2007.”
August 19th, 2008 at 11:35 am
In the future you may be able to find this sort of thing on Giantbomb.com. Its a moderated wiki page devoted to video games. It is made by the same people who made ComicVine. Unfortunately it just launched this summer so it is going to take some time for it to get filled in.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Nah, gotta be Mutant League. That was the one where you could fight and like use lasers to kill linebackers and such.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Not football, but you also can’t forget about the classic “Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball” for the SNES.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Speaking of tricked up football games, does anybody remember Jerry Glanville’s Pigskin Footbrawl that combined barbarianism with football?
August 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Do a search of either game on YouTube and you’ll find footage.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
It’s not difficult to imagine who the target audience for Mega Man 9 is. A good number of gamers came of age during the heyday of the NES, when both challenge and level design encouraged multiple playthroughs of titles. These
December 18th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Cyberball, i remember it ,it rocks,thanks for showing where i can pick it up, it should be a great Christmas…
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