Bring the Thunder: Robots in Gaming
Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor
1) Metal Gear Series
That’s a building-sized ant. Deal with it
Oh, you’ve never heard of Metal Gear Solid? Then I don’t care about you. Go away.
For those of you in the know, MGS is a series about a gruff, Kurt Russell-esque special operative named Solid Snake. He is the best of the best, and as such is sent on suicide missions with little hope of support or success.
While his primary antagonist is a Russian double agent/the arm of his twin brother, Snake most often ends up facing a Metal Gear as his end boss. Metal Gears are immense robots, armed with experimental weaponry and funded by the most convoluted backstories known to man.
Literally everyone here is a double agent. Some are even triple agents
Over the course of a half-dozen games, Snake faces off against the various iterations of the Metal Gear lineage. The best part? He takes them all on on foot! These are thermonuclear walking battle-tanks, and he just can’t be bothered to so much as hop in a truck before taking them down.
Though Snake contends with some pretty sizable robots in his day, his protégé Raiden deals with far larger and more dangerous mechanical deviants. In his recent solo venture, Revengeance, Raiden must save the world from a shmorgishborg of walking metal death bots. However, it is in his initial adventure that we see the biggest mech of them all.
Whatever this is, just ignore it. Maybe it will go away
In Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of the Patriots, Foxhound operative Raiden infiltrates a captured oil rig in order to prevent an ecological disaster. If the plot were any thinner, you’d think it starred Treat Williams. Raiden kills hundreds of henchmen and kills a few powerful underbosses before facing off against the real villain: former president George Sears, AKA Solidus Snake, Solid Snakes third brother.
If that’s not confusing enough, Solidus is also Raiden’s father. But that’s neither here nor there.
It turns out that the oil rig was in fact a front for something far more sinister: a new metal gear. One larger than any before it, and capable of controlling dozens of smaller gears. They call this behemoth Metal Gear Arsenal. And it is a sight to behold.
New York gets the short end of the stick in every medium
While all the other games on this list present robots that can alter the tide of a battle or even win a war, only Metal Gear created mechs that would change the course of human history. This, and the fact that in the latest game you can karate kick a robot into next week, mean that MGS takes the title for the most epic robots in gaming.
Do you disagree? Or just like to be a contrarian? Then post a comment below! Let me know your thoughts and which robot/mechanical suit you would have put on the list!