Bot Shots Battle Game!

Bot Shots Toyline Online game BeCool toyline BeCool cartoon

Bot Shots Battle Game!
"Two shall crash..." "... And one shall fall!"
Developer	Hasbro
Publisher	Hasbro
Platforms	Online
Release date	2012

The Bot Shots Battle Game! is an online browser-based flash game released in 2012 to tie in with the Bot Shots toy line. It includes both single and two-person battles involving rock paper scissors-style gameplay. Codes included with Bot Shots toys can be used to unlock new game play options and purchase virtual Bot Shots to play with. At some point in 2014 or 2015, the game was deleted. Going to the Bot Shots Battle Game website will now redirect you to Hasbro's website, on its Games page.

In 2013, a Beast Hunters theme was added along with beast mode Bot Shots.

Gameplay

Participation in the game requires creating an account on the Bot Shots website. Usernames consist of two parts of a name followed by a four digit number (e.g. Ultra Magnus 1234 or Freedom Puncher 4321) and each user gets a customizable avatar and the choice of a starting Bot Shot from a small pool.

Logging in allows the user to access the battle modes, Bot Shop and to earn achievements and level up. The in-game currency is measured in energon cubes, which can be earned by battling, or by buying Bot Shots toys which include a code to be entered on the site. Users can also join "squads" with other members, giving them bonus energon cubes and allowing them to battle each other.

Battle

Curse you, Barricade!

There are a number of game play modes:

• Head to Head pits you against another player somewhere on the Internet.
• Single Player allows you to select an arena to battle in. Arenas are vehicle-specific, and are only accessible by Bot Shots with that vehicle type. Since Beast Bot Shots lack Beast-specific arena venues, they have full, unrestricted access to all of the arenas.
• Adventure Play provides some single player campaigns.
• Quick Battle does just that, plunging you into battle without the tedious need to select a Bot Shot, opponent, or field of battle. Whatever power ups you have may or may not be randomly used in this battle.

Several of the game types require unlocking by entering a code.

Once a game mode has been selected, the Bot Shot is "launched" via a cinematic before arriving at the arena. The user's selected Bot Shot appears on the left-hand side of the arena and can be controlled to move left and right.

The Bot Shot can only move on an area designated by four bars, which sometimes blink into and out of a random color. When the Bot Shot is standing on a colored bar representing either fist, sword, or gun, the user presses the space bar to unleash that attack. As with the physical game, fist beats sword, sword beats gun, and gun beats fist, and if both attacks match, the Bot Shot with the highest point value gets the strike. Should the player bring a power up for use in battle, one bar will be occupied by a color representing that power up, which also blinks in and out.

The player's level, when compared to their opponent's, determines how quickly the colored bars appear and disappear for the player—a player with a significantly lower level compared to their opponent will have bars that appear and disappear very quickly, often preventing them from attacking, while a higher-leveled player will have reusable bars that blink much slower, allowing them to execute multiple "potshot" attacks against their weaker, undefended opponent.

The battle continues until the health of one of the Bot Shots reaches zero. Completing a fight, win or lose, nets the user energon cubes, as well as experience points which allow them to level up.

Adventure play

"Adventure Play" consists of campaign style missions, providing a small amount of story and a map of an area so that you can select Bot Shots to battle.

• Cybertropolis — Acid Storm and his gang have been terrorizing the Cybertronian capital of Cybertropolis, and it's up to YOU to defeat him.

Boss - Super Bot Acid Storm (Level 8)

• Kaon Gladitorial[sic] Pits — Are you brave enough to enter the Kaon Gladiatorial Pits and face some of the most dangerous opponents?

Boss - Super Bot Shockwave (Level 10)

• Shockwave's Lab — Evil scientist Shockwave has created some vicious and vile creatures in his lab. Dare you fight these beasts?

Boss - Scourge (Level 10)

Training games

Fortunately, the crotch is not a separate target, or players would have targeted that all day.

Three repeatable training games give the user the opportunity to add bonus points to their Bot Shots' attributes. Successfully finishing all the levels of an exercise will add 5 points to the respective stat, while partially finishing them will net the player 1-4 points, depending on how far they've reached the exercise. These stat bonuses are universal, and are applied to any Bot Shot the player uses in battle.

• Sword training game — A reflex and speed challenge, akin to Fruit Ninja. Canisters resembling geometric are tossed onto the screen and the user must "slash" them with the mouse until the time runs out. Allowing a canister to fall off the bottom of the screen or "slashing" an explosive fuel canister both count as misses, and after four misses, the game is over. Slashing an energon cube will deduct a miss from the current total. As the game goes up in levels, progressively more canisters appear onscreen at a time.
• Fist training game — A test of memory, akin to Simon. The user is presented with a robot dummy divided into sections. The sections flash in sequence, and the user must click on them in sequence to punch. Punching the wrong piece counts as a miss, and four of them will end the training session. Punching a falling energon cube will deduct a miss. The sequences get progressively longer as the game goes up in levels.
• Laser training game — A juggling game with target dummies. Point and shoot at falling green robot dummies to prevent them from dropping to the bottom. One must aim at them properly to ensure that the shot doesn't send them too far to the side-edges of the screen. Allowing four of them to hit the sides or fall to the bottom will end the training session. As with the other games, shooting a falling energon cube will deduct a miss from the total. More and more dummies have to be "juggled" as the game goes up in levels.

Bot Shop

What a cheapass.

The Bot Shop provides the ability to use energon cubes to purchase more Bot Shots, as well as power ups that can be used in battle such as launchers, attacks, and medpacks. The Bot Shop also has new armor parts for the user's Bot Shot avatar. To purchase a Super Bot, one must enter a code from a Super Bot toy and win a battle in the Super Bot arena in Single Player. The Bot Shop also has a "Free Bot of the Month" that one can acquire at no charge.

Characters

Autobots	Decepticons	Predacons
Optimus Prime Bumblebee Ironhide Ratchet Sentinel Prime Cliffjumper Roadbuster Leadfoot Topspin Jazz Mirage Prowl Powerglide Jetfire	Megatron Starscream Skywarp Thundercracker Nemesis Prime Acid Storm Brawl Barricade Dirt Boss Lockdown Skyquake Sunstorm Shockwave Motorbreath Dead End Breakdown Brake Neck Dragstrip Cindersaur	Twinstrike Scourge Skystalker Hydrax Buzzclaw Hun-Grrr

User names

Registrants were allowed to pick a username by picking names off of 2 lists containing 32 prefixes and suffixes, along with a 4-digit number, for example "Fun King 1234." Many of these are the prefixes or suffixes of existing characters.

Prefixes	Suffixes
Alpha Astro Awesome Battle Blitz Bumble Cross Dark Double Dread Freedom Fun Hard Laser Lightning Mega Metro Nemesis Omega Omni Optimal Power Race Radical Rumble Seeker Sentinel Sound Storm Techno Thunder Trigger Triple Ultra	Atlas Blast Blaster Bolt Bot Breaker Charger Con Grandus Grin King Lock Lynx Magnus Major Maximus Minor Pace Plex Punch Puncher Racer Saurus Shot Supreme Target Titan Track Trion Warp Wave Wrecker Zarak Zone

Avatar armor

Users are able to customize their avatar by mixing and matching among a variety of armor styles for helmets, backpacks, chestplate, shoulder plates, forearm shields and leg plates, all available in red, yellow, green, khaki, black, blue, orange, purple, pink or white.

3 styles of armor (Vectorplate, Reactive armor and Shockscale) had their parts available for free. Parts of other armor styles had to be purchased using in-game reward points.

Below are a few example avatars as well as all the armor styles (in white.)

• 
  Ultra Major
• 
  Fun King
• 
  Vectorplate
• 
  Reactive armor
• 
  Shockscale
• 
  Bunker-tech
• 
  Centurion
• 
  Airstrike
• 
  Neoshogun
• 
  Razorforce
• 
  Alliance
• 
  Empire
• 
  Dragonscale
• 
  Minotaur

Notes

• The line-up of starting Bot Shots includes Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Megatron, Brawl, Starscream, Sentinel Prime, and Nemesis Prime.
• The original battle game play was much different. The user selected matching images from a grid at the bottom of the screen to line up attacks which were then executed in sequence. Applying any sort of strategy to the game play, especially as the opponent's attacks weren't shown in advance, was impossible.
• An apparent and really annoying bug in battle mode causes blank blocks to emit a small spark of light at the base (as if they were attempting to display an attack type) and become completely unusable for the rest of the battle, even when they blink into color.

Transformers references

• One of the attacks available for purchase is a "Scraplet Attack".
• Cybertropolis is a city previously featured in Beast Machines.
• Locations on Cybertron where single player battles can take place include:
  • Tank: Sea of Rust, Galactic Spacebridge
  • Jet: Crystal City, Six Lasers Over Cybertron
  • Truck: Hydrax Plateau, Kaon Battle Zone.
  • Car: Axiom Nexus, Chamber of Battle
  • Super Bot arena: Sonic Canyon

Real-life references

• Hun-Grrr does "Gangnam Style" for his victory dance.