Rock paper scissors
Rock paper scissors, or scissors paper rock for the Australians, is a hand game of Chinese and Japanese origin, where it's respectively known as jiǎndāo shítou bù and janken. The basis is that two players at an agreed upon signal pick the way they hold their playing hand out of a selection of three options: fist (rock), index finger and middle finger extended (scissors), and all fingers extended (paper). Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock, so there are nine possible outcomes to a round, of which six result in a winner and three result in a tie. The game can be made more complex in a myriad of ways, such as by having more than two players or adding more conditions to win. For instance, in Japan it's popular to follow the rules of Janken Pon! Acchi Muite Hoi! (じゃんけんぽん! あっちむいてホイ!, "Rock paper scissors-go! Look that way-oh!"). Acchi Muite Hoi! marks the moment that the winner of rock paper scissors has to indicate a direction with their finger, usually kept simple as left, right, up, or down. The loser simultaneously has to turn their face to one of the available directions. If the direction matches between winner and loser, the winner finally wins the game and if not the game starts anew. This extension to rock paper scissors is effectively another form of rock paper scissors.
The essence of rock paper scissors, a trio of powers that are kept in balance by each of them overpowering another and succumbing to the third, has proven versatile and any such system is also referred to as rock paper scissors. In Transformers, it occasionally is incorporated in the play pattern or gameplay of a variety of products.
Fiction
Beast Wars II cartoon
Not taking his fight with Scissor Boy entirely seriously, Tasmania Kid threw a rock at him. Scissor Boy caught it in his Mighty Scissor and mocked Tasmania Kid for the attempt. Giggling, Tasmania Kid explained that because it was a rock he threw and Scissor Boy had scissors, Tasmania Kid technically won. Scissor Boy wasn't amused and the fight continued earnestly. Friend or Foe? The Insect Robos
The Jointrons played rock paper scissors as per the rules of Janken Pon! Acchi Muite Hoi! to determine who'd be the leader. With three players, it appears they gave up before they got a winner. After observing this, Artemis and Moon played the same game for leadership between them. The results of this are unknown. Who Is the Leader!?
Games
Beastformers Role-Playing Game
In the Beastformers Role-Playing Game, the active Beasts (first in line) activate their Battle Emblem rubsigns to determine who goes first. Fire beats Wood, Wood beats Water, Water beats Fire, Burstsun beats all three. In the event of a tie, turn to manual rock paper scissors.
Bot Shots Battle Game!
In the Bot Shots Battle Game!, a 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.
3D Battle-Card Game
The gameplay of the 3D Battle-Card Game largely follows the principles of rock paper scissors. Players choose one of three colored attacks secretly, then both players reveal their choices at the same time. If the opposing player's color matches the target color of the attack, damage is recorded and any special effects occur. Special effects include extra damage, transformation, and changing distance from an opponent. If both players pull the same colors twice, the player with a lower health scores a critical attack, which does extra damage and sometimes includes a powerful special effect.
Toys
Beast Wars
Each of the figures sold by Sonokong in the Korean Beast-War toyline comes with a minimum of two cardboard rock paper scissors (gawi bawi bo) cards in place of the Japanese bio cards. Each card is printed on a single side with a picture of the character (usually just a straight reuse of the packaging art) and has one of the three symbols, rock, paper, or scissors, printed in the top right corner. While the packaging and instructions give no explanation as to what this feature is for, a rough estimate would suggest that each card symbol indicates which figure is stronger than the other. Additionally, there are unique dice rolls on each of the cards which suggests that a die must be used to play the game—whatever that game may be.
Bot Shots
The gameplay of Bot Shots involves a three-sided rotating tumbler inside each figure's chest, each displaying a different symbol and point value. Players pick their symbol without letting the other player see, transform their Bot Shots figure into vehicle mode, then send the two bots ramming into each other, either by hand or via spring-loaded launcher. The collision (hopefully) triggers the toys' transformation into robot mode.
The winner is first determined by "one bot standing" rules: if one figure does not transform, or does transform but falls over, that figure loses the bout. But if both bots transform and stand, the tumbler's exposed sticker/value determines the victor, first by a rather unintuitive variant of rock paper scissors:
- Blaster beats Fist
- Fist beats Sword
- Sword beats Blaster
In the event both players picked the same symbol, the figure's individual power ranking determines the winner.
Merchandise
Seal Retsuden
There is a game associated with the normal Beast Wars II Seal Retsuden stickers as printed on the back of the mystery packs. Each of the first 69 stickers has the standard Tech Specs of strength, intelligence, speed, endurance, rank, courage, firepower, and skill printed on the bottom. The sum of the numbers assigned to these stats is depicted in the upper right corner as their POW. or total ability. One rule proposed is to play rock paper scissors and who wins gets to pick a stat which number is to determine the winner.
External links
- Rock paper scissors at Wikipedia.
