Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness

""Phase 1... PROCEED!" "Target Damaged!" The Announcer"

Also known as Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness, this is a Fighting Game made by Capcom in 1994 for arcade, Sega Saturn and PlayStation. The game is Capcom's attempt to create a Street Fighter clone using Humongous Mechas. Said mechas come from another game, a Beat'Em Up called Armored Warriors.

The story takes place in the end of the 21st century, where the Earth begins to become overpopulated, leading to many people living in space colonies. The primary army of Earth, "Earth Force", has been conducting experiments; their work, along with the actions of the playable characters, will determine the future of Earth.

In the game, the player has to choose a pilot and one of the available mechas, called Variant Armors, and then duke it out against other pilots and mechas. The parts of these VAs can be Mix And Matched to affect the general playstyle. In fact, during the battle, the players can lose their parts, along with their special moves and attacks, but also pick them back up.

Initially playable characters:


 * Jin Saotome, a Hot-Blooded pilot whose father died a year before, and who wants to honor his memory by becoming the best VA pilot in the galaxy. He looks up to Gawaine. Pilots the BX-02 Blodia.
 * Santana Laurence, an egotistic loner who sometimes works as a mercenary. Good friends with Gawaine. Pilots the RF-004 Reptos.
 * Mary Miyabi, a captain of the Earth Force. Pilots the FZ-900J Killer Bee.
 * Gawaine Murdock, a Retired Badass out of retirement after learning that the Earth Force was causing trouble. He was also Mary's superior, and is a friend of the Saotome family. He pilots the GP-N1 Guldin.
 * Arieta, a young girl with psychic powers. Subjected to horrific experiments by the Earth Force, she escaped after two of her friends had died in said experiments. Pilots a FZ-100 Fordy.
 * Bao and Mao, a pair of siblings who were captured by the Earth Force, but managed to escape. They don't want to be part of the conflict, anyway. "Pilots" of another FZ-100 Fordy, pre-programmed for automatic self-defense.

Selectable in the console versions:


 * Chiyomaru Kagura and Tessan Hagure, The Captain and Number Two of La Résistance, former members of the Earth Force who now are combating them. They pilot the P-10033 Gaits.
 * Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX, a spoiled Space Pirate brat with two lackeys, Dave and Xavier, who wants to steal other VAs and add them to her collection. They're unrelated to the main conflict. She has a crush on Gawaine. She pilots the S-008 Super-8.
 * SHADE, an Earth Force's Super Soldier who was bribed with promises of perfection, and who was ultimately Brainwashed. He pilots the UVA-02 Helion.

Other characters include:


 * Final Weapon's Brain G.O.D., the Big Bad of the game. Pilots the X-0 Warlock.
 * Ken Saotome, Jin's brother who was also a friend of SHADE and Gawaine, and was killed a year before the conflict.
 * Emperor Deathsatan, the king of Heldorado and the Milky Way Express, and Devilotte's father. He owns a Warlock VA of his own, but more importantly, he's the owner of Zero Gouki/Akuma.

The series remained in obscurity until Devilotte was featured in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo in 1996. Jin also made the cut for Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes and Tech Romancer in 1998, with Devilotte and her lackeys making the cut as a selectable Assist Character in the former, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Finally, Blodia was featured in Namco X Capcom as a mecha for Sylphie. It's now available as a downloadable game in the Playstation Network, under Japanese Imports.

Phase 2... PROCEED

 * Achey Scars: Jin.
 * The Aloner: Santana.
 * Attack Drone: Bit weapon
 * Beginner's Luck: Bao and Mao have no knowledge about piloting VA at all. Luckily, their chosen Fordy just happens to be pre-programmed for automatic self-defense.
 * Berserk Button: Don't mention Jin's.
 * Big Bad: Weapon's Brain: G.O.D., the entity behind all the conflict.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Devilotte... subverts this.
 * Brainwashed:
 * Captain Ersatz: The Zero Akuma/Gouki Secret Character towards Akuma. It has his name, his moveset, and his appearance.
 * The Casanova: Santana.
 * Crossover: Devilotte is featured in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo as a Secret Character, and Jin and Blodia are Secret Characters in Tech Romancer.
 * Capcom vs. Whatever: Jin is featured alongside Blodia (in the role of Jin's Assist Character) in Marvel vs. Capcom 1 (where Devilotte was also an Assist Character) and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. There's also the aforementioned Blodia appearance in Namco X Capcom. Aside from the playable appearances, Tatsunokovs Capcom had the appearances of Devilotte and her lackeys in Doronjo and Joe The Condor's ending, and Blodia and Santana in PTX-40A's ending.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: SHADE.
 * Evil All Along:.
 * Expy: Devilotte bears more than a passing resemblance to Doronjo: both are blonde comedic mecha villains constantly accompanied by two male lackeys. This was Lampshaded in Doronjo's ending in Tatsunokovs Capcom. For bonus points, Super 8 looks like Agmiss, the stage 2 boss from Armored Warriors.
 * Girl in a Box / People Jars: Arieta.
 * Good All Along:  was just following orders. But from the wrong people.
 * Idiot Hair: Chiyomaru and boy are they weird
 * Heroic Sacrifice / Redemption Equals Death:  in Jin's ending.
 * He's Just Hiding:
 * Hot-Blooded: Jin.
 * La Résistance: Chiyomaru and Tessan.
 * Laser Blade: Swordman, Killer Bee and Helion have one. Reptos has a pair of them hidden in its forearms. Aside from VA, Gawaine also carries one around.
 * Meaningful Name: Many people theorize that Jin Saotome's name is derived from the last name's of Hayato Jin and Professor Saotome of Getter Robo. Jin's hot-bloodedness and crazy fighting style show he has more than a little bit of Ryoma in him, too.
 * A Mech by Any Other Name: Variant Armors.
 * Mix And Match Mechas: They aren't called "Variable Armors" for nothing. This is part of the gameplay: every part changes the basic stats of the robots.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX is an inversion: her father is the one you should run away from.
 * Non-Indicative Name: Go ahead and count them, Super 8 has only six tentacles.
 * Palette Swap: The 12 regular characters respectively use their default colors for Player 1 and alternate colors for Player 2. The four bosses are the other way around in case you've looked at the official artwork for those characters.
 * Panty Shot: The artwork of the game (and Bao/Mao's ending) has several shots of Devilotte showing her... royal underwear.
 * Retired Badass: Gawaine.
 * Rich Bitch: Devilotte. Weird enough, as it's revealed in her storyline that all Deathsatan gave Devilotte before her journey is 300 yen.
 * Shock and Awe: RF-009 Lightning's spark arm
 * Shout-Out:
 * Santana's name might be a reference to the famous Latin guitar player Carlos Santana. It may also be a nod towards JoJo's Bizarre Adventure -- one of the Ultimate Life Forms in JoJo Series 2 was named Santana, and Santana's design is quite JoJo-esque (imagine a younger Mohammad Avdol).
 * The name of the Robot Version of Akuma in the Game, Zero Gouki is a shout out to EVA 00 from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was sometimes called Zerogoki.
 * SNK Boss: Warlock.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Devilotte or Devilot?
 * Spider Tank: Jackal, Cyclone and Talantula.
 * Spikes of Villainy: Averted with Jin; his mecha (Blodia) has spikes, but he's a good guy.
 * Spiritual Successor: Tech Romancer.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Devilotte towards Gawaine.
 * Terrible Trio: Devilotte, and her lackeys Dave and Xavier.
 * This Is a Drill: GP-D2 Cyclone has drill arm. BX-07R Riot and FZ-900J Killer Bee can transform into a giant drill.
 * Transforming Mecha: The aforementioned Riot and Killer Bee. And UVA-02 Helion, which can transform into a helicopter.
 * Turned Against Their Masters:
 * We Just Want To Get Out Of This Conflict: Bao and Mao.
 * Whip It Good: RF-027 Jackal's heat rod arm.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Arieta, Bao and Mao.

"Target Destroyed"