Technophobia: Dead Metal Tournament

Technophobia: Dead Metal Tournament is a fighting game set in 2194, where robots battle in hand-to-hand combat. Corporations have only just established colonies on Mars and are already close to war, while many of their robots end up in a remote scrapyard. The scrapyard’s owner stages the Dead Metal Tournament to make extra money, bringing together everything from old scrap that refuses to die to cutting-edge combat prototypes being tested in cyberspace.

Fighting and modes

The game presents 3D characters in a 2D fighting format. You perform special moves and combos with carefully timed directional and button inputs. Its interrupt-based system requires you to enter inputs in time with the animations. The game includes one-player, two-player, tournament and single-fight modes.

Tournament rewards

Playing the tournament unlocks costumes, and the boss SA-Zero Killdozer can also be unlocked. The game’s lore satirizes corporate behavior and propaganda; it is a prequel to the book Technophobia: Operation Dead Circuit.

The terminal

A terminal emulator left in the game can be used to enter codes, some of which work as cheats. The terminal also has a personality and responds emotionally to certain inputs. The move display widget shows input instructions for both gamepad and keyboard.