Megabots Assemble: The U.S. Fights Japan in the World's First Real Megabot Duel

The idea of giant, usually human-controlled robots goes way back. Since we're no historians on the matter, we'll just recall the first time we ever came across it, and it was in a PC game called MechWarrior. That was happening back in 1995, and since then a lot of other games or movies picked up on the idea.

Not that it was such a clever one from a practical standpoint. A low profile tank with its shaped armor and smaller frame would always make a better fighting machine than a tall, lanky, human-shaped robot with an exposed cockpit. But it wouldn't look half as cool.

That humanoid silhouette is probably what makes these giant robot fights so exciting to watch: it makes them feel a lot more personal. To make matters even more interesting, MegaBots Inc decided to pit two different nations against each other for the world's first such battle.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to live stream the event. These multi-ton machines are out there to hurt each other, and since the battle has multiple rounds, the teams needed a fair amount of time to fix their robots. That means the match spread over several days, which would make it even harder to watch than a 24-hours endurance race.

The teams have been given complete freedom on the nature, shape, and weight of the weapons installed on their robots, with the sole limitation of keeping them non-lethal. They weren't allowed to cut through metal - for obvious reasons since humans are sitting inside - but they can definitely damage it.

If you find this as interesting as we do, you can watch U.S.' Eagle Prime go against Japan's Kuratas next Tuesday, October 17, at 7 PM PT on Twitch. Expect a slow, tactical fight but hey, it's 16-foot-tall robots we're talking about, so do you really care?