It’s less than a year since we reviewed the first iteration of Mekamon – a spider-like robot designed to battle others of its kind, or virtual enemies in augmented reality via a smartphone app. Think Pokémon in real life and you’re most of the way there.
Mekamon V2 is available in white, black, and a fetching new grey camo pattern. The camo is exclusive to Apple Stores, but all robots are compatible with both Android and iOS. It’s also backward compatible, so V2 bots can battle their V1 counterparts without any trouble. Mekamon’s creator, UK-based Reach Robotics, says it intends to continue supporting its older models, so you don’t need to worry about your bot becoming obsolete when V3 struts into stores.
Design
The robot itself looks very similar to its predecessor, with four limbs (each with three joints), detachable armor plates, and a pair of removable ‘guns’ atop its torso. The main difference is the light within its head, which now glows different colors to indicate its mood.
If you lose a battle, or remove a piece of the robot’s equipment, it turns red and stomps angrily just to make sure there’s no confusion about its displeasure. Clip the accessory back on, or emerge from battle victorious, and it will glow green while bobbing with enthusiasm.
The original Mekamon was solidly built, and its predecessor is even more robust – which is just as well, as some of its ‘death’ animations involve the machine stiffening and toppling over on its back. In fact, animations have been improved across the board, giving Mekamon V2 more personality (and sass) than its predecessor. You can even create your own – more on that in a moment.
Companion app
When you first load the Mekamon app, you’ll be presented with a short comic-book style video summarizing some new lore, followed by a menu featuring three options: Play, Create and Discover. Discover is currently greyed out, but will eventually serve as a download center where you can find content made by other robot owners. Reach Robotics hopes to have it up and running soon, and will roll it out as a free update once it’s ready.
When you launch Create mode – a new addition for V2 – you’ll find two sections: MekaMotion and MekaCode. The latter is currently unavailable, but will hopefully be unlocked before Christmas. When complete, it will let users create programs for their robots using blocks of pre-written code. This will be particularly useful for kids learning to code, and for schools that have invested in a Mekamon for teaching, or received one as a donation (education is a key priority for Reach Robotics’ founder Silas Adekunle).
Another new addition is Mekamotion, which lets you download and create new animations for your Mekamon. In this mode, you can gently position the robot’s legs like a clay stop-motion figure, then use the app to ‘capture’ each pose as a frame of animation. When ‘unlocked’ for animation (individually or in groups), the legs take on a kind of waxy flexibility, allowing you to bend them gently and then remaining in their new position until changed manually. Frames can be copied and pasted if you want to repeat a motion.
Sometimes you’ll have to support the Mekamon’s body to achieve a particular effect, and it feels like the process might be easier if the legs were a little stiffer (sometimes the machine sags a little after being posed), but it’s a novel idea that works well on the whole. To get an idea of what’s possible, there’s a selection of pre-made animations to download, including twerking, a dab, and enthusiastic tail-wagging to make just a few.
Play and fight
Selecting Play mode gives you two options: Freedrive and Skirmish. Freedrive lets you get a feel for operating the robot, and provides various options for tinkering with its movement, including speed, step height and more. Mekamon V2 moves faster than its predecessor, and there’s far less latency between you operating the controls and the robot responding.
One of the biggest differences for Mekamon V2 is that the robot no longer requires a specially marked map to orient itself. Just set it down (it works fine on hard floors and carpets) and it’s ready to use immediately in Create or Freedrive mode
Before starting a Skirmish, you’ll need to spend a moment walking around with your phone to map out a battlefield. As you move, the floor will be covered with a pattern of squares on your phone’s screen, showing the area where the fight can take place. It’s not perfect, and can be foxed by objects like low tables, but it’s much more convenient than the mat and generally works well.
Before entering battle, you’ll be prompted to choose a loadout. Each of these involves a different configuration of shields and guns, and comes with different properties, such as speed and types of attack.
The robot is steered using two on-screen ‘joysticks’ – one controlling its movement (forward, backward, left or right) and the other changing the direction in which it faces. It’s best to start by standing directly behind the robot, but the movement soon feels natural. To attack, ensure your Mekamon is facing its enemy (real or virtual) then tap and hold the weapon controls. Be careful, though – fire too often in rapid succession and your Mekamon will ‘overheat’, necessitating a cooldown period before you can resume battle.
Conclusion
Mekamon V2 is great fun, and although it's lacking some features at present, most of those are software-based and will be added with future app updates. There's great potential here to get kids interested in coding, and sharing their own creations.
Although it certainly isn't cheap, it's impressive that Reach Robotics has managed to knock down the starting price from the first robot's initial tag of $299.95 (£299.95, around AU$535). The commitment to backwards compatibility is also reassuring.
Mekamon is stocked in Apple Stores throughout the US and UK, so if you're not sure whether to invest you can head over and try one out on the shop floor. Just don't blame us if you're still there making the robot twerk when it's time for the staff to lock up for the night.
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