I have looked at the past games, and I found that the games that have been designed for FRC and FTC in particular are very interesting. Some are fantastic, some are sub-par. I want to know what you all think is the best game ever made, based on difficulty, new concepts, unique playing pieces, or overall entertainment factors. FTC and FRC can be ranked separately, but they can also be ranked together. Personally, my picks are:
FTC: 2014 Block Party
While I may be biased because I played this game, it was a well designed game with lots of different ways to score. It is known for being easy, but it introduced many new concepts, such as the balancing scoring bins and the flag-spinner. Plus, the pull-up bar was a fun challenge to attempt.
FRC: 2004 FIRST Frenzy
While this may be a controversial selection, I personally believe that this was a very innovative game with interesting goals. The return of the rolling goals was no surprise, but the idea of a multiplier was innovative. The combination of two differently sized balls allowed for a larger variation of strategy, and the scoring center structure required a drive train capable of climbing steps. Finally, the hanging option is always entertaining!
EDIT: I’ve added a poll of the top five FRC games that people have voted for so far. Please vote for your favorite!
2004 First Frenzy
Always say that.
Different ways to score, 2 sizes of balls, movable parts, great field with big obstacles but plenty of space to move and the human player could make difference too.
and also
FRC 2007 Rack n´Roll
Strategy game (board game with robots) with great autonomous challenge and interaction between robots (one climbing the other at the end)
My favorite is 2013 - Ultimate Ascent. Challenging game piece, pyramids were cool. Fun to watch, easy to understand for people who don’t get FIRST.
Just my opinion
I’ve got 3
2006 - Aim High
Lots of heavy hitting, shooting balls (Who doesn’t like that?) and dedicated defense period.
2013 - Ultimate Ascent
Shooting frisbees, wide open field, and an extremely simple yet fun game.
2014 - Aerial Assist
A bit biased due to being my first actual game, but lots of defense, open field, and it was hard to get carried. It truly required the efforts of the entire alliance to be successful.
This is my 12th year of involvement in FRC. I think this game is the best designed, and it’s pretty fun to play. I still like 2014 better personally, because I think it could actually be turned into a sport for robots if it was developed further.
With my 9th FRC season under my belt (4 as student, 5 as a mentor), my top 3 FRC games:
#3 - 2014;Aerial Assist: The first year I can solidly remember (in my time) a box on wheels being a viable, albeit suboptimal, alliance partner at any time, as long as the robots were competent. Great game/design, great elimination play.
#2 - 2010;Breakaway: I was spared the end of season shenanigans involving scoring on yourself, and I loved the pure simplicity of the game from a rules/non-initiated viewer’s perspective.
#1 - Rebound Rumble: My favorite game, partially because it’s one of the best bots my current team has ever built. Another in the “simple to watch” category, it fit well in that space, and thrived on it. High level play was awesome to watch.
That’s an interesting take on this question. I like it. I’ve never taken into account which game would be best for non-robotics audiences. Another couple that would be interesting for TV audiences would be 2012 or 2010, based on the fact that both were relatively low scoring in their early days, and they are based off of wildly popular sports and don’t stray far from their core concepts.
I thought 2012 (Rebound Rumble) was an amazingly well designed game. It was very easy for newcomers to follow and watch, the real time scoring was spot on, it had just the right amount of defense, and the end game was insane to watch.
My personal favorite would be 2013s - Ultimate Ascent.
The game had an interesting/fun game piece which we would sometimes use during our break to play catch with the team.
Ultimate Ascent was a simple for everyone to understand (Shoot frisbees into goals, End game Hang on the pyramid), although the game did not really emphasize teamwork they did a great job involving teamwork in 2014 & 2015 bringing in points for assist + cooperation.
2014 Aerial Assist was probably the best game. It was a lot of strategy on the drivers side as literally anything could happen. We also had families saying they would invite their friends over to watch our events as if it was a football game. I really liked the 2012 game, Rebound Rumble, but I feel it came before its time. There were a lot of low scoring matches as it was hard to score and I’d love to see the game now with more advanced vision software and technology.
I agree with Aim High being pretty high up there. With it being only the second year with a three-team alliance, the whole idea of the robots switching between periods of offense and defense created some truly interesting robot designs. Also the challenge of shooting into a minuscule hole challenged the programming teams more than ever before. Finally, the added difficulty of driving up a fairly steep ramp at the end was fun!
I tried making a list once, then decided it was too hard. So, here instead, is my tier list of the 16 games I have any knowledge of. (The first game I saw in person is 2004, but I feel like I know enough about the three before that to judge them). Games are not ranked within a tier.
