Coolest American Gladiator Event?

[Nottom]

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BTW, there are a lot of Atlasphere like mini-games in this really fun multiplayer game for the XBOX called "Fusion Frenzy." I wouldn't bee surprised if Gladiator was a major inspiration for a lot of mini-games. I got it out of a bargain bin for $5 and it was one of our most played XBOX games. Great for when you're pregaming with some buddies.

Anyone played it?

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Yeah my brother had this game, its awesome.

The Demo was on the original Halo disk IIRC

[punkass]

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samjones, you are an OOT hall of famer in my book.

Reading this thread I am struck with awe at the realization that there was a time in my youth when one could watch the x-men cartoon, the tick, WWF wrestling and American Gladiators all before 2pm on a saturday.

Another thought: Which event did the contenders have the biggest disadvantage in? I hardly ever saw anyone make it to the top of that wall. Similarly, Hang Tough usually ended in a gladiator death grip/fall.

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I was amazed at the number of people able to hang for the full 30 seconds on Hang Tough, with gladiator hanging on them.

Sky Track was probably the biggest disadvantage, cause there was no contact between contender/gladiator. It just measured speed, and some gladiators were just too big to be fast.

It was fun seeing contenders being thrown off the pyramid, tumbling down.

I always thought more people would have broken their wrists in whiplash.

[Ryan Beal]

This is indeed a fantastic thread. Well done.

Assault was also my favorite, followed closely by Powerball, The Wall, and Atlasphere. Hang Tough was undoubtedly a difficult event, but it was always really boring to watch.

[samjjones]

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Another thought: Which event did the contenders have the biggest disadvantage in? I hardly ever saw anyone make it to the top of that wall. Similarly, Hang Tough usually ended in a gladiator death grip/fall.

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After they changed the rules so contestants couldn't "kick", I think human cannonball became the most difficult event to do well in. Then, you basically had to hope that you had a good approach vector and somehow the gladiator wasn't balanced right in order to knock him off. When the show first started, there used to be some awesome collisions as the contestants tried to kick the gladiators off.

Laser was an absolute beast on the wall, IIRC. I'm not sure if anybody beat him.

[marchron]

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Sounds like a valid argument to me. They never set up powerball with scrawny contestants (not that there were many), either. They always had big dudes in there. Maybe I'm biased because I played football, but they used to knock the crap out of each other. It was [censored] great.

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In high school, we used to play Powerball during "unofficial" summer practices as cross-training. It was a little easier for the "Contestants" since we used big Rubbermaid trash cans instead of the slope-angle buckets on the show, so even if you were cut off, you could still let off a jumpshot before getting creamed.

To make it more fair, we split it up so that linemen would only play linemen and skill positions would only play the other speedsters. If you think it was fun watching the hulking dudes on the show, it was even better for me, as a hoss, to stand on the sidelines and watch some 180-pound strong safety get in as a "Gladiator" and start destroying people.

[Biggle10]

Anyone remember Malibu...the worst gladiator ever. He lost like every event he was in. He did not return for the next season.

[DirtyDiggs]

Ok,my random thoughts on American Gladiators completely from memory.

The show was better earlier in the program when the events were more balanced and there weren't so many that looked good but didn't play well. (eg. Hang tough, so little chance to win for the contestants unless a gladiator [censored] up) In fact, it became a constest who got luckier draws.

The selection process weened away alot of contestants that could have better competed with the gladiators. Many of the qualifying criteria were things like most push-ups and an 40 times, which favored the 5'9 150-170 pound guys that they got. ( still amazing athletes)

Certain event allowed the Gladiators to gang up 2 on 1 and contain the better contestants. Didn't let the better athletes to shine(e.g. Swingshot and powerball)

The first comercial season had one of the best moments in sports. In the quarter finals, a guy by the name of Billy wirth, (sp?) who was at most 165, basically supplexed gemini(Listed at about 280) in the wrestling portion of break through and conquer.

Any show that has Larry Czonka as an announcer fuckings pwn's

[DirtyDiggs]

Btw, assualt was obviously the best event, but which version was better? The old military bunker style, or the 80s futuristic(I know it was in the 90s) set up of the tron style squares.

The later had better balance of the weapons between effectivness vs. opportunit, but the bunker feel of the early version was much cooler