Robot Alchemic Drive

Robot Alchemic Drive
North American box art
Developer(s)Sandlot
Publisher(s)Enix
Director(s)Takehiro Honma
Producer(s)
Designer(s)Ryuji Fukuyo
Programmer(s)
  • Toshio Noguchi
  • Yoshihiro Ito
Artist(s)
Writer(s)Takehiro Honma
Composer(s)Masafumi Takada
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Release
  • JP: August 29, 2002
  • NA: November 5, 2002
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Robot Alchemic Drive or R.A.D., sold in Japan as Gigantic Drive[a] is a 2002 action-adventure mecha fighting video game developed by Sandlot and published by Enix for the PlayStation 2. The game is set during an alien invasion in Japan, with players controlling a giant robot to combat the aliens as humanity's last line of defense.

Created as a homage to the super robot anime of the 1970s and 1980s, Robot Alchemic Drive is unique among mecha games in that most gameplay is not directly controlling the mecha (such as in Armored Core) or in combat sequences (such as Sandlot's similarly-themed Earth Defense Force), but rather by controlling the actual human pilot of the mecha, with visual novel-like dialogue progressing the story between fights.[1]

Robot Alchemic Drive was released in Japan on August 29, 2002, and in North America on November 5, to generally positive reviews, but did not perform particularly well commercially and is now considered a niche title.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Barder, Ollie (December 5, 2006). "COLUMN: 'Roboto-chan!': An ode to Sandlot". GameSetWatch. UBM plc. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 22, 2008.