7th December 2010, 10:01 PM
You know, because I only do full threads for games I've finished (or at least played a LOT of).
Custom Robo Arena (DS) - Been playing this one for the past few days. It's pretty good, plays like Custom Robo all right. :) I liked the GC Custom Robo game quite a bit. Obviously the graphics aren't as good here, but the gameplay is similar. Matches are 1 on 1 only, instead of being for up to 4 robots like on the GC, but it is the DS versus the Gamecube. Evidently the first Custom Robo game (for the N64, remember that the first three Custom Robo games, Custom Robo and V2 for the N64 and GX for the GBA, were Japan only) was two player only, as was the GBA game, but the second N64 game had a 4 player mode, though it was tag-team only -- only two robots were on the field at once. The GC game's 4 player simultaneous matches were great, it's too bad the DS game had to go back to just 1 on 1 fights.
Oh, as for the gameplay for anyone who hasn't played one of these games, Custom Robo is a fighting game, sort of. It's something between a 3d fighting game and 1 on 1 versus action game, anyway. You have the robots in an arena, and they fight. You can move around, jump (you have a double jump), dash (in the air or on the ground, and the dash does damage if it hits an enemy so it's sort of a melee attack), and use three kinds of projectile weapons, guns, missiles (bombs and the like, that go up into the air and over walls), and pods (little remote attackers you create that move around the arena on their own). You can customize your robot a lot in all of these titles, and your robot type, boots, gun, missile, and pod are all customizable. The weapons vary greatly in effect and style, so there are a lot of different ways to approach the game and fight. The title is Custom Robo of course, you'd expect customizability and it's got it. :) Play is not exactly deep, but it's fun. If this was a fighting game it'd be on the button-masher end of the spectrum, probably, but it'd also have enough depth that better players will probably beat worse ones, it's a simple game and easy to learn but there is some skill to it, it's not just luck. It's great fun running and jumping around the arena shooting at the enemy robot. :)
The story's alright so far, absolutely nothing special but decent. I haven't gotten far enough for much to happen yet, if anything does. So far it's just the usual "you're a generic highschool boy who is a new but good Custom Robo player and who joined a Custom Robo team and you want to win and be the champion, etc., etc." Given that Custom Robo Battle Revolution (the GC title) started out simply, with your hero guy joining a custom robo agency (hey, at least they did buck the "heroes must be highschoolers" thing Japanese games usually do, though he wasn't much older than that), but did develop an interesting plot later on, hopefully something more will happen in this game too. The characters are alright, stereotypical but it works well enough. Really of course the fights are the best part, and as I said they're pretty fun. As usual in this series there's certainly enough to collect. I'm guessing the game probably won't be that long, like the GC game, but we'll see. That one had an additional "do a lot of battles with no story" mode you unlocked after finishing the story, and I wouldn't be surprised if this has something like that.
This does have one thing the GC game didn't have to keep you playing, though -- online (1v1 only of course) multiplayer. That's awesome. And evidently a few people do still play it, I tried once and got into a match quickly. I was destroyed of course, but still a few people are still playing, seemingly.
Now, how about a Wii Custom Robo game? It's too bad there isn't one.
Custom Robo Arena (DS) - Been playing this one for the past few days. It's pretty good, plays like Custom Robo all right. :) I liked the GC Custom Robo game quite a bit. Obviously the graphics aren't as good here, but the gameplay is similar. Matches are 1 on 1 only, instead of being for up to 4 robots like on the GC, but it is the DS versus the Gamecube. Evidently the first Custom Robo game (for the N64, remember that the first three Custom Robo games, Custom Robo and V2 for the N64 and GX for the GBA, were Japan only) was two player only, as was the GBA game, but the second N64 game had a 4 player mode, though it was tag-team only -- only two robots were on the field at once. The GC game's 4 player simultaneous matches were great, it's too bad the DS game had to go back to just 1 on 1 fights.
Oh, as for the gameplay for anyone who hasn't played one of these games, Custom Robo is a fighting game, sort of. It's something between a 3d fighting game and 1 on 1 versus action game, anyway. You have the robots in an arena, and they fight. You can move around, jump (you have a double jump), dash (in the air or on the ground, and the dash does damage if it hits an enemy so it's sort of a melee attack), and use three kinds of projectile weapons, guns, missiles (bombs and the like, that go up into the air and over walls), and pods (little remote attackers you create that move around the arena on their own). You can customize your robot a lot in all of these titles, and your robot type, boots, gun, missile, and pod are all customizable. The weapons vary greatly in effect and style, so there are a lot of different ways to approach the game and fight. The title is Custom Robo of course, you'd expect customizability and it's got it. :) Play is not exactly deep, but it's fun. If this was a fighting game it'd be on the button-masher end of the spectrum, probably, but it'd also have enough depth that better players will probably beat worse ones, it's a simple game and easy to learn but there is some skill to it, it's not just luck. It's great fun running and jumping around the arena shooting at the enemy robot. :)
The story's alright so far, absolutely nothing special but decent. I haven't gotten far enough for much to happen yet, if anything does. So far it's just the usual "you're a generic highschool boy who is a new but good Custom Robo player and who joined a Custom Robo team and you want to win and be the champion, etc., etc." Given that Custom Robo Battle Revolution (the GC title) started out simply, with your hero guy joining a custom robo agency (hey, at least they did buck the "heroes must be highschoolers" thing Japanese games usually do, though he wasn't much older than that), but did develop an interesting plot later on, hopefully something more will happen in this game too. The characters are alright, stereotypical but it works well enough. Really of course the fights are the best part, and as I said they're pretty fun. As usual in this series there's certainly enough to collect. I'm guessing the game probably won't be that long, like the GC game, but we'll see. That one had an additional "do a lot of battles with no story" mode you unlocked after finishing the story, and I wouldn't be surprised if this has something like that.
This does have one thing the GC game didn't have to keep you playing, though -- online (1v1 only of course) multiplayer. That's awesome. And evidently a few people do still play it, I tried once and got into a match quickly. I was destroyed of course, but still a few people are still playing, seemingly.
Now, how about a Wii Custom Robo game? It's too bad there isn't one.