Custom Robo

Game Review: Custom Robo

Custom Robo for the Gamecube was released in North America on May 10, 2004 and is part of the long running Custom Robo series that is owned by Nintendo. While the game got a fairly negative response from several reputable game review sites, it seems to have done fairly well and a new Custom Robo game for the DS came out in March 19, 2007 (North American release)

And I have to say, this game is pretty bad.

You start out as a nameless character ( It's one of those games where you name your character, we'll just call him player for simplicities sake) who finds out his father has passed away. His father had left years ago and the kid is obviously saddened to hear his fate. And as any video game character worth his share of purple taffy (Confusing eh?) would do he sets out to become a commander, which is someone who commands Custom Robos) and make his name.

But I haven't explained what Custom Robos are yet have I? They are these super tiny robots which fight each-other in these tiny boxes called holosseum. A holosseum is basically just a tiny box that you throw on the ground and the two commanders put their little guys in the Arena to fight. This is all very confusing and to be perfectly blunt, doesn't make the least amount of sense especially when you see police fighting criminals by throwing down a cube and using tiny robots to do battle. And then when the police officer loses he just gives up because the other guy has the advantage in that his tiny little robot which is no match for a human is still standing....yeah.

Basically it makes about as much sense in me and you the reader getting into a fight and then I say "Wait, let me get my rock-em sock-em robot kit". You can see how odd that is right?

Anyway, enough of that let us get onto the gameplay. It's terrible. You see, I had convinced my parents to get me this game and I was all excited and once I had it and was playing it I was trying to convince myself that the game I was playing was fun. But it wasn't. It is reminiscent of the days where there were no websites to tell you which games were good and which were bad, as I was not at the time using those sites. Since I was stuck with the game, I just had to keep on playing.

The exploration part of the gameplay has you going around sometimes collecting items but usually going from one boring task to the next. This is interspersed with badly written conversations with other characters. And the combat part is just as bad. When the match starts you and your opponent aim this cannon which shoots out a cube in which your robot is contained. The cubes will both have a timer with a number from 1 to 6 on it which determines how long until your robot is released and ready for battle. You can speed up the process by pressing the A button. This system is really pointless and not fun at all, so I'm rather puzzled as to why they put it in.

Also annoying is the "Illegal" weapon system. These Illegal weapons are sometimes used by your evil enemies and are far more powerful than regular one's. However in certain events, one example being the score based trials you have to take to get the last unlockable robot, using these results in a serious penalty. This makes those last events a lesson in frustration and really serves no purpose than to bother you (Especially people like me who like to unlock everything in a game).

And the basic combat itself is boring. After your robot is released from its cube prison thing you commence to run, jump, and sprint midair around the arena while permanently locked onto the enemy. Different models, guns, bombs, etc give your robot different degrees of power, speed, sprint and such but the basic combat always remains the same.

You can unlock quite a few different robot's to use in battle, all of which I managed to unlock (But I doubt you will take the time too, if you buy this game that is). The design of the robots is cool, possibly the only area of the game I actually liked. You have a small ball like robot with a cute little face, or a giant ape like one and so on. This doesn't make up for the game's other aspects but at least they got something right.

The story is also bad, so I won't even waste my time describing it.

Overall, this game is one of the worst I've played in my entire life. I'm telling you right now, don't buy this game. Buy the N64 version which although I haven't played myself, I hear is quite good. Buying bad games only sends a message to the developers saying that you encourage them to make more like it, which is the exact opposite of what we all want.

Custom Robo for the Gamecube rating: 1/5