GENRE
	Fighting
	DEVELOPER
	Noise
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Custom Robo may not exactly be a new concept. This robot battle game has already proven itself among Japanese audiences on the Nintendo 64, but now Nintendo's ready to try and take the game international. As a young man who's become a bounty hunter to honor his long-lost father's final wish, it's up to you to unravel a web of secrets and villainy in this highly enjoyable, action-packed combat game.

visuals

The stars of the game, the Custom Robos, are decidedly sharp and stylish. The virtual "holosseums" that they fight in are nicely done; some seem to have been done up to resemble Tron, while others are modeled rather nicely after the natural world and a few less likely settings. My personal favorite is an arena that takes place inside a giant noodle bowl.

The story mode's overworld is nicely done for the most part, but the characters themselves are rather drab; they mostly depend on the hand-drawn pictures that appear next to their speech to convey their emotions.

audio

Music in the game is largely appropriate, whether it's the techno music that plays during battles or the softer, careless beat that follows your character around the overworld. The explosions of battle sound very nice. About the only drawback in the sound department is the annoying stuttering sound the characters make while their dialogue appears on the screen.

gameplay

To call Custom Robo an RPG is something of an indulgence. The story proceeds in a very linear fashion, where your character is often trapped in a particular location until you choose the correct action to perform. Partly because of this, character-building is rather artificial. Your character has no special stats or abilities to build except for new robo parts, which are doled out to you in a pre-determined fashion. Fortunately, the story itself is quite engaging, with lively characters and a delightfully sinister plot. It really does feel like you're taking part in a good robot-fighting animee series. The only real drawback is that the story cuts short just when it's really getting good; an experienced player can expect to breeze through it in under twenty hours.

A Custom Robo, we are told, is a very small, customizable robot that fights in a virtual arena -- a "holosseum" -- that's created from the memories of its commander. You begin with standard-issue parts, but as you progress through the story mode, new options become available. Creating a robo is as simple as taking one of the basic body types and adding a gun (basic weapon), a bomb (heavy-duty fire), a pod (specialty "smart bombs"), and a pair of legs (for jumping and land speed). There really is quite a lot of variation in how different weapons handle in different situations; with a bit of experimentation, it's not too difficult to find a set of parts that fits your own playing style.

The robot battles are truly the game's bread and butter. Up to four robots enter the arena simultaneously and attempt to gun each other down. Controls are rather simple, and most weapons have some degree of auto-aiming built into them. This makes battles fast, furious, and occasionally unpredictable; Super Smash Brothers is a pretty fair comparison. However, there's still plenty of room for skill and strategy; knowing when to jump to throw off homing missles and how to use walls to your advantage keeps this from being a mindless button-masher. Many arenas have some sort of special twist to keep things lively, whether it's slippery floors and pools of lava or shifting walls and moving conveyor belts. Team options are available to set up special matches, including tag-team battles and four-player free-for-alls. Altogether, it makes for some very high-quality mayhem.

To get the most out of this game, however, you'll have to finish the main story mode at least once to unlock Arcade mode (a simple, no-nonsense combat game where you must defeat 8 levels of increasing difficulty), the Grand Battle (a special tournament mode based on the main story), CPU opponents in multiplayer mode, and of course, new robo parts. It's a bit odd to keep half of the game locked up until you've gone through the twenty-hour quest, but it's not something that should turn most players off to the game.

multiplayer

This game was made for multiplayer. To have four robots zipping around in a virtual colosseum blasting the holy hell out of each other is really a sight that must be seen to be appreciated. Options are available -- although some must be unlocked -- to play with any number of human and CPU characters, with any conceivable team arrangements, for 3, 5, 7, or infinitely many rounds of play. With so many possible robots to assemble and 35 different arenas to fight in, this is one you can come back to whenever you feel like some laserblasting fun.

overall

Although it's not the deepest game out there, Custom Robo is a thoroughly enjoyable action game, and probably one of the best sleeper hits of the spring for GameCube. Here's hoping we'll continue to see this franchise branch out.

8.5/10