Another great installment of the Custom Robo franchise! Story mode could still be better in this DS sequel.
The story takes place years after the first game on the Gamecube. Robots are now something normally use in the world. In the school mostly everyone has a Custom Robo and they do tournaments in it. You must become champion by winning various tournaments held on various schools. You are part of Team Numero Uno which is the team of friends that compete. But, there are only 3 members: you, Liv and Dennis. Only you can help them make the team become champion and represent you’re school. However, has you progress through the game many new plots and mysteries will rise and you will soon find out it’s not all just winning tournaments. Do you what it takes to represent you’re team?
The gameplay of Custom Robo Arena in the DS remains the same like previous titles. This time around it’s a 2-D RPG that shares various similarities to Pokemon Rpg’s like Pokemon Diamond. But, there are no dungeons, it’s more exploration and just reaching the next area you need to go and search for people you need to see or battle. And it’s not a big world like pokemon but it’s still pretty big to explore. Sometimes, you might get lost because the game doesn’t explain very well where is the next area you need to go, but you will figure it out. The game has a system that after certain amount of events it’s time for you to return home, dinner, sleep and then wake up again. Which is nice because it gives some reality elements to the game, unfortunately the dialogue gets very repetitive during the house scenes.
The big idea behind Custom Robo Arena and all of his previous installments it’s the robot customization. The game let’s you customize the legs, body, guns, missiles and jetpack of your robot with various parts. Each part offers different unique styles, and you simply choose which style fits the best for you. A new feature added is the ability to polish you’re robot when is pretty dirty, and when you polish it turns back to normal shiny. Unfortunately, those that don’t like to go through story, they must do in order to receive new parts has you progress throughout the story of the game. There are also the illegal parts which are used by thieves in the story, but you can use them once you get some of them. However, in online play it’s divided in rooms of allowed use of illegal parts and not allowed use of illegal parts. After you customize you’re robot is time to go to the battlefield and battle you’re opponents. The controls are very easy to use and provide great ability for special techniques and strategies. Before the battle, you’re opponent will be shown with a background that you can buy on the story mode in a store. You can be presented on a beach with a bikini girl (I swear, I am not kidding), with a dinosaur, on the city, etc. The battle begins with your robots inside cubes that are going to be shot by a tube. However, unlike the Gamecube game this time it’s not by time but by the way you appear from cube. You may appear stuck on the floor or ready to battle. It all depends how the cube falls. The battle consists of taking all the hp in your opponents’ robot by shooting with your guns, bomb traps and missiles. You also have an ability to do a very quick boost that when you hit you’re foe it takes quite some damage. All robots start with 1,000 of hp. There is a new ability called the “soulboost” in which turns you’re robot in gold and makes him more powerful but for a short time. You do not need to wait to learn it on the story mode to use in online play, but in story you need to wait until you reach the person who will teach it to you.
The graphics during exploration it’s all 2-D with a similar look to Pokemon Rpg’s in handhelds. The map could still look a bit better has sometimes it was barely detailed in some areas. And inside houses and buildings there should be a bit more interesting decoration to make each place different. The characters have their anime style with spiky hair as usual and weirdoes included. The battles are in 3-D and so are the robots. It certainly looks impressive and very similar to the Gamecube version which is great. There are a few blurry textures and a little bit of blockyness but it looks great has a Nintendo DS game.
In the audio department Custom Robo Arena is neither good nor bad. The music is not impressive or very memorable, but it never gets annoying or in the way of the game. It just simply fits and it’s there. There is no voiceovers in the dialogue which is a shame because there is a quite a lot of dialogue, but handheld titles usually don’t have voiceovers. The sound effects were nicely done adapt in this sequel and sound really great on the speakers of the Nintendo DS. Not much complains, but nothing over the top either in the audio.
Custom Robo Arena does not last really long has the previous Gamecube installments but offers enough play time and a story that gets more and more interesting has you progress throughout the game. While the story mode is good, it’s not nearly good enough to go and replay it too much. Once you finish it, you may not want to go back and do it all over again. Specially, doing the repetitive shore of waking up, saying hi to your parents then go back for dinner and have a family reunion and talk about stuff and then see again the repetitive dialogue over and over again. Of course, that doesn’t mean once you finish it you must sell it. Because Custom Robo Arena offers for the first time in the franchise online play with friend codes or random people online! You will be able to challenge people all over the world with your specially customized robot and see if you’re robot is truly the best out there. What disappoints is that you only 2 players can play online. It’s still great to see what strategies other people do, how they customize their robot and even see their background because maybe it’s new for you. There is not much problems with lag during online play either, which is good because it always annoys in online games.
Overall, Custom Robo Arena is another great addition to the Custom Robo franchise, keeping the same style of gameplay but adding a few things here and there. The series has still not reached a game that’s completely amazing but there is definitely potential in it. If you like robots and would like to customize robots and battle opponents online, this is definitely the game you must pick up. If you are afraid of the story mode, then try at least renting it and you will see if you can like it, strong enough to play through it or simply hate it. But is a game that it’s still worth at least trying it out.