It's NOT the same as Pokemon but with robots... It's just similar
CRA is the spiritual sequel to Custom Robo, which was released on the N64 a million years ago. It's a good game but it kinda slipped under the radar of most, being released just a few months before Pokemon.
Gameplay: CRA plays the way you'd expect a game about miniature fighting robots to play. There are two elements to the game; customization and fighting, and surprisingly both are fairly equal. Whereas some games have customisable weapons that simply go up in stages of power, CRA has a wide range of weapons to choose from, each with a unique style. Because none has an advantage over the next, you'll be switching between them often, to get the upper hand on your next enemy. You can customise you body, legs, gun, bomb and pod, which is essentially a backpack that fires explosives. With each giving a different effect in battle, you'll be spoilt for choice. When it comes to battling, the whole thing works well. Moving around then stage is simple, but the camera can be a tad jumpy at occasions. It's not going to ruin your gaming, but it can get annoying. The enemy AI has a slightly bizarre difficulty rating. As the game moves on the scripted battles get progressively tougher, but the side fights which you play to raise money will range from downright easy to the brick wall of impossibility. It's a shame as otherwise the difficulty curve is perfect. 7/10
Visuals: The game is split into two different art styles, the pixelated goodness of the top down walkabout world, and the polygons which make up the fighting arenas. The walkabout world is nicely designed, with no complex maps to navigate, making it impossible to get lost. About half way through the game you travel to a new location, and the map becomes a little bland with tessellated forest taking over. Of course the main visual prowess is in the battles. The game becomes fully 3D and looks brilliant in motion. The fights often take place at an unrelenting speed, but the graphics can cope with it and don't lag up. Whilst some of the arenas might have ugly textures, and the characters occasionally blocky, all the polygons fit together well and don't do anything to cramp the game-play. 7/10
Story: Sigh. CRA is very much a story driven game, and as a result needs a good story. And I think it's good when a developer invests lots of time into making a story work. But here... the story goes a tad more than overboard. It's your stereotypical set-up; new boy in town, meets underdog robo-battlers, helps them beat rival team, helps them beat rival school, eventually reaches championship tournament, along way foils evil scheme. And there's nothing wrong with it, as storylines go there are worse. But the most annoying part is the human factor. The game wants you to empathise with the other characters and to do so, a day and night cycle is in place. In the morning, you get up and have breakfast with your family. Go to school, chat with friends, battle, so on. Evening, go home, talk to family. The whole system gets repetitive fast and the characters are too stereotyped to empathise with. The story isn't awful, but loses marks for lack of originality and repetitiveness. 4/10
Soundtrack: It's not bad. It's not good, but it's not bad. There's a lot of guitar work in there, electro-metal, stuff that is deemed by developers as "cool". It's not that much of a vital part of the game, because most of the time you'll be kicking the ever-loving crap out of another robot, but it would have been nicer to hear a few more laid back tracks. 6/10
Value: Lots of. It's Wi-Fi, and the Wi-Fi is good. It's a laugh to battle another human player, one, cause it's better than the AI, and two, because you feel better if you win. The game lasts twice as long with the Wi-Fi, because your character only gets items in the story mode, which you then use online. It makes the whole thing much more competitive and once you and a friend get playing, it's always fun for a grudge match. The story mode doesn't just finish after the credits though, there's a whole new area waiting to be played; the illegal zone (or whatever). This is a tougher version of the rest of the game, where you battle illegally upgraded robos, which are hard as nails. It's a great challenge. 8/10
Overall: It's a fun game, maybe not for everyone. There's a lot of free will involved and customization plays a key role, but once you've got down what works for you, you'll be away. The Wi-Fi adds much replay value.
6.5 out of 10