A fun game that doesn't quite make it to greatness.
Difficulty: 5.5/10
To be blunt, this game is good, fun, and worth playing, but it doesn't have everything you would wish. Yet I love it for the fun it gives me.
You play as a high schooler, who has moved into the new town of Midheart with his family. This world is set in our future, where small customizable robots perform various tasks, from surgery to exploration, and from sports to armed battle.
Most citizens use these custom robos for recreational battles. You are given a robo by your father, and you soon join Team Numero Uno, a robo battling team at your school. The other two members of team Numero Uno will be your friends and companions throughout the game, as the story develops into a nice, if not slightly cliche, but still interesting, but linear, plot. :P The story is fun, and I like it, despite it being linear, and mostly un-original.
Throughout the story you will take part in many tournaments, on your way to the great Robo Cup. But things go drastically wrong along the way.
The world is restricted at first, only allowing you to move around the small area of Midheart, but quickly you gain access to 3 adjacent districts of the same size, along with a couple small extra paths. Overall, the overworld is too small. You leave this area once, as you travel on a ship to an island for the Robo Cup, but you may only visit this ship and island once.
There are plenty of things to look at, and when you count all the space inside buildings the world gets much bigger, but it would have been nice to have it even bigger, if only to expand the fun and length of the game.
When you are on the world map, it is a top down view, a la the classic 2-D Zeldas. There are buildings to go inside and people to talk to. Some of these people will challenge you to robo battles, which is where the core of the gameplay (but not all, there are some hide-and-seek-esque sequences in the overworld itself) takes place.
Battles are full 3-D combats between your robo and that of your opponents. Each robo has 5 customizable sections. The body, gun, bomb, pod, and leg. Each affects how you battle with your robo, and if you change them up occasionally there really is some great strategy to be seen. You obtain parts either by earning them through certain battles, or buying them at parts stores. There are hundreds of parts to collect. None are extremely overpowered, although near the end you obtain "illegal parts", which are more powerful, but at least you can't use them in your Mission Battles.
It will take skill to get through battles. Experienced gamers will find most battles easy, but I'm sure everyone will face a challenge or two along the path.
The controls for battle are good, but the touchscreen is only used to activate an ability you obtain called the "soulboost". So the DS is not implemented to it's best capability. You have the choice between many different control schemes, and either a distant 3rd person or close 3rd person camera. The controls are responsive, and the robos move well and look good.
The only issue is that the small DS screen doesn't allow you to always get a good look at the fantastically done robo models.
In your "garage", where you customize your robo, you may also pose your robo in dioramas. There are many different dioramas, which you buy from stores. This is not a key component, but it adds some freshness and fun.
I enjoy the music in this game. I can't describe it, but there are many different themes for different areas, dioramas, and holoseums (where the battles take place).
These holoseums are many and varied, and fun to fight on. You may also buy these, for use in arcade battles, or in online multiplayer.
The multiplayer here shines. There are still people playing this game, and you can find them occasionally. But don't worry, if you can't find someone online, there is single card multiplayer!
You can play someone in the same room, with information being transferred to them from your cartridge. The options for customization are limited, but you can still have fun.
Overall, if more people were still playing this game, it would be a fantastic multiplayer.
This game is just plain fun. Some things aren't as complex as other modern games. The overwolrd may be on the small side and the story may be uninnovative, but the characters are charming, as is the music. The battles are fun, and there is good strategy involved. Plus, there are over a hundred parts to collect. The extra options and play modes you will encounter can keep this game fresh and fun for many hours after you have completed the story. You may even want to play it again.