Custom Robo is a action/third-person shooter/RPG/whatever game by Nintendo. You're in a
Twenty Minutes Into The Future game, with the biggest difference between us and them is that they have super advanced robots that fight each other. Sounds cool? Taking the
Humongous Mecha series and kicking it squarely in the chin, these robots are about 8 cm tall. They fight in Holosseums, which are areas designed specifically for this type of combat. They're controlled via "diving" into the robo, where they pretty much psychically become one with their robo.
So Yeah. With about 200 different parts, including around 30 different robos, tons of guns, etc. With 5 customizable areas (Robo, gun, bomb, pod, legs), and a lot of options for each, the game is actually really fun. The plotline of the most popular game involves a talkative protagonist, a smart-aleck womanizer, and a girl who can see the last memories of a robo commander. Everyone uses robos, including the police (who actually do some things), criminals, and you. Notable in that they actually explain (to an extent) why the hell nobody ever carries a gun, why custom robos are so popular, and why you never seem to get paid. Has a good sense of humor, but is more deep than you'd think. Its
Better Than It Sounds.
This series provides examples of:
- Ancient Conspiracy {The Gamecube game reveals that the entire world is in a dome, because a demon-possessed robo destroyed the rest)
- Cool Big Sis: Tamara (Arena; also a Hot Scientist)
- Defeat Means Friendship: Bull (Arena)
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Marv again, really when you think about it. Though he may be something else...
- Gameplay And Story Segregation: Illegal Parts (at least in Arena.) They're supposed to put a mental strain on not only those using them, but also their opponents. And in all battles involving the parts, you get no negative effects (except that when you use them, you don't get the game's version of EXP, which doesn't accurately measure your skill anyway).
- Gotta Catch Em All: (the robo parts)
- Healing Hands: Liv (Arena).
- Hour Of Power: Soulboost.
- Humongous Mecha: Inverted, natch.
- Inevitable Tournament: A lot of this.
- Joke Character: (Oil Can in the Gamecube game and Chick on the DS; they're worse in every way than the default)
- Mons meets Robot Buddy, just like Medabots, Cubix, and Robopon.
- Nintendo Hard: Subverted, in that the games get easier the worse you do.
- Old Master: Stark (Arena).
- The Rival: Marv. He's the only consistent rival in all the games.
- Serious Business: And how.
- Static Stun Gun: The Stun, Ion, and Thunderbolt guns.
- Synchronization: It takes a lot of mental energy to power a custom robo, and using them outside of holosseums risks causing physical and mental injury to the opponent.
- Terrible Trio: Arena has Lunax, Solax, and Terrax from Bayside Academy.
- That One Boss: Arena has The two Jamiesons and 2nd Hadron.
- Theme Naming: As mentioned above, the Bayside trio.
