Video Game / Robopon

Robopon (short for Robot Ponkottsu in Japanese) is a series of RPGs produced by Hudson Soft and Red Entertainment and brought to the U.S. by Atlus. Three games in total have been released; three distinct versions for the first, Sun, Star, and Moon (released on the GBC in 1998 to 1999), while the second had Ring and Cross (released on the GBA in 2001). There was one other single-version game, Robopon 64, for the N64. The franchise also received a manga adaptation in Comic Bon Bon, which also got a tie-in version of Moon.

The handheld games chronicle the adventures of a young boy named Cody, and his quest to become a Robopon master. Robopon, as the name implies, are robots, created by catching them in the wild with magnets, growing them from seeds, or "sparking" two batteries together; practically everyone has one, and uses them to participate in fighting competitions.

Sun, Star, and Moon follow Cody's quest to become Legend1 in the Robopon rankings of Porombo Island, while Ring and Cross detail his journeys in the country of Majiko and the tournament there. 64 follows expies of Cody and his rival Bisco who sail water-filled worlds in search of treasure and Robopon while contending with pirates.

Gameplay in the first game was similar to Pokémon, but with a robot theme—some status effects, for example, were Fog, Rust, and Crash. You had 4 Robopon in a party and sent them out one by one, using Software to attack and Parts as equipment. Combining software could get you more advanced, powerful moves. Obtaining Robopon was done by catching wild 'Pons with magnets, and evolution was an option if you collected enough Energyballs after battles.

In the second game, gameplay was streamlined and less obviously Pokemon-inspired. Your party was out all at once, Robopon had oil types that affected who they could multiheal or multiattack in battle, evolution was an option via leveling, and Robopon were no longer caught—you sparked them by combining two batteries. An overall faster game made for a better-received experience, though both games are well-regarded by fans.

Robopon's Sun and Moon are not to be confused with Pokémon Sun and Moon.

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This series provides examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: While Bisco is a bully, he and his gang hold sway over Libra School's teachers and principal.
• Action Bomb:
  • In the first game, out-of-control Robopon can self-destruct randomly.
  • In the second game, Riggs Construction members make their exits in... memorably explosive ways. In Riggs' case, though, this isn't so permanent.
• Affably Evil: Dr. Zeke; he rescues Cody at the start of the game and isn't as evil as his brother.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In the first game, several wild Robopon have too-small CPUs and are prone to violence, confusion, and going out of control.
• The Alcatraz: Gust Prison is said to be completely inescapable, and Cody only escapes via time travel.
• Androids Are People, Too: Robopon are treated as living creatures, which is why Cody's grandpa is adamant he does not use them for evil.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Cody has a bit of this in the first game.
  Cody: Should I put an end to Bisco's goon's treachery?
• Art Evolution: In a special version of Moon, Comic Bon Bon, the sprites for some Robopon were altered. Some new looks transferred to Robopon 2.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: The game went from this◊ to this◊ in the transition from GBC to GBA.
• Artificial Human: The three Zero cyborgs of Ring and Cross versions, created specifically to hunt down Cody, scrap his Robopon, and kill him.
• Avenging the Villain: Subverted in Robopon 2. Dr. Zeke is the previously unseen brother of Dr. Zero, from the first game. Rather than vowing to avenge his death, he goes back in time to save Zero so they can both destroy Cody.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: The * (Star) software sort of falls into this. On one hand, the attacks they create can do obscene amounts of damage. On the other, they require a team of Robopon that mutually like each other, eat anywhere from a third to a half of a Robopon's Energy Points, and do pathetic damage if the enemy has appropriate stats.
• Bag of Spilling: In the second game; somehow, Cody leaves Porombo Island for the tournament without carrying any of his Robopon (Bisco hastily shoving him aboard didn't help), and is shipwrecked in Majiko's Baba Village before he can turn back for them.
• Big Bad: Dr. Zero in the first game; Dr. Zero Sr. in the second.
• Big "NO!": Cody does this in the second game after leaving all of his Robopon at home.
  • Prince Tail does it in the first game after Dr. Zero defeats him, taking over the kingdom.
• Blessed with Suck: Mushroom effects in the second game basically fall under this or occasionally Cursed with Awesome. There are three different mushroom colors, and each one has a specific set of spirits that can be summoned from it. Since the spirits are chosen at random, one may get the spirit that makes stuff cheaper at shops... or the spirit that throws stuff out of your inventory for no reason. Save Scumming is a must if you don't like letting the Random Number God screw you over.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Near the end of the second game, the Marvel Lab where Dr. Don and his assistant Sam take refuge contains a special group of Robopon in a certain room that appear at random. Defeating them may get you a medal that can be used at Play-Land to play extra minigames. The main problem is that the group is highly leveled and will wipe the floor with you the first time you run across them unless you come prepared. There is a Dragon Robopon in the past version of Delica Castle that is the same type of battle.
• Bowdlerise:
  • Snorks' design was changed to be less phallic in the English release, and Peach's design was made slightly less butt-like.
  • Stinky was changed to not pull his pants down to unleash gas.
  • Angie and Uggy's halos were deleted from the English release, while Angie's cross became a staff and Uggy's star wand was replaced with a ring.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the second game, you can find a Sunny in Gust Prison and store/retrieve robots. When asked about how it got in prison, it simply says "Who cares!? It's just a game!"
• Broken Pedestal: Prince Tail's father had a shady past with Dr. Zero, and won the Legend1 title by nearly killing the doctor after Zero defeated him. Tail has a Heroic BSoD when Zero tells him the truth.
• The Bully: Bisco, the top Robopon battler at Cody's school, is a nasty bully who makes fun of Cody and tries to steal his girlfriend Lisa.
• But Thou Must!: A pretty amusing example in the second game.
  Game: And so, the Pandora's Box that is the Battleship has been opened...Metaphors aside, will you press the red button?
  Player: No.
  Game: Umm...you should really think about pressing the button soon.
• Cap: Robopon 2 does this in an interesting way. Some Robopon can be enhanced, but when they are, their level drops by half. Also, no matter what their evolutionary stage, they eventually reach a point where their levels increase but their stats do not. The game compensates by making the stats a bit higher than what the Robopon had at that level when it first reached it (i.e., a level 9 Sun-02 has higher stats than a level 9 Sunny), and enhanced Robopon learn more moves than their previous forms.
• Captain Ersatz: Between the first game and the sequel, there are Expies or references to: Kirby and Pac-Man (Dotcom), Tamagotchi (Crowle's Oyajitchi-like design), The Karate Kid, Jackie Chan, and Johnny Cage in one line (Ralph, Chan, and Luke); the "Monkeys-In-A-Barrel Game" (Chimp), Voltron (Voltone), Mega Man (Classic) (the Gigapon/Micro and Negapon line, which is explained fully in the Shout-Out entry below), Niteboat from The Simpsons, Gundam (Gundarn), The Tick (2001) (El Seed), Fantasia (Hippon), Doraemon (Doraepon), Speed Racer (Mock V), Kamen Rider (Rider1, RiderV and Super-1) and finally a double reference to both Cho Bits and Mega Tokyo with an Robopon Expy of Chi named "Ping".
• Chain of Deals: The Fetch Quest to get Golden Sunny/Silver C-Cell in the first game.
• Character Select Forcing: Robopon 2 has a choice of 3 starters, but it clearly wants you to choose Sunny/Sun-Zero, as not only is he far more powerful than the others, the two batteries you need to create him are easy to find while the third battery needed for the other two combinations is hidden in an out-of-the-way location.
• Com Mons: Romby, Coball, Sumito, and Ramby in the first game.
• Combination Attack: Combining software can get you more powerful attacks depending on what kind it is. Mixing Fire and Water will get you a Steam attack, which has a chance of causing a Fever.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Dr. Zero does this in the second game after you beat him, hilariously listing off every positive virtue in the book as he wonders how Cody was able to defeat him. Then he declares that it doesn't mean anything when you have money and power.
  • Blaze, the first of Zero's cyborgs, does this, lampshading whether robots have sentience and saying he doesn't want to find out by dying.
• Controllable Helplessness: In the second game, on the day Cody is to be executed, all you can do is wait, walking around your cell until the time machine arrives.
• Cool Bike: Cycool is a Robopon motorcycle with one eye.
• Copy Protection: An unintentional example. Since emulators can't emulate the TV remote interface and IR signals, opening all of the game's treasure chests and saving Princess Darcy becomes impossible by legitimate means. The latter can be done through the use of a Gameshark code, but not the former.
• Covers Always Lie: The blurb on the back of the box for Robopon 2 implies Maskman is the game's Big Bad when he's only the Starter Villain.
• Creepy Child: At the end of Robopon 2, it's revealed Dr. Zero and Dr. Zeke were this.
• Cyborg: Dr. Zero is one; after Prince Tail's father defeated him, he repaired his body with the latest robotics engineering.
• Damsel in Distress: Lisa and Princess Darcy in the first game.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Happens with Amron, Mr. Wild, and Kamat after you defeat them.
• Defiant Captive: When kidnapped by her own father, Lisa instructs Cody to find bombs and blow up his tower.
• Demoted to Extra: Lisa in the second game, who even lampshades this.
• Denser and Wackier: While the first game had weird and funny moments, Robopon 2 has a much greater sense of humor with frequent lampshading of tropes.
• Deus ex Machina: In the second game, the day Cody is to be executed, Dr. Don and Sam show up in their time machine inside his cell, allowing him to escape.
• Disappeared Dad: Cody's dad leaves on a business trip at the very beginning of the first game and is never seen again, even in the sequel.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In the first game, you can find a LostCode in the first town, which acts as a free evolution. You can also find a hidden Shortcut in Cody's house, which acts as a free level up, and a hidden treasure chest that gives a chance of valuable items. Beating Bisco's thugs also gives a chance of dropping U-Magnets.
  • Pegs in the first game; it is practically one robot that most players will have in their party due to its reliability. It became even better in the sequel with an evolution, PegSS... but sadly wasn't available til near the end of the game due to its rare sparking combination.
  • Replacing Pegs in the Sequel is Hexbot (Cross), which you can immediately spark after getting all of the batteries from the Cave, including the hidden one. It can use instant death software and has decent growth compared to other Robopon you can spark early on in the game.
  • Gigapon and its evolutions fill this role in Ring, and is useful even in the endgame.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the second game, Cody accidentally helps flood Delica Kingdom with a fishing rod. The punishment? Death by hanging. If not for a conveniently-placed time machine, the game would end there.
• Distaff Counterpart: Cloudy/Cherry and Cutesy/Diane to Sunny and Sun-02.
• Do Androids Dream?: They most certainly do, according to one of Hoffman's Sunny employees.
• Domino Mask: Dr. Zeke wears one.
• Easily Forgiven: Any rank holder, no matter how heinous, is forgiven once defeated. This is especially egregious with Mr. Wild, Kamat, and Circe.
• Enemy Scan: Comes default with the battle system in Robopon 2, with the added bonus of not taking up a turn and telling you what the oil type of the scanned Robopon is. If you're packing the right kind of software and have it equipped on the right Robopon, you'll be able to tell how many enemies you can fry at once with one move.
• Establishing Character Moment: Bisco introduces himself by calling Cody's Robopon junk and his grandpa senile.
  • Dr. Zero introduces himself by effortlessly taking out Prince Tail's guards.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zero and Zeke, their dog, and their father.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Sun-Zero is a version of Sunny gone bad, with a Paint It Black aesthetic.
  • Negapon to Gigapon.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Inverted in the second game, as the dog is evil, or at least under the care of villains, and growls at the hero Cody when he approaches.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness:
  • Dr. Disc's tower in the first game has no door for you to enter the tower, except at the very top. Your solution? Blow it up.
  • Zero Castle is this too, though with the warp pads, you don't have to climb all the way up.
• Expy: Robopon 64 had you play as expies of Cody and Bisco.
• Face–Heel Turn: Doctor Disc goes power-mad after being outed as the Legend3, kidnapping Lisa and threatening to destroy Cody's company. He calms down once he's defeated.
• Fembot: Several Robopon, such as Razor, Meddy, Betty, and Loopy.
• Fetch Quest: Talking to Rena of the Elite 8 will start a trading quest with the other Elite 8 members; completing it gets you one of the game's Olympus Mons, Golden Sunny/Silver C-Cell. Thankfully, you don't have to fight them for it.
  • Searching for the wrench in the Cools Town well.
• Forced Transformation: Princess Darcy is imprisoned in a mirror, and her sprite 'becomes' the mirror until she's rescued—though oddly, there are no mirror-based Robopon.
• Foreshadowing: In Tail Castle, an NPC mentions that long ago, Prince Tail's father defeated an evil doctor to earn his Legend1 title—but adds that he remembers the doc winning the fight and disappearing. It turns out the latter is true.
• Fragile Speedster: Most Move-type Robopon lean towards this; they're really fast, but have really low defense and can be brought down in one hit by the right skills. Some can compensate for this by randomly becoming afterimages when you hit them, others reduce the damage that they take occasionally.
• Fusion Dance: The three Zero cyborgs in Robopon 2 do this to attack Cody one more time as he leaves the Pond Garden, creating the multi-faced abomination called Insector.
• Game Over: Averted in the first game; like Pokémon, losing your Robopon sends you back to town. Played straight in the second game.
• Genius Loci: Volco, a living island Robopon full of treasure. Finding it is the goal of Robopon 64.
• Girliness Upgrade: Several female Robopon became more feminine and cute in Comic Bon Bon Moon, and in 2.
• Glass Cannon: A couple Move-types, the Gidyup/Pegs/PegSS line in particular.
• Golden Snitch: Dr. Zero's Legend0 ranking in the second game, which, in his words, "transcends all ranking systems." He uses it to instantly rise to the top of the ranking and thus spend the rest of his time constructively.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Deconstructed in the second game, where the rival is an impoverished orphanage owner who challenges you to win money "for the children!" and has an absolutely pathetic team that always has at least one Gear or Bulbot.
• Gonk: Quite a few Robopons' evolutions, particularly in the first game. Uggy is one example, which is more jarring considering she evolved from something cute.
• Guide Dang It!: Quite a few examples over the series.
  • The first game has the Brownie sidequest, regarding where/when to move the rocks around.
  • Even more infamous is the moment when you have to use a real world remote control to trigger something in one of the game's last side quests. Usually the remote controls open treasure chests that can give out powerful Robopon and software, but in this case it prompts a character to move rocks around to solve a puzzle.
  • In the second game, discovering the battery combinations for some Robopon may necessitate a guide, either because you miss the person that tells you what batteries you need, or the Robopon is not available via sparking and has to be obtained some other way, like giving random and unrevealed passwords to Jasper the dog. What makes this really bad is that some of his passwords are one character long despite there being 5 spaces.
  • The Pharo Ruins. To save a lot of mindless wandering, you can walk through certain walls, including in the leftmost ruin in the past. Moreover, specific switches need to be hit in the order of center, east, west, or nothing will happen. Aside from Maskman using the word 'correctly' this isn't even hinted at.
  • Figuring out how to play the Playland minigames in Robopon 2, which requires a medal that's rarely dropped from a group of powerful Robopon.
  • When you get the running time machine in the second game, it can make things more confusing if you're not sure what time era to be in.
• Heel–Face Turn: While not exactly a villain, Bisco saves you from Dr. Zero's collapsing tower at the end of the first game.
• Heroic BSoD: Prince Tail has one after he loses to both Dr. Zero and Cody, and Princess Darcy is trapped in a mirror as a result.
• Hotter and Sexier: The Comic Bon Bon manga and its version of Moon made many girl Robopon very provocative and had a notable increase in sexual humor with other Robopon designs.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: In the first game, Dr. Zero traps Princess Darcy in a mirror because Prince Tail lost to him and to Cody.
• Inevitable Tournament: In both games, as the main point of the plot in general.
• It's All Upstairs From Here: This happens a lot, in the second game especially; the Pyramids of the Pharo Ruins, the Galileo Windmills, the Waffle and Box Towers, and My Tower are all dungeons to climb.
• Jack of All Stats: Arm-type Robopon have well-rounded stats and no real strengths or weaknesses.
• Jackass Genie: In the first game, Dr. Don's attempts to ask Mr. Brownie for a rocket end in the fairy either taking him literally or doing something off-the-wall for the fun of it.
• Jerkass: Bisco. He insults Cody and his family personally, calls his Robopon junk, threatens to beat him up, and beats you to the Legend7 title. Becomes even worse in the second game, where he shoves Cody onboard SubRio before he can retrieve his Robopon, makes fun of him for it, and starts a years-long feud between two kingdoms. That last act doesn't go unpunished.
• Joke Character: Bulbots and Gears. They've got crappy stats and absolutely no ability to learn skills via software (due to their Boot-type nature) or natural training. They evolve into each other at Level 99 and you could theoretically max out their stats this way, but doing so would take far too long.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In the first game, Dr. Zero traps Princess Darcy in a mirror because Prince Tail lost to him and to Cody.
  • In the second game, Zero installed kill switches in his cyborgs to destroy them if they lose. They're sentient creations.
  Blaze: When Dr. Zero installs a kill switch, he means it!
  • Bisco proves he's a jerk by calling Cody's Robopon junk and his grandpa senile.
• Kid Hero: Cody is quite young and is the president of his own dispatching company when the game starts.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: This is encouraged. Going into others' houses and taking their things is a law of Porombo Island called "What's Mine is Yours". Kidnapping is still illegal, so no taking others' Robopon.
• Lethal Joke Character: In the first game, your reward for maxing your company is Teabot. Grandpa Hogle bought it from the shopping network, and its data asserts that it's "useless." It comes equipped with an equipment that can scrap Robopon with its basic attack and other incredibly powerful moves.
• Lightning Bruiser: Any of the Olympus Mons, as well as some Move and Boot types.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Dr. Zero sets his castle to self-destruct after you beat him in the first game.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: In the first game, even the menu screens took a while to load.
• Loophole Abuse: Challenging a Rank-Holder on Majiko requires an X-stone with that person's number on it. The Rank-holders are well aware that if they themselves get ahold of the stone, they could keep their title forever.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Disc and Dr. Zero in the first and second game.
• Made of Explodium: Virtually everything in Robopon 2.
  • The first game had this too. To reach the Legend3, Dr. Disc, you had to blow up the floors of his tower with bombs, as well as the cave in Grease Mountain with walls you had to blow up.
• Mass Hypnosis: Miss Amron, the Legend6, uses a TV signal to hypnotize the town of Caleyu.
• Mind Screw: Illusion Village in the first game is this purposely; everyone in the village speak backwards or in roundabout ways, it only appears for a few hours per day, and boasts some of the strongest Robopon in the game.
• Mini-Game: The first game had a couple, some of which were really fun. When you go to fight Kamat, these games become mandatory, as each faction of his/her army specializes in one of the various games.
• Missing Mom: Cody's mom leaves to go to the market at the start of the game and isn't seen again until the ending. Lisa also has no mother, though her father is around.
• Money for Nothing: Averted in both games; there's lots to spend money on, and increasing equipment prices mean you generally need some cash on hand.
• Money Sink: Expanding the floors of your company in the first game, and Hoffman Tower in the second game.
• Money Spider: Most of the money you get from battles only comes from fighting against Robopon trainers; wild 'pon don't hold cash. But in the early stage of the first game, there's a little girl with a level 5 Meddy who will rematch you as often as you like, and happily dole out 100G or so every time you beat her. After you beat the first Legend, you'll also gain access to Battle Genesis 5, which you can play over and over again for 100G a win. In the second, if you're lucky, you'll run across a user in a random encounter, sometimes.
• Motive Decay: In the first game, Dr. Zero wants revenge on Prince Tail and the royal family. In the second, he just wants to kill Cody, though it may be justified since he got to carry out his revenge in the first game by exposing the King as a fraud and utterly breaking the Prince.
• Mystery Meat: The food served at Gust Prison is filled with so many germs you can actually taste them.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Averted in the first game; the biker gang terrorizing a town calls itself the Smiley Gang.
• Near-Villain Victory: By the end of the first game, Dr. Zero has completed his revenge on Prince Tail, imprisons Princess Darcy, and controls everything on Porombo Island. Cody is the only one that's able to stop him at all.
• Never Say "Die": Mocked with the epitaphs in the Riggs co. chapter:
  • Sly and Tetsuo weren't executed for their failure to defeat Cody, they were just fired.
  • Vinnie wasn't killed when he got too close to a building tagged for demolition, he just suffered a crippling injury and had to take a sabbatical.
  • Knives wasn't blown up due to Riggs' clumsiness, he just got sent to another dimension.
  • Riggs didn't commit suicide by grenade after Cody defeated Circe, he just retired from the company. OK, this one was right.
• Nintendo Hard: Knowing how to beat the system is the key to success; most of the difficulty comes from the fact that enemies can be surprisingly strong in dungeons and the fact that the bosses can be obscenely difficult if you don't come prepared.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The entire Macroworld/Waffle section of Ring and Cross is chock-full of this. Mr. Waffle is a washed-up computer maker, who was put out of business when a fire consumed his headquarters, Waffle Tower, twenty years ago. Now, his rival Mr. Gait has taken over the market with Macrosoft computers. Things get nasty when you learn that he sabotaged Waffle in order to facilitate his little takeover...
  • Also note that Gait uses Robopon called X-Dog and I-80. Neither of them are terribly good.
• Not Completely Useless: Hoffman Tower expands based on how many combinations of batteries you Spark. While Gear and Bulbot are indeed nigh-useless in battle, sending any you happen to make to Hoffman rather than Save Scumming to make a new combination will further your progress and keep you from wasting time and any further batteries (since the game keeps track of previous combinations).
• Oddball in the Series: 64 is weird even by Robopon standards, featuring Robopon growing from seeds like plants and eating human foods like cake, being part action game/RPG and part raising sim, and being the only 3D game in the franchise.
• Older Than They Look: When Rena leaves behind her adoptive parents in the second game, she also leaves behind a sphere that makes them young and healthy again while allowing them to retain their memories. While her father becomes something akin to a cute boy, her mother becomes very, very pretty.
• Olympus Mons:
  • Golden Sunny, Silver C-Cell, Draco, Fencer, Nobone, and Scar in the first game.
  • The second game has Nebulus, who can only be obtained by Link Sparking.
  • Moon and Robopon 64 have Volco, a living island full of treasure who has the strongest stats in the game.
• Ominous Floating Castle: The Death Gaia in the second game.
• One Game for the Price of Two: Much like how Pokémon uses its two versions to limit which mons can be found in which games, Robopon uses its two versions as a way of making sparking every Robopon much more difficult, especially in the second game; certain Robopon can only be created by "Link Sparking" with another person, and certain battery combinations may make different Robopon in different games (Ion+Moon in Ring version creates Sunny, while the same combination in Cross creates Sun-Zero).
• Overlord Jr.: In Robopon 2 it's revealed Dr. Zero is this.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: In the first game, the key to grinding is finding an area that gives away more experience points than the norm, and staying there for a while. In particular, the waves in front of Vanza Village can carry you for at least a dozen levels early on, and the well in Cools Town is also useful.
• Pet the Dog: At the beginning of Robopon 2, Dr. Zeke finds Cody washed up on the beach and saves him, taking him to his house until he wakes up. Unlike his brother in the previous game and his father, he seems to be an Affably Evil kinda guy.
• Plot Coupon: The X-Stones of the second game. Each one is required to challenge a ranked competitor, and people will go to obscene lengths to hide them and keep their rankings.
• Powers as Programs: Skills are equipped to Robopon via "software", though most Robopon learn at least one skill on their own. Moreover, by combining specific types of software together, you can teach Robopon new techniques. However, Boot-type Robopon cannot learn techniques from software.
• Prison Episode: The second game has Cody imprisoned and working to escape before he's executed.
• Raising Sim: 64 makes you care for your Robopon, give them tasks, and clean your room often, as if you don't rats will eat Robopon seeds before they can be born.
• Random Effect Spell: Finding teddy bears causes the fairy inside them to bestow a random effect on you that occurs at certain hours for the rest of the game. It can be helpful or harmful, but luckily you can choose when to place them after receiving it.
• Random Encounters: The encounter rate is quite high, especially in late-game dungeons.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Miho gives an epic one to Tataki when she's finally fed up with his selfishness.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the second game it's revealed that Dr. Zero's visible eye is red.
• Retraux: The GBA games' music sometimes uses sounds from the GBC games.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Several of the Robopon, like Sunny, Meddy, and Paws, as well as the Underwater Creatures.
  • Kappas, the aliens, and Capris from the second game.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: In Robopon 64 Robopon can eat human foods such as cake.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Princess Darcy and Prince Tail commentate on Robopon matches, and Tail is an expert battler.
  • Tail's father supposedly defeated Dr. Zero long ago.
  • In the second game, the Kings of Wonder and Delica battle you.
• Running Gag: Destroying Dr. Don's time machines every time you return from the past (Ring/Cross).
  • Getting a Snorkel to breathe underwater. This happened in both games.
• Scare Chord: Plays if you happen to get the Instant-Win Condition on the roulette wheel. It's rare that a game can make a player feel freaked-out and overjoyed at the same time.
• Scrap the Medic First: A hard and fast rule of the second game for ranked battles. If a healer has the Revive+ spell, battles can turn into very long, very tedious battles of attrition.
  • Rule of thumb: If it looks female and/or cute, kill it. No exceptions.
• Series Mascot: Sunny.
• Serious Business: Dr. Zero tries to kill Cody several times throughout the games, usually by siccing robots on him or attempting to blow him up.
  • Kamat, the Legend4, used his/her influence to build an army.
  • Dr. Disc was so determined to defend his title of Legend3 in the first game that he kidnapped his own daughter and built a giant tower to hide from Cody.
  • Becoming Legend1 allows you to essentially take over the world, which Dr. Zero is happy to exploit.
• Shoot the Hostage: Mr. Wild uses a Robopon he stole from you, Dosbot, during your match with him. Before the fight, he taunts you by asking if you're going to scrap it. You have to.
• Shout-Out: So many it has its own page.
• Sick and Wrong: At the end of the second game, the king declares that having rank holders is sick and wrong, given all the trouble they caused.
• Side Quest: A couple in the first game. There's the Brownie quest with Sam, accessible only at 5 o'clock, rescuing Princess Darcy with the Teardrop of Morris, found by fighting Hunter on Cherry Hill, and the Underwater Creature you give Dream Shells to in order to unlock the Underwater Health Spa.
• The Smurfette Principle: In the first game, Miss Amron is the only confirmed female Legend out of seven, as Kamat may or may not be a girl.
  • Averted with the Elite 8, though. ALL of its members are girls.
• Shop Fodder: Crysty, a Robopon found within the Shielder Tower in Apollo Fortress. It's only found during the evenings, but when it's out, it's surprisingly easy to come by. Its body is made of solid crystal, and while most Robopon sell for about 50-100 G per level, Crysty sells for 250 G a level. The ones you find are between levels 23-27, meaning they go for around 6000 G a pop.
• So Last Season: Legend1 rankings don't mean much in Majiko; the tournament there is for Legend1s exclusively.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: In the first game. Going from a schoolyard bully and his gang to a brainwashing TV idol, then to an actual gang terrorizing a town, then to a would-be-dictator. Averted with Dr. Disc and Prince Tail, neither of whom are evil, but played straight with Dr. Zero, Mad Scientist and the final boss of the game.
• Squishy Wizard: Mage-type Robopon, like Gidget, Charm, and the NexTrik line.
• Stable Time Loop: Of a sort. Cody is the one that saves Majiko and the world from Dr. Zero, Sr., in the second game, about twenty years before the events of the first. The younger versions of Zero Sr.'s children, Zero and Zeke, are present to see their father (and the older Zero Jr.) defeated. Dr. Zero Jr., then became an evil scientist to live up to his family name, which in turn is responsible for bringing him into conflict with Cody in the first game. When the end of the second game comes along, Cody fights and defeats Dr. Zero Jr., followed by Dr. Zero Sr. shortly afterwards, with the young Zero and Zeke present. See the pattern?
• Starter Mon: Sunny in the "light" versions and C-Cell in the "dark" versions. Surprisingly, neither is too hard to come by in their home games, but they are strong and the mascots of the franchise.
• Status Effects: Played straight, but with a nice thematic twist; the names of the statuses match the kinds of conditions you would expect a robot to suffer from, e.g., Fog = Blind, Crash = Paralysis, Suspend = Sleep, Rust = Poison, and Virus = Confusion. While they are normally as accurate as status effect spells are in other RPGs, Virus is basically the best way of turning any ranked fight into a rout; most Robopon are surprisingly susceptible to it.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Oh God, Robopon 2. Almost everything blows up. Machines, people, floating fortresses, buildings, doors, even an entire town. The story has a total of 36 explosions, not counting battles.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: In the finale of 2, you have to listen in on the Zeros' conversation. They know you're there, and drag you off to the Robopon Graveyard for the final battle.
• Surprisingly Easy Mini-Quest: The Fetch Quest for Golden Sunny/Silver C-Cell in the first game; all it is is a trading game with the Elite 8.
• Take Over the World: Dr. Zero's ultimate goal. He succeeds at this in the first game, but Cody makes sure his reign is short-lived.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Ringmaster Brutal and Mr. Gait keep their titles the first (and second for Gait) time they are defeated since Cody doesn't have the required X-Stone at the moment.
• The Rival: Primarily Bisco in the first game, and Nick D. in the second.
• Time Travel: Part of the second game, and outright forced on you periodically. Most of the time, your trips to the 20-years-ago Majiko have something to do with getting those damned X-Stones.
• Tournament Arc: Both games have Cody competing in tournaments to become the very best.
• Trippy Finale Syndrome: In the second game, the final battle takes place in the Robopon Graveyard, which is in an unknown location. If Dr. Zero, Sr. is to be believed, it's the place where the souls of scrapped Robopon go. And the graveyard is completely filled.
• Under the Sea: In the first game you can dive into the ocean if you have any fishlike Robopon. It also has one of the best tunes in the game.
• Unexplained Recovery: A lot of characters pull this, especially Riggs, who blew himself the hell up and Dr. Disc, who was severely wounded when the Zeros fired on past!Baba Village. The former even lampshades it by pointing out that the epitaph caption that came up for him didn't explicitly say that he was dead.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In the second game, Dr. Zero doesn't tell you a thing about his plan until it's already enacted, ensuring you have no way of finding or stopping him beforehand.
• Vanishing Village: Illusion Village in the first game.
• Verbal Tic: The residents of the Capri Colony practically prilight in this, pri! It's absolutely unprilievable!
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can sell your Robopon just to make some cash.
• Video-Game Lives: The second of Zero's cyborgs lampshades this, claiming the doctor gave him two lives, so he could continue to hunt down Cody.
• Villain Has a Point: Dr. Zero is right when he says that Tail's father won the throne by cheating; he had defeated the King, but was attacked and left for dead, leaving the royal family to claim the title.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Played with in the first game. Miss Amron, the Legend6 and a TV idol, uses TV to hypnotize her viewers into loving her. When the broadcast ceases, however, she becomes unpopular.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Dr. Zero did this to himself. After defeating Prince Tail's father, the King attacked him and left him for dead. Zero repaired his original body with cybernetics.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the second game W-King lampshades his unimportance to the story and disappearance from the plot, as does Lisa.
• What the Hell, Hero?: This happens surprisingly often.
  • In the first game, refusing to help Lisa and the bullied kid makes them chastise Cody.
  • If you give Dosbot up without a fight, the girl who gave it to you calls you a loser.
  • Nick D. tries to guilt trip Cody into giving him the XStones, because he needs them to provide money for the orphan kids at Chapel Academy.
  • Dr. Don and Sam continually berate Cody for wrecking their time machines. Eventually, it drives Don insane, though Played for Laughs.
  • Dr. Zero, Sr. is horrified that Cody blew up the Battleship with his sons inside, gravely injuring Zeke.
• What the Hell, Player?: In the first game, refusing to help Lisa and the bullied kid makes them chastise Cody.
• When It All Began: In 2, Cody witnesses the destruction of Baba Village in the past, which has been a mystery for the entire game.
• Where It All Began: Barring the penultimate and actual final battle, Cody has to return directly to Baba Village at the end of the second game in order to confront the Zeros.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Taken as literally as possible when an NPC in the first game is named Dude.
• The Woman Behind the Man: Circe apparently kicked the crap out of Knives in a Robopon battle at some point after he got his title as Master.
• Wonder Child: Rena the alien girl in 2, who gets taken in by an old couple who regard her as the daughter they'd always wanted to have. In the end, she gives them back their youth as thanks for looking after her.
• Written by the Winners: Dr. Zero calls out Tail for this; the King was defeated by Zero and only 'won' due to nearly killing him, but told everyone that he defeated Zero to begin with.
• Yakuza: Riggs Construction Company. Their formula is as follows—find people, tell them to pony up for protection, blow up the houses of the people that don't pay. Rinse and repeat.

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