The first game in the Medabots series, released in 1997 for the Game Boy.
In near-future Japan, the existence of Medabots, small modular robots useful for both labor and play, has changed everyday life. Hikaru Agatha, unlike most boys his age, has no interest in Medabots. However, when a morning walks lead to his dog bringing him a Medabot medal, his father is overjoyed at his son's apparent newfound interest and gifts him a starter kit (Metabee for the Kabuto version, Rokusho for Kuwagata). Tasked by his teacher to explore the region for his summer break, Hikaru unknowingly embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.
In anticipation of the release of the 1999 anime series and its sequel Medarot 2 (whose remake was released outside Japan as Medabots: Metabee and Rokusho), a Video Game Remake was released for the WonderSwan, titled Medarot: Perfect Edition. Perfect Edition is faithful to the original game but features redrawn graphics, a generous heaping of quality-of-life improvements and extra cutscenes and dialogue to flesh out the original game's threadbare story. Also released were Medarot: Part Collection and Medarot: Part Collection 2: both are plotless battle gauntlets which allow for players who couldn't or didn't want to use the main game's Link Cable feature to collect parts and medals and export them back to the main game.
Though the popular anime series is based on Medarot 2, most of the Medabots featured are from the first game and its events eventually become relevant to the series plot, with an older Hikaru ("Henry" in the English dub) being a major supporting character.
Unreleased outside Japan, both Game Boy versions received an English Fan Translation patch in 2020, by fan group Project Rising Beetle.
Examples:
- Almighty Janitor: In town is a seemingly unassuming chick salesman, who is suspiciously well-informed about Medabots and the current going-ons, and has enough authority to order Select Corps officiers in the game's ending. It's implied he's a government agent in disguise sent to keep tab on the game's events, though unlike the manga storyline, it's not made explicit.
- As You Know: When you speak to Iseki in class at the beginning, she namedrops all of Hikaru's classmates and explains what their deal is. Then she stops herself and wonder why she's telling that when Hikaru should know who his classmates are on the last day of school.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- There's no Medaforce. Pressing up when selecting an action simply causes your Medabot to do nothing when it reaches the Active Line.
- You can steal your opponent's Medal if you win Linked Battles and doing so is the only way to collect several Medal types.
- The Mini-Handle, Wings of Wind and Periscope are standalone items that don't require to assemble a specific Medabot unlike their later appearances. The Mini-Handle also does not protect from random encounters.
- Though the series wouldn't truly take Competitive Balance seriously until the 3DS entries, the balance here is especially laugable. Many Medabots models have pathetic stats and no attributes to make up for it.
- Hidden Mechanic: The game has an unmentioned dating mechanic where your actions during the story affect whether Hikaru developes a relationship with his childhood friend Kirara, the Medabot researcher Nae or neither. Kirara's route is mostly straightforward and can be achieved by accident while Nae's require much more work. Of note is that accidentally wandering into the ladies bathroom at school lowers your chance of scoring with either girl.
- Lighter and Softer: The manga came out first and was written by Horuma Rin, who created the Medabots character and setting. Unlike the following manga/games pairing, the Medarot 1 manga and games follow roughly the same storyline. However, the game's version of the events is much less dramatic than the manga.
- In the manga, Hikaru falls into a coma for three months after Taiyo attacks him at the tournament. In the game, he's unarmed.
- In the manga, Hikaru's Metabee is straight-up killed at the tournament. While Yuuki manages to reconstitute his medal during the interim three months, it's made clear Metabee will not be the same 'bot after this and he develops a personality-supression system so that Hikaru doesn't have to be traumatized by having to confront this. In the game, Hikaru is not majorly phased when his starter's medal is broken, and the aliens at the pond perfectly repair it with no mention of lasting damage.
- Several people are said to die during the Ten Days of Darkness, while this is not stated in the game.
- Minor Major Character: Supplementary material make it clear Dr. Medarot is a big deal in-universe, being the man responsible for Medabot development and creating the technology that makes Robattles possible. In the game however, he has no incidence on the storyline and the Game Boy version doesn't even give him a distinct sprites from other scientists. His only purpose is to give an item needed for Nae's route and another for the Wolf Man sidequest in the postgame.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on your success at the hidden dating mechanic, Hikaru can ends up going on a date with Kirara at the beach, Nae at the observatory or hook up with neither and gets gifted a blue chick by the Chick seller for his troubles. Perfect Edition adds an additional variable by making it so that Iseki can propose to Hikaru before either of the girl's endings, though she'll automatically be rejected no matter what.
- Police Are Useless: The Select Corps is apathetic and doesn't do anything to stop the RoboRobo's operation, to the point that when their headquarters is invaded, they challenge you instead. This is a Justified Trope, as it's revealed that all of the Select Corps executives are RoboRobo members. Whether they were turned at some point or if the Select Corps was always a front for the RoboRobos is not made explicit.
- Random Events Plot: Most of the story consists of wandering to random places and battling baddies. There's no clear throughline until the Tournament is introduced, over halfway through the main story.
- Save Scumming: In Nae's room of the Medarot Laboratory, there is a pile of parts for the powerful Medabot model "King Pharaoh". If you try to venture there, a pop-up message tells you trying to do that might cause your game to be reset and encourages you to make a save for every attempts.
- Shop Fodder:
- Beetles can be collected by shaking trees in the mountains. Their only use is to be sold to a researcher at the Insect Laboratory for a decent amount of money.
- A missable event has a bully drop a counterfeit Medabot. Though dialogue implies it to be completely useless, one NPC in the Stadium will buy it from you for big bucks after the main story is completed.
- Terrible Trio: The Bad Kids Trio, a group of school bullies made up of the Tsundere leader Iseki and her Dumb Muscle henchmens Yanma and Kubota. They are antagonists in the early game though they show up to help in the final dungeon.
- Theme Naming: Many of the main characters (Hikaru, Yuuki, Paddy, Nae) are named after rice. The Bad Kids are named after tractor brands.
- Wrong Bathroom Incident: In school, it's possible for Hikaru to wander in the (unlabeled) ladies batheroom on the second floor and get told off. Doing this too many times lowers your outcome for achieving Kirara's and Nae's endings.
