Custom Robo

It's been a long time since I last reviewed a hidden gem on the Gamecube. To be honest, it has been a long time since I last started a new Gamecube game. A friend is letting me hold onto a few of his games for a while though, so I figured a few weeks ago was a perfect time to dust off the ol' cube and get back to what brought me here in the first place.

Custom Robo - Nintendo Gamecube

      It's not too often that we see an IP with five entrees slip under the radar to the extent that Custom Robo has. Spanning all the way back to 1999 on the Nintendo 64, the Custom Robo series was initially one that was kept exclusive to Japan, with its first three entrees, Custom Robo, Custom Robo v2, and Custom Robo GX never to see an international release. Eventually, North America got its first taste of the Custom Robo series in the year 2004 on the Nintendo Gamecube. For a retro game, Custom Robo has a pretty considerable price tag, sitting at around $25 on eBay at time of writing, but is Custom Robo still worth a 3-Way or Vertical shot, or has it rusted over time?

   At its forefront, Custom Robo is an action RPG. Most of the gameplay takes place in 3D battle arenas where either two or four Custom Robos will fight in order to reduce their opponent's health from 1000 to 0. The way to gain the advantage over your opponent is by taking the Robo that you are given in the beginning of the plot and upgrading it using parts you are awarded by completing certain tasks as you progress through the initial 10 hour campaign. Things start off pretty simple while you have few parts to select or swap-out, but quickly become much more interesting as you are awarded many different parts frequently. Each Custom Robo is made up of a combination of 5 parts: gun, bomb, pod, legs, and model. Most of the parts are so vastly different from each other that even the most subtle changes to your build can produce drastically different results in the battle arena. I experimented with a few different builds to find one that fit my playing style, and in the process played briefly with a Custom Robo that did heavy damage and jumped really high but lacked mobility and was armed with a 3-Way shooting gun and heat seeking missiles, and another Robo that was extremely agile and powerful while in the air but lacked fire power on the ground, equipped with triple-pods designed to meander around the battle field, before I finally built the perfect Robo for me: a Robo with the ability to warp while in the air, armed with a gun that shoots both forward and up, pods that could be fired three at a time, and bombs that cleared walls.

   

  Being able to quickly master the layout of each arena is another noteworthy albeit much less important skill to have when fighting. According to the lore, each battle arena is generated by natural abilities had by each Custom Robo master, and whenever you fight a new opponent, you play in their arena. Each arena stays roughly the same size, and the differences between each one can be a bit underwhelming, but the diversity in color scheme and music, as well as noticing how the layout of each arena reflects the personality of the character generating it makes what could have been an afterthought on behalf of the developers one of the most charming aspects of the game.

    The story is much less intricate than the building and fighting of Custom Robos, though it is not without its plot-twists, fun characters, and genuinely humorous dialogue. After selecting the name of your character, you wake up in your home and are immediately encouraged by your land-lady to pursue a job as a mercenary working for an organization called the Steel Hearts. You get the job after proving your natural talents with a Custom Robo by fighting off enemies from a rival gang called Z Syndicate who failed in an attempt to rob a nearby laboratory of a rare Custom Robo model. Without wishing to give anything more than the first 5 minutes of the game away, you eventually learn what/who it was that the Z Syndicate is after, as well as who runs the Z Syndicate. Overall, the story, while cute and necessary in order for some of the hilarious dialogue to hold meaning, does little more than serve the gameplay.

 
  After all of that, there is a second story mode that is unlocked after completing the first. The second story mode throws you and your fellow Steel Heart members into a tournament meant to have the citizens of the town regain the trust of the police after it was lost as a result of the events in story number 1. While I found the entirety of the first story to be extremely easy albeit fun, the second story provides a much greater challenge. As opposed to the fights in the first story won by selecting the same build and using the same strategies every round, I found myself having to use different parts and tactics in order to account for the game's increased difficulty level. In story number 1, I felt discouraged from using different parts after I found a build that worked perfectly for me, but the increased difficulty provided by the second story was exactly what I needed in order to explore the game's depths to further extent, and I wasn't disappointed.

     At the end of it all, the gameplay is divided into two parts: 1 where you walk your character to which ever location on the map triggers the next plot point, and 1 where you actually fight. Throughout all of Custom Robo, there are no puzzles, no exploring, and no level-up system besides the acquisition of new parts. While the fighting is addicting, I did become concerned that the lack of variety in gameplay would result in the game feeling samey. However, since the game is so short, with my completing of the first story taking a shade under 10 hours, it ends before you get tired, and while I will always appreciate a game for not over-staying it's welcome, it would have been nice to see more variety.

    Custom Robo is uncompromising in its gameplay; it is an action RPG about building robots and using them to fight other robots. Its arcade-like and campy tone is refreshing and has aged well. Despite some gameplay repetition and a generally weak story, Custom Robo offers an impressive level of depth when it comes to selecting your build, and features an addicting battle system that will be sure to keep you coming back even after your last opponent has fallen.

Number 2 Favorite Gamecube Game

Only 1 more!

Number 8 Favorite Gamecube Game

Behold my 8th Favorite Gamecube Game.

I Put This Down: Tales of Symphonia

Mkay so as you all know, I acquired about 20-22 new Gamecube games over the summer. God damn. I haven't even opened all of them yet. I had to develop a strategy in order to quickly play and/or beat all of these games so that I could talk about them here. Typically, I would figure out which games were short, and I tried to blast through them, while allowing myself to spend weeks on longer games, such as Metroid or Wind Waker. Among these longer games was, and still is, one REALLY damn long game. With a typical playthrough occupying at least 80 hours of your life, this next title really had me baffled as far as how I was going to go about playing it quickly. Do I play it every day for a month until it's done? Do I allow myself to take 1000000000 years on it while playing other games in between sessions? Well Ill tell you, what wound up happening was me putting this game down. "Ill play it later" I would tell myself. But days, weeks, maybe a month went by before I finally picked this game up again; this is where our story begins.

Tales of Symphonia

Recently, I've been going around saying "Most of Gamecube's best games came from Dreamcast." It's a hyperbole, not a lie. Tales of Symphonia is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) that came out for the Sega Dreamcast maaaaany many years ago. Despite it's age, it has made a pretty remarkable impression on Gamecube and RPG fans alike. There are many notable qualities this game has. From it's adorable graphics, to it's deep story, this game really kicks ass from beginning until...you put it down. Notice I didn't say "end". It's true- I haven't finished this game yet, but I will. Don't worry. The question today is the same as it always is with I Put This Down:
Why did I put it down?  Why did I pick it up again? What do I think of it now?

Why did I put this game down? Well let's see. I suppose the answer is that I simply didn't have time to play this game. Believe it or not, between my band, school, sleep, friends, working out, getting mad chicks, getting beefy, buying Red Bull, and donating large sums of money to charity, I didn't have a spare 80 hours of my awesome life to designate to this game. It is a shame too because I really do enjoy this game. Tales of Symphonia is the first real RPG I've ever played, so the new gaming experience was very exciting. This game is often praised for it's amazing character development, graphics, fighting style, and soundtrack. The dungeons are fun because the 1 item you have that pertains only to dungeon exploration changes with every dungeon, affectively creating as many different puzzles as there are dungeons. These are all claims that I found too awesome to be true while reading about the game, but it turns out that they are, in fact, true. Those were just a few reasons why the game was all the more difficult to pause. Unfortunately, in the end, the amount of fun the game was to me was not enough to keep me going for more than 20 hours at a time. Ultimately, I put this game down.

 

But then I picked it up again! I think I just missed playing it. The thing about Tales of Symphonia is that the story makes you want to play the game. It's like reading a good book - you may not love reading in general, but what the hell, are you just going to put down the damn book without fucking finishing it? You're already 20 damn hours into it you scumbag! Just finish it and learn what happens. The game is fun to play and the ever-growing story counteracts the sometimes repetitive gameplay. Maybe you find yourself pressing the same buttons over and over, but the reason WHY you're pressing those buttons changes, and so does too your feelings towards the repetition. Considering the game has 80 hours to god damn do it, the character development IS really flawless. You got some dudes betraying you, some people dying, some friends destined to become enemies, some unlikely alliances, all while optional cut scenes take the development one step further by providing you with windows into the personal lives of each of your team members. Is the viewing of these scenes essential for the understand of the story? Not at all, but they are a good example of the steps game designers can take in order to ensure that those who may put this game down pick it up again. As you guys know, this isn't a review, so I can't talk about gameplay that much, but I will say that the fighting is fun as hell, as it takes place in real-time akin to Viewtiful Joe or even Super Smash Bros., and navigating the open hub world is very fun and rewarding. When a developers give you a big map, they want you to get lost. They want you to appreciate what they have created, and I do. I so do, Namco.

So what do I think of it now? I love it. In the end, Tales of Symphonia offers an exceptional gaming experience. Nothing is too challenging, nothing is too annoying. Everything is perfect as far as I am concerned. The idea of playing an 80 hour game is daunting to me, as, like I've said, I've never played an RPG before (I know this isn't even the longest RPG out there, dickhead, so don't yell at me), but I anticipate feeling really good when I beat it. It will be rewarding and I look forward to it. I do feel like I will wind up putting it down in increments of 20 or so hours, but that's fine by me. If spending 80 hours on this game is inevitable, then I might as well enjoy every last second of it. Seashells. Forever.

The Next Big Step

So because I feel so bad for blue-balling you guys when it came to my list of Gamecube games, I decided I am simply going to build a playground out of this blog. This time next week, I am going to upload at least 5 new reviews of games that each fit a certain qualification. These 8 topics are, in my opinion:
Most Overrated Gamecube Game
Most Underrated Gamecube Game
Overlooked Gamecube Game
Hidden Gem
Best Game Under 10 Dollars
Best Game Still Over 40 Dollars
...What The Fuck?
Wild Card

I am truly excited (and this time, capable) when it comes to approaching these topics. Keep in mind, the Wild Card will be one game that I choose from my collection at random. It could be anything from Super Smash Bros. Melee, to Mary Kate and Ashley, so brace yourselves.

Also remember that I will from now on be using a grading system, and a pros and cons list when discussing each game. I feel like this will contribute to a more accurate description of my feelings of each game. Remember to click that shit this time next week.

Finally, I've decided to occasionally post other relevant video game things among the archives of my blog in addition to my reviews. In case you missed it, I highly recommend a website I discovered recently. Be sure to check out http://www.howlongtobeat.com/ in order to figure out where your money is best spent.

Scroll down to see if you've missed anything, and of course, contact me to recommend a review or game. PEACE.

Hang In There

Hey guys. This post is more of an apology than anything. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but I fear I will not be able to post my next review for a little while longer. I have been very busy with my band recently and I haven't had much time to get my Gamecube on. What I do have, however, is a website I just discovered. If you didn't already know about this site, I suggest you check it out.
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php

Ever wonder if you're going to get the best deals on your games? Ever fear that you are going to pay up to 60$ for a game that you'll finish in a week? Well fear no more! http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php is a website where numerous gamers from all over can submit how long it took them to complete any video game you can think of! Simply type a game into the search bar, and BAM you have everything you need to know about how long any game will take you to complete. Separate times are provided for those who like to beat a game quickly, or for those who like to 100% a game. This site is the best way to make sure you're getting the most game for you buck.

Recap

Okay guys like I said in my last post, we are officially half way through my list of top ten favorite Gamecube games. I must admit, there is a problem with how I am going about this list. The fact that I recently just purchased a bunch of Gamecube games that are new to me in addition to the games I plan on obtaining in the near future is very much making me reconsider my list. Perhaps I will post a revised list later in the year, once I have completed each of my new games entirely. Just to establish some relatability, here are the games that I just got recently and the games I will try to pick up by the end of the summer:
Mary Kate and Ashley 16 Licensed to Drive                                              -Plan on Getting-
Starfox Adventures                                                                                   Super Monkey Ball 2
Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker                                                                   Metroid Prime
Legend of Zelda: Collector's Disc                                                           Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Tales of Symphonia                                                                                            Pikmin 2
Luigi's Mansion

So far I've spent my posts discussing extensively the pros of each of the titles on my list, but I haven't touched the cons. There are reasons why I like certain games more than others, but I've neglected to reveal those reasons until now. This will be brief, but interesting. We will start at number 10:

1080: Avalanche - The game wasn't short, because there was actually a lot to do once you really
started looking at all of the unlockables. All different boards and such were unlocked by playing game modes that are typically overlooked in video games (time trial), but really, a lot of the unlockables don't affect gameplay enough for you to have a real desire to get them. There are definitely some cool prizes in the game, but by the time you get them, there is pretty much nothing left for you to do in the game. For this reason, despite how fun the game is, you do eventually lose motivation to really go the extra mile as far as 100percenting the game. Moreover, this game is WAY more fun when you race your friends, but no one plays this game...so good luck...

Mario Kart: Double Dash - I understand that number 9 might be a little low for this game, but really,
I feel pretty good about this. Despite how fun this game is, actually playing single player is a little but of a drag, but 100% necessary. Unlocking every character and track is kind of boring because it involves you playing the same track 4+ times (once on every difficulty). This game is fun for the MULTIPLAYER. But the multiplayer is only fun once you have your friend take one for the team, and unlock everything via single player.

 

Spiderman 2 - This game is awesome, but it is repetitive. Although swinging around and fighting people is SO fun, it really is all you do. It shares the same problem with the Prince of Persia titles in my opinion: they are fun, but too much of a good thing is never good. It simply looses it's flavor after a little while of chewing

Super Mario Sunshine - Definitely another awesome game, but ultimately, it is not Super Mario 64.
The game is also inconsistent in that some levels are really easy, and other levels are TV-smashingly difficult. It can be a little short and some levels can be a little not-as-fun as they could be. There really are no major faults with this game, but the little things add up. I mean, it's still my 7th favorite Gamecube game, so don't think I am trying to hate on this game; it is really good, but not number 1.

Lost Kingdoms 2 - Ehh this one is tough. Sometimes you face a game with no big problems, no major flaws, but simply is just not your favorite game ever. Honestly, this game needs a little bit of a better soundtrack. There are certainly moments when the soundtrack hits you in the best of ways, but usually it is pretty bland. I never go on an epic quest without some epic tunes, but apparently Activision does not agree with me. The graphics were also pretty laughable and even though the actual story was good, the characters didn't draw me into it. The gameplay was really REALLY fun and refreshing, but I think the story could have been emphasized more by some good voice acting and cut scenes. It is something I never thought I cared about until just now...

Soul Calibur 2- This fighting game is perfect. But that is just it- it's a fighting game. The gameplay is
repetitive at times simply because fighting games don't rely on story and characters and cut scenes to help you through the games. If you get bored during an adventure game, you can usually last a couple more hours or so by paying attention to the music or graphics or something, but fighting games are typically 100% fighting, 0% everything else. So if you get bored of fighting, then you change your game, because there is just nothing else to them.

So I hope that cleared some shit up for y'all. Please tell me if I've inspired any of you to bust out your old Gamecubes because I'd be honored to hear about it. Also, feel free to ask me about any game at all. I will review any game I have played and I love talking about games so if you ever wanna talk, find a way to let me know. Stay tuned, because I plan on posting a list of ALL of my 56 Gamecube games soon.

Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games: Number 5

Alright guys, we are half way there. Half way down the list of my top 10 favorite games for the Nintendo Gamecube. I hope that everyone is enjoying everything I write, but please, if anyone has any suggestions, comments, or recommendations, feel free to leave a comment, tell me over facebook, or stalk me at my house. With any luck, this blog has taken you guys down memory lane and maybe even inspired you to bust out the ol' Gamecube, yourselves. At the very least, this blog is something for you to read at 3am when the internet has run out of things to look at for the day. I'd like to believe that so far, this list has been a nice collection of charming titles, some you may have heard of, some you haven't, but I will admit it lacks something...I'd say...it lacks some soul...

Soul Calibur, that is!

5) Soul Calibur II

Welp. It was about damn time.

The Soul Calibur series was originally introduced in the arcades in 1996. It's fighting-style mechanics were immediately compared to those of other popular fighting games such as Tekken or Mortal Combat. Eventually, the Soul Calibur games found their way onto the home console, following the steps of most other arcade-style fighters. There were instantly a few notable differences between Soul Calibur and some of the other fighting games around at the time and these differences were pretty key when it came to the gameplay, feel, and overall experience of the game. Soul Calibur featured a combat system that involved, first of all, weapons. Every character held a weapon. It didn't really affect the gameplay itself, but it sure did look badass. When it came to playing the game, Soul Calibur definitely stood out because of the functions of the buttons. At this point, in the arcades, fighting games had anywhere from 3 to 8 different buttons. Pressing some buttons would result in a kick to the face, maybe a kick to the feet, punch to the torso, punch to the feetpunchto head, face, neck, punchkickpunchpocuncudiwulmeofiuwnq AHHH OMG. Soul Calibur featured only a few different commands, and these same commands exist without any complication to this very day, in Soul Calibur 5. In Soul Calibur, 1 button was responsible for attacks that struck horizontally, 1 button made your character strike vertically, 1 made them kick, and 1 made them guard. Vertical? Horizontal? I don't get it. The idea was to create a fighting game where Horizontal attacks could only be avoided by ducking under them, jumping over them, or blocking. Vertical attacks could only be avoided by dodging to the right or left, or guarding. Essentially, there were different ways that would affectively dodge each attack, depending on which direction it came from. Ducking from a vertical wouldn't work, because you would just be hit on the head, and trying to move to the right to avoid an attack that is swung from the left to the right wouldn't work either because you would get hit either way. During a time where the last thing the world needed was another fighting game, The Soul Calibur series stuck out like a fat, exploding peacock.

Onto the sequel! Soul Calibur II plays the same way as the original Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, so really, there is very little for veterans to adjust to. This game is also, however, newcomer-friendly, which is great because I know a lot of people to whom Soul Calibur II was their first soul-slaying experience. As I said, Soul Calibur's sequel featured the same fighting ideas and pretty much the same gameplay as the original, so what makes it so special? The expansion of the idea.

See Namco and Project Soul have earned a reputation of NOT creating the same exact SC game twice
in a row. Although SC and SC2 were very similar, the later featured numerous different game modes, an addictive single player mode called Weapon Master, interchangeable weapons to choose to equip your character with, and many more characters. I believe that when the first sequel to anything is made, it should be simply an expansion to the original idea. I don't think it is necessary to completely overhaul the game, and obviously Project Soul agrees. The multiplayer is what keeps players coming back for more, as SC is a very easy game to pick up and learn how to play on the spot. It is fun and although the best results come from hours of studying the MOVE LIST in order to conclude which combos were the strongest, the game is very playable without knowing all of it's dark secrets (TL,DR it's girlfriend-friendly). Multiplayer modes include VS. Battle, Extra VS. Battle, VS. Team Battle, and Extra VS. Team Battle. Any mode that is preceded by the word "extra" means that the option to chose alternative weapons for your character to fight with is enabled. Different weapons have different affects on the character wielding or the character fighting against them. Some have greater range, some increase health with every blow you land, etc. Team Battle involves you and your opponent selecting up to 8 different characters, and having them all fighting each other 1 after another, for a longer game and a better opportunity to showcase your skills with many characters simultaneously.

 

So the multiplayer keeps you coming back for more, but what gets you started in the first place? The single player mode - Weapon Master. Weapon Master worked in a "chapter-like" system, where the idea was to complete each mission in the chapter in order to proceed to the following chapter until you beat every chapter. Each chapter featured a new collection of missions to complete, along with a new store to access. Completing each mission would not only result in your nearing of the chapter's completion, but it also rewarded you with gold. Gold could be exchanged, in the Chapter's Store, for new weapons, new character costumes, new artwork and new weapons. Did I mention new weapons? The missions involved you fighting Soul Calibur style under special, random conditions. Sometimes you can only defeat your opponent with a RING OUT (throwing him/her off the stage as opposed to depleting their health with attacks). Other times the enemies are invisible. Sometimes, you lose instantly if you are knocked to the ground. It sounds simple, but it is a clever way to be able to unlock new items without having to playing through Arcade mode 50,000 times with a million different characters. The mode progressively got more difficult so the pressure for you to constantly increase your skills was also on, and ultimately made you a better player. Once you beat every chapter in Weapon Master, including the 5 or so hidden chapters, you had access to the stores containing every weapon in the game, but you still had to raise Gold in order to buy them all if you couldn't afford to do so already. This increased the length of the game without making it boring. It was very possible for you to play without buying the weapons respective to the characters that you never play as, so you were never to feel stressed about missing certain weapons at first.

The characters, old and new are all shining and well-endowed as they blast onto this generation of gaming. All 25 characters have unique fighting styles, are all good-looking and are fun to play as. The voice acting is fantastic (this is important to me), and the moves of each fighter are clever and often have my friends and me looking at each other saying "...what the fuck just happened?" The new stages in SC2 are also fantastic. Stages in these types of fighting games often don't matter, as the characters never interact with them, but it is still nice to have something other than giant swords to look at once in a while. These stages are all accompanied by a great musical score. These are the kinds of things that true gamers appreciate- good looking stages and great music are nothing that would missed had they not been in the game, but the fact that the designers went the extra mile to enhance the Soul Calibur 2 experience is really why the fans love Soul Calibur so much. Soul Calibur 2 also included 1 guest character to the game. The character available to you depends on which system you play the game on, but the Gamecube version featured Link, from the Legend of Zelda series. Seems strange, but it's fun as hell. Trust me.

Soul Calibur 2 is a game for fans of fighting games, but it is also a great chance for the newcomers to jump onboard a genre of gaming that is easy to get lost in. Ever find yourself attracted to giant swords? If your answer is "Yes", then I hereby diagnose you with normality and welcome you to a game transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.