"Awesome game, underated I believe."

Introduction:

"Custom Robo Arena" is an awesome game about mini-robots that you use for battling, developed by Noise and published by Nintendo. However, although the NPCs in the game claims that you can use them for other services like gathering moon rocks, they are mostly used for battling in-game. How they are used depends on their user. Normally, you do something called a "Dive" in which you sync your mind with your robo and battle an opponent on a battlefield called a "Holloseum." However, criminals misuses them by diving into them outside a Holloseum, which can cause damages to surroundings if fighting another opponent. And then there are something called "Illegal Parts." As you might've guessed, they are parts that are really powerful but are highly unstable in a battle. The reason why they are forbidden because they can cause mental damage to their opponents and also themselves. Anyway, enough introductory. Here's my opinion as to why this game is awesome.

Storyline 7/10:

This is where the game kinda fails at but it's still good if you're a Mega Man Battle Network fan, in which you compete in many tournaments and use tiny robos to face off with opponents.

Today is your birthday but because your dad got transfered to another city for his job, your family has to move to Midheart, a district within the city. Because of this, your birthday wasn't celebrated. A day after the arival in this new city, your dad bought you a Custom Robo in order to make up for the fact they they had to skip your birthday. Gladly, you accept. Your dream is to be in the police squad but before that can happen, you must become an experienced commander, a robo user. As you progress through the game, you will come across many challengers that wants to face you in combat and tournaments that you need to pass in order to represent your new high school.

Gameplay 9/10:

The gameplay is pretty pretty good and not all halfbad. You can customize your robos with many parts, polish them when they get dirty and even pose them for dioramas that you can buy throughout the game. Battles are sometimes challenging and sometimes aren't. You would need strategy when it comes to certain opponents. An example would be like if you are a ground-type fighter going againts an aerial foe, you would use parts that are suitable for fighting againts robos that flies around. If you are one of those people whom likes using strategies to defeat opponents, play online.

Controls 10/10:

The controls aren't really hard at all. In fact, you can choose about 4 different types of different controls. Once you are used to them, it's really easy to adapt to after a few battles.

Music 9/10:

Mostly electric guitar instruments are used for composing the musics in this game. They're pretty decent and I have yet to have find anything that sounds annoying. Some musics does get kinda catchy after listening to them for awhile. An example would be the school theme (Music played within the schools).

Sound Effects 10/10:

I have yet to find anything annoying about the sound effects at all so all I can say is that they're very enjoyable.

Rent or Buy: I say buy it! Although some people said the Gamecube version had a better storyline, I was never able to get into that game but after trying this one out from a friend, I got really into it and decided to buy myself a copy of the game. So far, I haven't regretted my option.

Replayability 9/10:

Just because you beat the game doesn't mean it's over yet. There are still many things to do after you beat the Robo Cup. Examples are collecting robos you've missed including extras that can only be obtained from events after the Robo Cup.

Overall: I give this a 10 out of 10. Not only because it's a great game but because it's the only DS game that's ever kept me up all night, even on a school day! If a game is able to do that, you know it's gotta be worth your money and time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/07