Medabots AX: Metabee Version

"I must admit, I had fun playing this..."

'I must admit, I had fun playing this..."

A game based off of the anime that we all know and love, "Metabots". Personally, I entirely forgot what the anime was about, but, nevertheless, this game did a pretty good job of portraying a bit of it.

So, in the next few paragraphs or so, I'll tell you exactly what the game is built off of.

In a nutshell, "Metabots AX" is basically an action-type game that involves a bit of platforming and battling. In this game, you are forced to have to go to different areas on your little map and fight your way to the championship in this game. At every point on the map, you are allowed to do either a practice battle or a preliminary battle. In the practice battle, you could test your Metabots' skills and gain EXP, even if you lost or not, from the battle. If you decide to do an actual battle, you are pitted up against three sets of battles. If you lose, you lose a part. If you win the three battles, you are given a new medal and part and are one step closer to finishing the game. After you win all of the preliminary matches, you go to the championship, and what happens there I'll leave to you to discover.

Well, that's the basics of the game. Now only the battle system.

In battle, you start out in one of three battlefields (Except for the tournament area). These battles fields have different rises to them, allowing for a platforming-type of battle. In battle, you and your opponent both have two Metabots: A partner and a leader. Once the leader's external head is destroyed, the battle is over.

Each Metabot has four circles that represent each part of the Metabot, in which all of them have a relatively short life bar. Once a single circle becomes a black color, you'll know that that part is destroyed and unusable. You are able to kinda tell your partner what to do during battle, but that doesn't really change much.

As for customization, you have a large (But not large enough, unfortunately) pool of parts to choose from to attach to your Metabot. Your strategy entirely depends on what parts you use. If you pick a good set of parts, then you could actually have fun during the battle! Medals, which allows you to use a certain "Metaforce", or "special attack", during battle, could also be customized.

Now you know the basics, it's time to move onto the actual review.

Graphics: 9/10
Hey, the graphics for this game are impressive. Everything's bright and colorful with a nice design to each and every single Metabot. The sprites are smooth and clean with many, many different frames to certain movements (Such as getting knocked down). The battlefields were well-done, though there are a few pointless additions to the battlefields. That, and they're a bit small, too...

Gameplay: 9/10
Gahaha, boy, I had so much fun playing this game. I mean, what's more fun that blasting the living Hell out of robots and hearing the loud explosion of their body parts flying right off? What's more fun that using "Revive" and "Helmight" together to repeatedly shoot your opponent into oblivion? What's more fun that using the scouter parts and electricuting your opponents into a quick and painless death? Believe me, even though the gameplay gets repetative and boring at times, if you continue to try new and different team combinations, it'll never get old.

Sound: 7/10
Uhh... I think I'm starting to get biased... Anyway, there's not much to say about the music. I mean, it's sometimes catchy, but they're definitely not something you'd like to listen to on and on and on. The sound effects are decent, but, like the music, there's not much to say about them.

Extra Things: 7/10
Boy, they could've done better. After you beat the game, the only thing you could do is level your medals up or try to collect as many parts as you can. Yeah, that's all. Not only that, there could've been more battle areas, as the six that you start with get tiring rather quickly. And finally, there could've been many more parts to collect as many of the parts that already exist are unusable due to how useless they are.

Overall: 8/10
Overall, this is a pretty good or decent game, depending on your view on this game. If you are the kind of person who's just looking to have a bit of fun for a little while, you should rent this game or whatnot. If you're not that kind of person, then stay away from this game. But my opinion stays as I had much fun crushing the opponent flat in this nice little action-platformer game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/08/07

Game Release: Medabots AX: Metabee Version (US, 06/25/02)