Medabots: Metabee Version

"So many battles...holy Medaroli!"

Medabots is a video-game franchise which is very similar with Pokemon, and also had its own animated series (although never quite reaching the height of popularity as experienced by one of the most successful Nintendo franchise); but instead of elemental critters, there are customizable robots. There are four Medabots games for GBA (well, two essentially, each one comes with two separate versions), and this particular game is an RPG kind which focused on a lengthy quest, exploration, and strategy-oriented battles.

Gameplay

Although there are two different kind of Medabots game (the RPG Medabots, and the much more action-oriented Medabots AX), there's one gameplay element that connects them: the ability to collect, customize and assembly your own team of Medabots. In order to have a fully functional Medabots, you'll need a Tinpet (skeletal frame, in which there are two kind of it: male and female, each their own separate set of parts), Medaparts (four-part equipments for the frame's head, left arm, right arm, and leg), and Medal (the ‘soul' of a Medabots, it bears a specific fighting style and provided Medaforce-a special attack that can turn the tide of battle to your favor) You're allowed to keep nine Medabots in your party, and the sheer amount of customization options and collectible parts is easily the biggest draw in this game.

Once you've got your Medabots up and ready, it's time for Robattle; a team battle with up to three Medabots on each side. The battle system is turn-based, and you'll start by selecting your Medabots and deciding who's gonna be the leader. The battlefield consists of standby spots for each side and a central stage; generally, Medabots will walk back and forth between their standby spot (where you choose an action for them) and the central stage (where they have the action performed), trying to inflict as much damage as possible to the enemy's parts. If certain parts of the Medabots are damaged enough, it will be destroyed and no longer usable in battles; and if the leading Medabot's head part is destroyed, it's victory for the opposition team. The battle will also be resolved when the timer runs out, in which the victorious team will be decided from the amount of damage dealt (you can adjust the timer's duration in the menu screen)

There are a lot of factors that influence Robattles, and the complexity of it all might even be too much to swallow at first. The most important thing is the kind of Medal and Medaparts that you equip on your Medabots, since they will be vital in deciding the many aspects of the Medabot's performances. As you get further into the game, your knowledge regarding the characteristic, strength, and weakness of each Medal and Medaparts will increase; thus, you will be able to concoct a better strategy in equipping your Medabots and to counter the opposition team's strategy effectively. Another hosts of factors, such as the type of battlefield (plain, desert, sea, etc.) and the fact that you don't have full control over your Medabots' actions (you can't target specific Medabots or Medaparts by yourself) means that there's a whole lot of strategizing and micro-management to be done; which would be ultimately fun and rewarding, after you've figured out everything and use it to your advantages.

Unfortunately, there are several annoyances which will deter the fun factor in playing the game. For starters, there's certain amount of dumb luck involved in Robattles, as you can get a lucky headshot early in the battle and won prematurely. And of course, the enemy can does the same thing to you, which will result in a few aggravating moments when your leader's head get blown up by a single lucky shot before you barely do anything-or even worse, when you're in the edge of winning and about to wrap things up. Granted, those kind of thing rarely happens (attacks will usually auto-target the leg or arms first, before going to the head), but it's still annoying. Robattles can also get lengthy (especially against defense-oriented Medabots), and you can't skip the battle animations. However, those things pales compared to the biggest culprit in the game: the extremely high quantity of Robattles you're gonna have.

Simply put, Robattles are everywhere. You're gonna fight myriad of random/mandatory battles in the cities, in the caves, in the water, in the mountain, even inside some buildings! A lot of conversation will eventually lead to a Robattle, and I really can't think of any other RPG which forced you into more battles than this game. Beside the crazy high encounter rate (and you can't escape unless you use specific item, which tends to dry out very fast), you're also gonna fight the same enemies so many times, that you will feel nauseous just at the sight of them. But wait, it gets even better-in possibly one of the most tiresome and annoying gameplay mechanic ever, the game often forced you to fight identical opponents numerous times in a row!

When the game's not busy throwing an endless stream of Robattles at your face, there's a fair amount of exploration to be done. More areas will be unlocked as you progress further into the game, and thorough exploration is quite rewarding as you can nab many hidden items and side-quests. Thankfully, vehicles will later be provided for you to traverse the areas much faster-and more importantly, avoid random Robattles. Once in a long while, Medabots also give you a few gameplay variety, such as the Medarace (which is merely an exercise in button-mashing); but the fact remains that a huge majority of the game revolves around Robattle. Well, at least the customizing and collecting aspects of the game make up for it...somewhat.

Storyline

The story of Medabots follows young Ikki Tenryo, who has just gotten his very first Medabots and embark on the adventure that pit him against many adversaries, such as an evil (and silly) Medabot-abusing organization and a grossly incompetent police forces. I hope you'd be sensible enough not to expect a spectacular plot, since it probably wouldn't impress anyone over the age of twelve. In fact, there are a lot of ridiculous moments (in the vein of typical morning cartoon shows) produced by some of the most idiotic characters that I have ever seen. However, as long as you don't take it seriously and have a high silliness tolerance level, you should be able to enjoy the story to some extent.

There's plenty of moments and interaction between the characters, and that should delight fans of the tv shows, although they're gonna miss the interaction between Ikki and Metabee (his partner in the anime) For a certain reason, they decided to ‘mute' all of Ikki's Medabots (probably because of the fact that you can fully customize and change the appearances of all the Medabots, making it hard for the scripting to form an established character)

Graphic & Sound

The highlight of Medabots' graphic is the detailed design of each Medaparts (and consequently, the Medabots themselves) The character portraits are also bigger than what you usually seen, and there are several facial expressions for the main characters. Everything else in the visual department is decent, although I feel that the visual effect and animation in battles could (and should) be better and flashier.

The sound effect in Medabots is somewhat limited, with the explosion sound being the one that you'll hear most often. Musically, it passed the marks with a lot of characters having their own perky and likable themes. The game also provided the unlockable sound test mode and the option to choose between three different battle themes.

Replay Value

Well, this happens to be the strongest point in Medabots. The main quest itself can easily lasts above 20 hours (although all those Robattles definitely contributed the most for the extended play time...), and there's even additional stuffs and side-quests (mainly the hunt for elusive medals/parts) to keep things alive for a long time. The biggest reason for replayability though, is the Medabots customization itself.

In fact, it's all because of the joy in experimenting, tinkering, and trying out different combination of Medabots, that I was able to tolerate the tiresome gameplay set-up. There are total 30 Medals that can be built up (your battle experiences will go to your Medals; a higher-level Medal means more Medaforces to access), although you'll need to trade between versions to get them all. Each Medal caters to a specific fighting style that will works better with certain type of Medaparts, and it's always engrossing to see what each of them is most capable of. Once you get all the required parts, you can also build an archetypal Medabot, although versatility is very much encouraged; just try mixing and matching the parts from separate archetypal Medabots to create your own customized fighter.

Then, there's another strategic delight in building a team. Just like the combination with Medal and Medaparts, the possible permutation in team-building is simply countless; you can have a standard balanced team with powerhouses and a healer; an all-out offensive team with swordfighter, gunfighter, and plasma launcher; a ‘bodyguard' team with two tanks to protect your leader; a team that manipulates the time and pace of battle; a teamwork-based team with the focus on combination attacks; a sneaky team that relies on setting traps and dealing counter-attacks; and so many more. You will have a blast trying to devise the best team strategy, especially if you're lucky enough to have a friend with another GBA and a copy of the game; as there's only a few things more fun than Robattling with heavily customized teams.

There's simply a lot of content to be unearthed in Medabots, and the great deal of possibility in devising your team ensure that you'll be hooked for a long while...provided you don't get sick already from all those Robattles.

Recap

The Good Points:

(+) Great depth and variety in battle system
(+) Tons of customization options
(+) Many side-quests and secrets
(+) Neat graphic that features most of the characters from the animated show

The Bad Points:

(-) Way TOO MANY Robattles
(-) Almost no deviation from the battle-battle-battle formula; and what little variation's there is more annoying than engrossing
(-) Several other minor annoyances (the luck element in battles, the not so user-friendly interface, the story that can get really silly and over-the-top at times...)

Conclusion

In the end, an accumulation of one major flaw (dammit, I have to fight this guy AGAIN!?) and some other annoyances had really held the game back. However, Medabots did share the same element that made all those Pokemon games great; an engaging and deep mechanic that betrays its kiddish presentation.

Despite could be severely annoying at times, Medabots is still worth a shot for those who love heavy customizing, collecting and team-building in their games; and also for nostalgic fans, as since 2004, the franchise has ceased to deliver any new products.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/09

Game Release: Medabots: Metabee Version (US, 03/31/03)