Friday, May 08, 2009

Condition: Used, Like New!- Custom Robo Arena




In my continuing quest to validate my purchase of a DSi, recently I’ve been going back and playing my old DS games on bigger and brighter screens. I’ve also been on a quest to crush my desire to buy another Pokemon game because despite how good they are, I still played it a decade ago. The joining of these two factors led to me finally beating the March 2007 release of Custom Robo Arena for the Nintendo DS.



In truth, Custom Robo is just a PowerStone-esque 3D fighter between two robots (or more like Virtual-On if you want to get more obscure). The smooth and pretty polygonal action is fast but unrefined. It’s easy to button mash and not much skill is required. The simple gameplay is balanced by an insanely deep customization system. The amount of guns, legs, bombs, pods and bodies there are to collect create a countless number of robo combinations for you to discover. The serviceable online and local multiplayer gives you a suitable venue in which to show them off.

The reason this is my Pokemon fix however, is the single-player RPG. The plot is so thin and identical to every generic Japanese kid’s carton ever but the excessive dialogue does provide some laughs along with the boredom and frustration. The world isn’t nearly as vast as Kanto and Johto but there are several locations with new types of robos to fight during your decently long experience.

Custom Robo Arena is a fun game for only $20.85 at Amazon.com. By the way, my virtual student was uses a robo with a Magnum. Guns in our schools FTW.

-Piffman2




also, sorry if these are a little short, they aren't meant to be reviews

4 comments:

Unknown said...

best. under-the-radar title. EVER! I sunk down most of my summer back in 07 into this game. it's incredible!

don't worry about the article not being longer, every person has their own style and ideas. I just happen to write a lot when I could easily cut everything I write in half.

Piffman2 said...

maybe we should play online some time

i believe Virtual On just came out for XBLA. Custom Robo is considered the kiddy version of virtual-on

also, if the MM9 review is any example, i can write a f*ckton about video games

Unknown said...

I would love to, but unfortunately I don't have access to Wifi unless I'm at my father's place, and I seldom go there. it's odd because my Wii works online when I'm here... just not my DS and I have no logical explanation as to why. it even says that I can connect to the wireless internets here, but when it tests the connection it works at first, but after a minute it goes red and says I can't access it. bugger.

I tried the demo for Virtual-On, and my first thought was "hey look, it's Custom Robo!" the games are almost identical, the main differences being the very interesting controls that VO had in the arcades/on the Dreamcast and the deep customization options that CR has.

I stand corrected, you're excellent at writing long articles, then. :P

TheAssailant said...

Oh yeah, I remember you said that a year ago in the forums. Good times.

Like I said then and I'll say again now, check the router's encryption. The DS can only do WEP while the Wii can do WEP, WPA and WPA2.