Custom Robo Arena

Custom Robo Arena plays out much like a Pokemon game, except, instead of fuzzy wuzzy creatures, it has action ready robots!

The game puts you in the shoes of a young lad who's on a path to become the best robo-battler around. Yeah, that's pretty much the story of Pokemon, but it's tedious and boring in Custom Robo. The story is flat and the characters are inane.

Go! Robomon!

Between extended text sessions, you're thrust into real-time battles that provide very little challenge. The battles are one-on-one death matches between robots that have three different equipped weapons. The problem is, there's very little strategy involved, and there's no sense of depth to the combat at all. It's easy to win every battle simply by dodging and doling out a steady stream of bullets. The battle arenas also look different in appearance but they manage to feel the same as you dash around them with your robot.

Custom Robo also features a tedious mini-game wherein you must clean and polish your robots after battles using the stylus. You use the touch screen to polish up your metal buddy with a nifty little virtual rag. The problem is this only minimally effects the robot and comes off feeling gimmicky, like the developers were searching for some way to incorporate the touch screen.

The most enjoyable part of Custom Robo is putting together new robots and modifying their parts. Nearly every part of the robot can be upgraded and changed. All you're basically doing is playing dress up, but it is pretty enjoyable. You can also pose your robots and place them in dioramas that can be traded online, which is pretty pointless but it's actually more compelling than the actual battles themselves. I never knew what a tiny pink robot might look like hovering above a streaming brook with its legs raised in a kung-fu kick, but thanks to Custom Robo Arena, I now know.

Pros: Quenches your thirst for posing dolls.
Cons: repetitive game play with a soundtrack to match.



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