Since the 1980's, the entertainment world has had an obsession with the cybernetic beings known as robots. They've made their way into our hearts through countless toys, as well as numerous popular TV shows like Transformers, Voltron, and Challenge of the… OK, forget the GoBots. In 1999, Nintendo, always one with their finger on the pulse, created a new, robotics-based fighting game called Custom Robo for the N64, which spawned a sequel, Custom Robo V2. Both games, however, only saw release in Japan. With Custom Robo characters turning up in the Trophy section of Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Nintendo has seen fit to bring the series to the States with its latest installment for the GCN.

In essence, Custom Robo can best be classified as a 3-D fighter, but that's only part of the game. It also has a Story Mode, and is really more about customization than anything. There are nearly infinite numbers of robot combinations in this game, so players will have little trouble finding a combination that reflects one's strategy and style of play.

Burn, baby, burn! Disco Inferno, yeah!.

Upon starting up Custom Robo's versus mode, players will find themselves with multiple options for the 5 main parts of a robot; Body, Gun, Pod, Bomb, and Legs. Each body has varying speeds, armor strengths, jumping abilities, as well as special abilities such as cloaking or flying short distances, also, each has a special attack that can be executed by pressing the X button. Guns add an even higher level of customization to the game, by offering guns with different power, fire speed, and angle of shot, among other things. Still adding more versatility to your Robo are the Bombs and Pods, slow moving projectiles, which can be fired by pressing Y and R respectively. Once again, each has varying characteristics, such as the aforementioned bonuses and drawbacks. The final components to a Robo are its legs, which also have a variety of abilities. In all, it will take players plenty of time to create the machine that is right for them.

Unfortunately, very few of the parts are available from the outset of the game, forcing players to play through the game's story mode - one of the game's drawbacks. The story mode is an RPG-styled adventure where players play as an unnamed hero who joins a group of mercenary bounty hunters, all who utilize Custom Robos to fight against an evil organization that also uses these Robos to plot world domination - sound familiar? Yes, the Pokémon influence runs wild, but that's not the only thing that makes the story so bland.

Practically every single anime cliché is put into use here. Character's formerly good brother who goes "missing" and turns up on the side of the enemy? Check. A rags-to-riches story of a young fighter? It's here too. The revelation that the world is not what it seems to be? Bingo! Couple that with the fact that many of the cutscenes (or talking segments, whatever you want to call them) can last for over 10 MINUTES, and take up half of the game (some are so long, that the game automatically SAVES while they are occurring!). The worst part of this, however, is in lieu of voice acting, Noise decided to use a strange noise to represent each character's voice, each with a different pitch and tone, accompanied by a text box. These noises get so annoying, some players may want to break the game in disgust. Still, the story mode is at least engaging enough to make you want to play, and its short - so that's a good thing…right?

The graphics for this game are really nothing special. The characters in story mode look great, but are really under-detailed and polygonal - that, and if things like Marcia's strange blue frock are fashion in the future, I don't want to be around to see it. The robots look much better than the humans - some designs are sleek, streamlined, and, well, really cool. That said, there are some low points, such as the Big Head models - seriously, would anyone in their right mind use those?

I don't know what's goin' on, but shit's exploding, so, I'm gettin' the Hell out of here.

Custom Robo's gameplay is a mixed bag. Robo battles are a lot of fun, but are truly based upon strategy and the proper use of cover and weapons systems - at least, that's what Nintendo says. Really, especially at the early stages, players will be doing more rapid button mashing than anything in order to defeat opponents, and due to the game's fast pace, it is difficult to create effective strategies for facing the AI. Sometimes, a game that tries to be too smart ends up really, really dumb, which can be said for so many people in this world as well. Funny how things work out, isn't it?

The game's soundscape really isn't very offensive, save the annoying "voice" effect mentioned above. The music is cool, a techno-based beat that doesn't get in the way of the playing scheme - always a good thing. Sound effects are good as well, with nothing standing out - every shot, blast, and explosion is crystal clear and spot on.

In the end, this game is great fun - for a short amount of time. The massive amount of customization alone will keep certain players interested for some time, not to mention the multiplayer modes, and large selection of arenas. Once that's through, however, there really isn't much to make this game competitive with the reigning king of the GameCube multiplayer world, Super Smash Brothers: Melee. There aren't any special modes or secret features (except for a reasonably cool first-person mode that can be unlocked by beating story mode), and there really isn't much to keep players interested for more than a weekend (or a week, at best). A good effort by Nintendo, but only those who are obsessed with customization, or robot fetishists, should pick this one up.