Robopon (short for Robot Ponkottsu, essentially “Robot Trash”) is a game that was very much inspired by Pokémon, launching on the Game Boy Color with Sun and Star versions, followed up by a Moon version. The GBC game did end up getting released in North America, but only the Sun version – although both versions of Robopon 2 on GBA (Ring and Cross) did come out in North America. The N64 game, however, was only ever released in Japan, and Robopons could be traded with the GBC games.

In Robopon, you play as a kid on a quest to find seven parts of a goddess called “Caramel”. You have a fish-shaped ship to sail around a small ocean in, which has a strange maze-like structure in it. From what I can tell, the aim of the game is to get through the maze structure, which requires defeating bosses (signified by a tower on a small island) to get passes.

The process of growing Robopon (you plant seeds in a flower bed) is quite complex, and there is a ton of maintenance and training (which involves playing minigames) to boost stats. I couldn’t defeat the first boss and, from reading some reviews, the game is essentially grinding, doing maintenance, battling the owners of random ships floating around, growing items to enhance stats, or get new Robopon until you get a team to defeat the next boss, then repeat. Oh, and if you don’t clean your ship on a regular basis, rats will appear and eat what is currently growing.

One of the English reviews I’ve read said that all the tedious stuff can be skipped by importing Robopon from the GBC game.

The battles themselves are very simple. You choose an ability with B, then press A when a meter is full to perform that attack. You can move around, but the only reason for doing so is to collect power-ups that randomly get dropped down, as your position has no impact on attacks. When a move is performed, you’re teleported to a set place for the animation, then it cuts to the opponent to show the damage, a lot like Pokémon Stadium, it’s just more disjointed here because you’re actively moving around the arena.

The few Robopon I saw had interesting designs and are nicely detailed, but are just random. Some of them are human, some are robots, and others are strange animals. There’s no consistency to the designs in any way, and many feel like they belong in different games.

While the battle system is fine, this is an RPG that’s all grind and no adventure.

Poor

Remake or remaster?

Bung them in a collection, perhaps.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Robopon 64.