Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Two variants of one RPG based around Japanese robots, which in turn is based off a popular cartoon series which has been transformed into a portable experience like no other thanks to Natsume the multi-talented developer. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Medabots: Metabee & Rokusho

Price: GB £6.29, EU €6.99
Publisher: Natsume
Developer: Natsume
Released: 2002
System: GBA

Ikki Tenryou is a young boy who's obsessed with Medabots, just like every other kid, however he doesn't have one yet. One day, his mother asks him to buy some dinner, but instead he gets talked into buying a Medabot instead with the money. However it turns out it's missing a medal, a vital part to make a Medabot work. However, a strange mysterious man called the Phantom Renegade gives a medal to Ikki's father and tells him he should give it to his son. Now Ikki will finally be able to also take part in Robattles and compete with other fellow Medafighters. But whoever loses the battle must submit one of their Medabot's Medaparts to the victor. Right! That's the predictable story out of the way but what else does this very Japanese focused experience have to offer? Read on to find out if you like.

The titular Medabots are made up from six different parts which includes two arms, a pair of legs, the frame, head plus perhaps the most important part being a medal which brings life to your machanised creation, you can choose from many different parts which of course keeps things interesting and you are allowed to have up to nine Medabots in your possession at any one time. Once you've got one you'll find yourself fighting against other creations in "Robattles" as the game calls them because you know... Robots, Battles... put them together and... you get the picture; there are of course some complicated mechanics to learn here but basically each side can have up to three robots, your actions are entered before the turn phase where they are then carried out simultaneously oh and you have individual health bars for each body part, so if something gets destroyed then this will obviously limit you in your strategic options... it's certainly different.

It's unsafe! Wild Pokémon live in tall grass!

Interestingly enough a lot of it is based on luck as you don't actually get to decide which part of the other robot your one will target, if you take out the head then that robot will go down instantly and if it happens to be the leader robot then you win but because it's all down to chance this can be rather frustrating for both sides; also even though there are lots of battles in the main plot get ready for plenty of random encounters during what could take you over twenty or thirty hours to complete... it may prove too tedious for some. Because these titles obviously take their inspiration from Pokémon you can expect to be walking around a great deal of the time, buying items plus parts in shops in addition to talking to everyone you see just because this is an RPG trope which much be obeyed at all costs! Ahem... as for the different versions, just choose whichever one you like the cover of because it really doesn't make a blind bit of difference as you just start with a different default robot plus there are some exclusive parts but being that you can no longer trade as those features no longer exist it's best not to worry about it.

All of the visuals seem fairly decent for a GBA game released reasonably early on considering the life of the system, there's plenty of decent detail to the sprites and in the overworld generally plus the battles look believable enough with some solid animation present. On the audio side there isn't anything which will ever be remembered for being sensational but there are some suitably hummable themes in here in amongst the relatively sedate score which still suits this type of game well in addition to having some substantial sound effects.

Metabee! I choose you!

Medabots is certainly interesting enough to warrant investigating if you're a fan of these kinds of RPG's as there is a reasonable amount to do, providing you've played all of the superior similar games of the same era such as Pokémon - closest thing to compare with even though they are different - then why not give this a go, it's at the very least cheaper than trying to buy physical copies of the games. Of course the bonus of being able to play on the Gamepad is very nice for this type of title as you can just dip in and out of it as you see fit as advanced gamers with a lot of experience won't have too much trouble finishing the game; though I would only recommend it if the premise or mechanics really interest you as there are far better RPG's available on the Wii U Virtual Console which I would choose to play over Medabots any day of the week, it's something different for a certain audience who may well adore it though so each to their own.  

Verdict : Medabots is a mechanically sound and modest RPG with a mediocre story.  

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!