Since the immense succes of Pokémon, a sure way to make some cash seemed to be to make a anime styled cartoon, sell something collectable along with it and make it into a videogame. Just think of Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Medabots, Beyblade or any of the countless others and you'll get the idea. Capcom did it the other way around though, they started with the videogame. Gotcha Force is what you could call a 3D collectable mini-robot team based fighting game. If you think that's a lot of words to describe a game, Capcom calls it a “3rd person team based combat game that brings together all the intensity of a 3D Beat 'em up with the longevity of a Collect 'em up game”. Quite a mouthfull, but it is what the game is all about.

The story is quite simple. You're a boy that finds G-Red after a meteor crash. G-Red is a Gotcha Borg robot, he helps you defeat the Death Force Borgs who are out to destroy the earth. You do this by assembling a team of small robots (a Gotcha Force) and use them to complete various missions all over your hometown. These missions all concist of your robots fighting a couple of other robots, sometimes with a computer controlled friend helping you out. Even the fighting is really simple, complete with enemy lock on. B is your attack button, it shoots if you're enemy is far away and hits if you're close. A Jumps (up to three times in the air), X is a special move and Y turns on your Power Burst, which is available after you landed enough attacks. All of the fights are situated in small arenas in your hometown, and since all the robots are really small, fighting on a school tabel between learning books is the order of the day here.

The fun in this game lies in forming your Gotcha Force. By winning fights you earn Gotcha Force energy points and a new robot every now and then. To use a robot in combat you have to put him into your Gotcha Force, but each robot takes up a few of your energy points, so you have to form a team that fits your budget. In true Pokémon tradition there are tons of robots to find, and there all designed pretty good, they all have their own look and playstyle. You have your ninja close combat Borgs, your long distance gunners and of course your nurse robots with a syringe as big as their own body. The game isn't really varied from what we've seen though, the robots may be different every fight, but the fights still feel the same after a while. For our upcoming review we'll put some more time into the game to see if it has more to offer than it shows in the version we've played, so be patient and keep checking Cube-Europe.