Though plagued with mistranslations and bad English grammar, Robotrek is a strange, enjoyable little RPG that sadly fell under most players fan-radars.

Our tale begins on the peaceful planet of Quintenix, where your father, the brilliant inventor Dr. Akihabara, is helping you move into your new home in the suburbs of Rococo town. You yourself are a budding inventor, and many of the Rococo citizens are wary of your presence, due to all the misshaps your father was prone to when he was your age. Giving you a book about robots and a machine to help you build them, your father departs, leaving you with your new best friend (your secretary/caretaker... but trust me, she's your best friend: she SAVES for you), Nagisa. You're quickly thrown into the middle of a town crisis and vave to rescue some missing children, which introduces you to an oddball gang of incompetent thieves called the Hackers. The first "quest" gains you credibility in the town, and gives you a little push in the right directions to advance in your adventure. It's obviously meant to be a very humorous game, and some of the jokes get lost either in the translation or though censorship — the example of the Mayor of Rococo's relationship with his secretary Rose springs to mind. Even so, it's fun and the jokes are very tongue-in-cheek... it's just that the tongue gets bit at awkward moments.

The graphics are extremely cartoony, and one assumes, intentionally so. Your little red-haired hero looks like the classic child-genius stereotype, with goggles, a backpack, and magnifying glass in hand. The character designs are all cute and Super-Deformed, but well detailed (Dr. Akihabara's sandals always stood out to me) — and some are simply weird, such as Hacker Commander Blackmore (who has a pumpkin for a head). The towns are well done, if smallish, and the world map does it's job wonderfully — even if that job is very limited and linear. The robots you build aren't the typical anime mecha — they're cute and round! The enemies are far more laughable than dangerous looking, which can be a problem at times, as you won't take a potentially deadly threat seriously enough. The battle screen is basic and flat, though colorful. Item packets will remind many of today's gamers of PokéBalls.

The music is simple, and somewhat catchy — but repetitive as hell. It's not in general necessary to have the sound up, as the battle sounds are extremely simple. The tunes are decent enough, but short and rather cartoony-sounding — which one admits does fit the game, even if it's not pleasant to listen to constantly.

I personally enjoy the gameplay in Robotrek very much. Battle especially is rather unique, in that you never fight "as" your little hero — you play as him as he orders his robots about. While he does gain levels, all combat is handled by the robots you buiild (up to three) — though, gaining levels is essential to making the robots more powerful. The controls are simple and well-handled. The menus are easily navigated, having little pictures for each option. Story items (including a drill, a flashlight, etc.) are used easily by assigning them to the "Y" button. One nice feature in this game is the ability to save almost anywhere, using a cell-phone like item that allows you to call home to Nagisa.

Inventing items is an interesting system. Much as in Sony's Dark Cloud 2 for the PS2, you combine things, but in this case it's items, not photos/ideas. It's not exceptionally hard to make new things, but some objects can make weak weapons, etc. or strong weapons etc., depending on what you combine them with — and some objects are very rare, with only a few of them existing normally in the game. You can also get ideas for some things by talking to people, and by reading the books that are scattered around the world that correspond to your level (1 - 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80). Some weapons can only be made by combining rare items, which leads you to be cautious about just throwing a rare Scrap 8 into just anything.

While it's not the best translated or most challenging game out there, Robotrek is an enjoyable little all-ages romp, which I can heartily recommend everyone try at least once.

© 1998-2003 RPGRealm. All Rights Reserved. RPGRealm is not affiliated with any company or product mentioned herein unless explicitly stated. The RPG Realm is owned by Greg Davis and Alex Wreschnig.