Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2011 16:22:13 GMT
Yay bordem! I thought I'd give an honest and unbiased review of gotcha force. I'll split it into loads of categories and go in depth.
I'll review games when I feel like it and I thought I'd start with gotcha force. I'll review story, gameplay, graphics, sound, lasting appeal, and a summary, then give rankings out of 10, 10 being best. Like just about everyone else on the face of the planet.
Story: 5
You dont play gotcha force for a good story. Your a kid (you name him, default name is Kou) new to sahari town (Presumably in japan). Now explanation past that is there, in fact there are no parents or Adults in this game.
One night theres a meteor shower, so Kou goes to investigate where one of the meteors hit, to find a tiny robot named G Red. G Red states that he is a 'gotcha borg' from the planet 'megaborg' and his planet was destroyed by the evil galactic emperor and his death force, so they evacuated to earth in meteors. He joins Kou, starting the gotcha force, to combat the death force.
You meet colourful characters living in sarahi town with gotcha borgs, and you fight them along with the death force, and they all join your efforts eventually.
The story is nothing to write home about. Theres a threat and kids use aliens to stop it. It does deal with mind control (Orochi), loss (Sho's father?), and there is some implied character development (Kitsune overcoming fear?), but none of this is used to effect nor is it particularly explored or explained.
Honestly though, if your playing gotcha force for a good story, then I'm not entirely sure whats wrong with you. Since its new and open ended, it does leave room for fanfiction or RPs to write about it, which is a plus.
Gameplay: 10
Gotcha force is like pokemon, but more based around skill then strategy.
Basically, you play it like an incredibly fast paced third person shooter. You start with G Red and as you fight other gotcha borgs, you obtain them after battle and store them in your 'gotcha box'.
From this box you can arrange 'forces' which you use in battle. Its simple to make a force, you select one of 20 and drag and place the borgs from your box into it. Its quick and effective.
There are just over 200 borgs to obtain in this game, and each are unique and have different battle styles. There isn't a single borg that you see in the game that you cannot use, although some are so rare, and 2 only obtainable through a glitch, that you'll only obtain around half of them on your first play through the game.
You have a limit to the borgs you can put in a force, thats your GF energy. Each borg is worth a certain amount of GF energy, and combined, that total cannot exceed your total GF energy. GF energy is increased after each battle, allowing for more powerful borgs as you go through the game. Its a nice system that makes you think about what your using.
The borgs themselves range from Ninjas, tanks, samurais, transformer-robots, airships, dragons, knights- there is a huge variety and there are so many different ways to use each borg and each borg is normally so unique that there is no way that anyone CANNOT find a borg that suits their style, furthermore the tribes they are split into means that borgs of their tribes are similar, so there are borgs that are similar yet slightly different, making for yet more play styles. The variety is fantastic, and it means the gameplay is always new even on subsequent runs.
The controls in battle are also very simple, A is jump and B and X are attacks, with Y activating a cool hypermode for maximum ownage, using a metre at the top of the screen. Each borg uses the same buttons yet different attacks.
Graphics: 8
Theres not much to say about the graphics- the characters are anime cutesy, which is what puts people off this game at first glance, but the borgs are definitely what shines. They have loads of detail, to the point that you can even see a capcom logo on most of them, and are solid and colourful. In fact, the entire game is solid and colourful.
The main problem with the graphics is the environments, they're fine, but they are mostly flat, sameish, and worst of all beyond the permitted area of your fights there is an endless abyss of nothing. The battles take place in gardens and stuff because these are palm sized toys duking it out, so the environments being uninspiring makes sense, but really? An Abyss of nothing? It detracted me from the setting of the game, but it does help you focus on the battles which are hectic enough as it is, and honestly its not a major problem.
Effects looks cool and clean.
Sound: 7
The game has mostly text for speaking but there are voice clips in battle and in some dialogue. The borgs are all silent except G Red, in fact he has the most voice acting in this game probably, and in general the voice acting can only be described as 'so bad its good.' They sound like robot children reading from a script, and while some may find it grating, all in all its just hilarious.
Sound effects in battle sound like you'd expect them to, nothing much to say there.
The music is all upbeat synthesisers and its obscenely loud. It gets you pumped up for battle without loosing the happy-go-lucky theme of the game. Theres nothing special here, but the map and battle themes are constantly changing so you never have to worry about wanting to mute your TV after hearing the same theme over and over and over... There are some catchy themes but its mostly forgettable. The japanese version had lyrics for one of the songs, but not in english versions.
Lasting appeal: 10 (Wish I could go higher)
This game is life eating.
Even after the 8 playthroughs the game allows the play counter goes up to, you still wont have every borg, and you'll want to collect them all.
You probably wont have used all the borgs either, you may fall into a comfort force yet never discover your favorite borg. You may fight the same battle over and over in the special mode hoping to get that borg, but never get it due to rarity.
The rare borgs have data crystals, so you have to collect the various parts before you can use the borgs. These range from 2 to 5.
Even after you collect all the borgs, you can collect the borgs in different colours that appear rarely. Alternate borgs, crystal, silver, gold, and black- getting black for even the most common of borgs is rare, now imagine trying to get rare colours of borgs that require data crystals.
I can guarantee that one can spend a lifetime playing this game yet still not obtain every borg in every colour legitimately.
Add multiplayer mode, where your friend can use their gotcha force save file and use their own force, borg trading through memory cards, special mode where you can go back to any mission in the story, and a challenge mode- you have got hundreds upon hundreds of hours on your hands.
Overall- 8
I love this game. The variety in gameplay, simplicity, and the lasting appeal make this one of the best games I have ever played.
People may be put off by it's childish themes, blaring music and grating voice acting, but look past that and you have one of the deepest games to play here.
Quite simply, this is like real time pokemon with lasers and less raising your creatures and more fighting and collecting.
I'll review games when I feel like it and I thought I'd start with gotcha force. I'll review story, gameplay, graphics, sound, lasting appeal, and a summary, then give rankings out of 10, 10 being best. Like just about everyone else on the face of the planet.
Story: 5
You dont play gotcha force for a good story. Your a kid (you name him, default name is Kou) new to sahari town (Presumably in japan). Now explanation past that is there, in fact there are no parents or Adults in this game.
One night theres a meteor shower, so Kou goes to investigate where one of the meteors hit, to find a tiny robot named G Red. G Red states that he is a 'gotcha borg' from the planet 'megaborg' and his planet was destroyed by the evil galactic emperor and his death force, so they evacuated to earth in meteors. He joins Kou, starting the gotcha force, to combat the death force.
You meet colourful characters living in sarahi town with gotcha borgs, and you fight them along with the death force, and they all join your efforts eventually.
The story is nothing to write home about. Theres a threat and kids use aliens to stop it. It does deal with mind control (Orochi), loss (Sho's father?), and there is some implied character development (Kitsune overcoming fear?), but none of this is used to effect nor is it particularly explored or explained.
Honestly though, if your playing gotcha force for a good story, then I'm not entirely sure whats wrong with you. Since its new and open ended, it does leave room for fanfiction or RPs to write about it, which is a plus.
Gameplay: 10
Gotcha force is like pokemon, but more based around skill then strategy.
Basically, you play it like an incredibly fast paced third person shooter. You start with G Red and as you fight other gotcha borgs, you obtain them after battle and store them in your 'gotcha box'.
From this box you can arrange 'forces' which you use in battle. Its simple to make a force, you select one of 20 and drag and place the borgs from your box into it. Its quick and effective.
There are just over 200 borgs to obtain in this game, and each are unique and have different battle styles. There isn't a single borg that you see in the game that you cannot use, although some are so rare, and 2 only obtainable through a glitch, that you'll only obtain around half of them on your first play through the game.
You have a limit to the borgs you can put in a force, thats your GF energy. Each borg is worth a certain amount of GF energy, and combined, that total cannot exceed your total GF energy. GF energy is increased after each battle, allowing for more powerful borgs as you go through the game. Its a nice system that makes you think about what your using.
The borgs themselves range from Ninjas, tanks, samurais, transformer-robots, airships, dragons, knights- there is a huge variety and there are so many different ways to use each borg and each borg is normally so unique that there is no way that anyone CANNOT find a borg that suits their style, furthermore the tribes they are split into means that borgs of their tribes are similar, so there are borgs that are similar yet slightly different, making for yet more play styles. The variety is fantastic, and it means the gameplay is always new even on subsequent runs.
The controls in battle are also very simple, A is jump and B and X are attacks, with Y activating a cool hypermode for maximum ownage, using a metre at the top of the screen. Each borg uses the same buttons yet different attacks.
Graphics: 8
Theres not much to say about the graphics- the characters are anime cutesy, which is what puts people off this game at first glance, but the borgs are definitely what shines. They have loads of detail, to the point that you can even see a capcom logo on most of them, and are solid and colourful. In fact, the entire game is solid and colourful.
The main problem with the graphics is the environments, they're fine, but they are mostly flat, sameish, and worst of all beyond the permitted area of your fights there is an endless abyss of nothing. The battles take place in gardens and stuff because these are palm sized toys duking it out, so the environments being uninspiring makes sense, but really? An Abyss of nothing? It detracted me from the setting of the game, but it does help you focus on the battles which are hectic enough as it is, and honestly its not a major problem.
Effects looks cool and clean.
Sound: 7
The game has mostly text for speaking but there are voice clips in battle and in some dialogue. The borgs are all silent except G Red, in fact he has the most voice acting in this game probably, and in general the voice acting can only be described as 'so bad its good.' They sound like robot children reading from a script, and while some may find it grating, all in all its just hilarious.
Sound effects in battle sound like you'd expect them to, nothing much to say there.
The music is all upbeat synthesisers and its obscenely loud. It gets you pumped up for battle without loosing the happy-go-lucky theme of the game. Theres nothing special here, but the map and battle themes are constantly changing so you never have to worry about wanting to mute your TV after hearing the same theme over and over and over... There are some catchy themes but its mostly forgettable. The japanese version had lyrics for one of the songs, but not in english versions.
Lasting appeal: 10 (Wish I could go higher)
This game is life eating.
Even after the 8 playthroughs the game allows the play counter goes up to, you still wont have every borg, and you'll want to collect them all.
You probably wont have used all the borgs either, you may fall into a comfort force yet never discover your favorite borg. You may fight the same battle over and over in the special mode hoping to get that borg, but never get it due to rarity.
The rare borgs have data crystals, so you have to collect the various parts before you can use the borgs. These range from 2 to 5.
Even after you collect all the borgs, you can collect the borgs in different colours that appear rarely. Alternate borgs, crystal, silver, gold, and black- getting black for even the most common of borgs is rare, now imagine trying to get rare colours of borgs that require data crystals.
I can guarantee that one can spend a lifetime playing this game yet still not obtain every borg in every colour legitimately.
Add multiplayer mode, where your friend can use their gotcha force save file and use their own force, borg trading through memory cards, special mode where you can go back to any mission in the story, and a challenge mode- you have got hundreds upon hundreds of hours on your hands.
Overall- 8
I love this game. The variety in gameplay, simplicity, and the lasting appeal make this one of the best games I have ever played.
People may be put off by it's childish themes, blaring music and grating voice acting, but look past that and you have one of the deepest games to play here.
Quite simply, this is like real time pokemon with lasers and less raising your creatures and more fighting and collecting.
I made a thing... Long live Gotcha Force!!!