Custom Robo Impressions

Nintendo's Custom Robo series originated on the Nintendo 64, but the robot shooting game has never made its way to the US. The company plans to change that, however, as the next installment--on the GameCube--will eventually be released in North America.

To start the game, you have to select from a variety of robot parts to assemble your fighting machine. There will be a wide variety of bodies in the game, each with its own base statistics in speed and power. From there, you can customize your weapons, which include a main gun, a bomb, and a pod--which is basically a slow-moving missile. You can also adjust the legs on your robot to configure things like midair jumps, dashes, and so on.

Once your robot is finished, you're sent into a relatively small arena to duke it out against up to three other robots, some or all of which may be human-controlled. The game's controls are quite simple. You merely run around the arena, hammering away on the fire button while carefully timing your jumps, charge attacks, pod releases, and bombs. In matches with more than one target, a button is used to change your focus.

While the robots are pretty small on the screen, once you're in combat, the designs seen on the select and customization screens are really fantastic. You'll see big, pointy-edged mecha; smaller, more humanoid machines; and larger, tanklike designs.

Matches end either when the time expires or when only one robo is left standing. We'll have more on Custom Robo as it becomes available.