fighting

If you happen to be six to twelve years old, and have either a Game Boy Advance SP or a Gamecube, you've probably played Pokemon. If you haven't...well, you have no idea what you're missing.

But if you don't feel like commanding a tiny armanda of little, furry, fire-breathing creatures, than Robopon 2: Ring Version is the game for you.

Okay, so the concept of Robopon 2 copies Pokemon in nearly every single way-get a bunch of little, freakish critters, train them for battle, and blow opponents to pieces. But Robopon 2 takes this idea, and gives it a much more strategic edge.

Some differences are...

-An actual story this time! That's right-instead of walking around trying to win lots of battles, you have to reckon with a Robopon-wielding Ancient Egyptian mastermind, an evil scientist who wants to use his superior Robopon to take over the world, and, believe it or not, aliens from outer space.

-Instead of capturing Robopon out in the wild, you are now forced to search for batteries, hidden all over the land, and "spark" them to make more.

-Though I've never played the original Robopon, I've now figured out that most of the original critters have gone, and have been replaced by about 200 new ones, most new evolutions of the old ones. 200. Yes, you heard me right. Too bad Robby now doesn't have an evolution...

-Speaking of evolutions, there's now a serious downside to the whole idea. Though the Robopon is able to learn new techniques when it evolves (like launching a humongus, pheonix-shaped flame at it's enemies), but all it's stats, including it's level, is reduced by half. This adds A LOT to the gameplay.

-Instead of one (or sometimes two) Robopon fighting on the battlefield, you now can wage war with four. Yes, FOUR.

-There's a new twist to special attacks-oil types. Each Robopon has an oil type (like A, B, AB, etc.), and this seriously influences healing and damage dealing. For example, if you want to heal all of your Robopon in one swoop, the multiple Robopon must be of the healer's oil type. It's the same with dealing damage.

-Instead of having elemental types, there are now three robot types-Arm, Move, and Boot. Arm are basic, Move are fast but have low defence, and Boot have high defence, but can't be equipped with software and parts (which give you more attack and more special attacks). However, they learn more special attacks.

In other words, this game absolutely rocks. GET IT!

My son is eight years old and loves the Pokemon Gameboy Color games which he has been playing for a year or more. I've been looking for a while for a GBA game that would maintain his interest to the extent the Pokemon series has. Another criteria I have used is to avoid games that are dominated by scary characters, evil or magic. There are a lot of great RPG games out there that unfortunately use these elements to excess. So it was with great delight that I stumbled upon Robopon 2 (Ring Version) the other day. It appeared to have many of the excellent role playing features Pokemon has such as a large land to explore, characters to interact with, Robopon to create and enhance (180 in all) and you are not required to caste spells or conjure demons to win. My son loves the game as much as Pokemon (although only time will tell!) and I'm sure he will get a lot of pleasure out of it. So if you are a parent who is looking for a GBA game that is value for money and isn't dominated by things that really shouldn't be in childrens games, then I would highly recommend Robopon 2.

This game is just like cross version. Despite popular rumors you don't actually build your robots. You customize them with different colors, body designs, and weapons. I have both of these 2 versions and I personally like Cross better. The atributes of the robopon are more complicated than Pokemon types. If you like RPGs and customize-your-team games this is for you!! I don't recommend this for young gamers, it has too many possabilities and is a little hard to understand.