REVIEW: Gotcha Force (GC)
Genre: 3d arena fighting game
Played for: around 20 hours
two reviews in two days ?! I must be on a roll! >8D anyway, welcome everyone! Today I'm gonna review a very obscure Gamecube game from Capcom called Gotcha Force! It's an arena fighting game, similar to the likes of Custom Robo and Virtual-On, but it stands out on its own thanks to its art direction and the amount of different characters available, as well for a more simplistic, but still effective battle system.
so, let's dive in this game to know more about it! :D
The game, while not featuring any flashy texture or amazing model-crafting stands out for its simple and colourful look...while the stages and environments are nothing of special and barely use the Gamecube's power output, the Gotcha Borgs are all well-made and, while the plycount is nothing amazing, the art direction of the game makes up for it, providing more than 200 different borgs, using a style that, in many cases, has more of a resemblance to toys rather than robots.
There's just a huge effort put into the variety of the units...robots, transforming and combining ones, cowboys, knights, samurai, ninjas, dolls, tanks, vehicles, dragons, even huge spaceships to play as...it's like they took every single stereotype of a kid's toy and made them into units for the game...wich is freaking amazing as concept, if you ask me, the roster of the game is huge and various, way more than one would expect, providing for a graphic that doesn't let anyone stare at it in awe, but it's certainly intriguing and charming...as someone who loves mecha design, this game is the heaven for it ;D
Concerning the "cutscenes", the game falls short here, going for old-styled dialogues with still anime-styled pics of the characters, even if I do like the style they use for it...the story doesn't bear too much importance anyway, as I'll explain later on.
Like I said earlier, the game plays like a 3D arena fighting game, kinda like Virtual On...for who doesn't know what Virtual on is, imagine a third person game, in wich you play as the unit you chose and run/dash/fly around the stage, fighting against your enemies, either AI controlled or belonging to other players...I could say that it's a mix between action game and brawler, as the game presents a very fast-paced gameplay, the player having to dash around, shoot, hit, slash away, resulting in very flashy and entertaining fights made of special moves, lasers, projectiles, huge beams and whatever you can come up with :) Imagine super smash bros but in 3d: messy but absolutely entertaining and addicting!
The game also puts in, a small strategic element, as before going into a fight, the player must choose from his unlocked borgs to form his playing team...each unit has a certain cost, so that the team is kept balanced, as there's a limit to how much of a cost you can reach, also depending by how many GF points you have, wich can be unlocked by going through the story mode.
each unit has just a couple of attack commands, wich can also have variants, like, they can be charged or have ammo, or a sort of loading time, kinda like skills in an MMO game...while this might sound even too simple, it marries very well with the very fast concept and gameplay of the game, keeping itself simple to let anyone play, but at the same time being fast and messy enough to be entertaining and challenging even for seasoned gamers.
This goes without counting the fact that every single unit of the game has different attacks and variations, you'll never see two different units having the same moveset, wich also increases the lenght of the game...unlocking every single unit will take a long time, even more than one single playthrough of the story mode...for gamers who love to unlock and collect characters, this is like heaven and makes me wish so very hard that the game gets a more modern sequel...Local play is obviously fun, even if the framerate of the game goes down a little because of the splitscreen, so imagining a sequel, or even a remake, with an online mode is a very appealing thought!
The flaws I can point out could be the fact that going through the story mode multiple times just to unlock the characters may feel like a hassle to some, especially given that not many of us have friends or brothers to play games locally with (I do, but that's another matter :P). The camera also tends to mess up a lot in some situations, making the battles even more confusing that they're meant to be and I know this might be a pet peeve of some gamers...despite that, the gameplay works well, it's a very nice concept, implemented in its own way that makes it stand out for other games of the same genre.
The storyline is barely an excuse to get through the story and unlock more and more units...nothing really exciting happens, except for one or two events that are strictly related to unlocking a couple of special units, plus the english voice acting is just abysmal, one of the worst I have ever heard...shame that there's no jap option since hearing the japanese gameplay, the voice acting is, as always, very good...plus the main kid is voiced by the same actress of Keroro in japan, so it makes it even better XD
The soundtrack is a very good point of the game, especially the battle themes, wich all feature a very nice beat to it, the capcom styled one as I like to call it, electronic music that is designed specificly to pump you up with energy and encourage everyone to fight at their best during the battles...and the style reminds me of Megaman music too XD...Plus there's also one track, wich is sang in the jap version of the game, wich purposefully follows the style of old 80's anime mecha openings, wich is awesome and epic in my book! so here are a couple of examples:
one of my fave battle tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XpRaTN4Cdc
and the amazing "we are gotcha force" music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSNngphzIA
Gotcha Force is an obscure gem...while being quite rough at some of its edges, it still shows a very fun and addicting gameplay, a total killer in local multiplayer and also shows a very huge creativity in its mecha design, with a charming style and over the top moves, making for a game that has something that Capcom seems to have mostly lost in the last years :/ the ability to make a game that isn't too complex, but it's designed just to be over the top and fun on purpose, without the need to go on downright violence or dark and gritty concepts...Though, months ago, Capcom, under popular demant it seems, rereleased the game for Gamecube, a very odd move, if you ask me...it might be just wishful thinking, but if they are going for a remake or a sequel to this game, with more units and an online mode, I think we're gonna have a potential second gem incoming in our future...let's just hope so ;) for now I'll give this game a...
come on Capcom, be good and give us a sequel, now :P
