Robotrek

Mons are cool. We know this. But what about robot mons combined with humor that pokes fun at the RPG genre? This is the basic premise of Robotrek, known as Slapstick in Japan, released for the Super Nintendo. It tells the tale of the young son of Doctor Akihabara, whose family has just moved to the village of Rococo. All is not well in the world as the Hackers are trying to take over the world with robots, and it's up to this young lad to stop them with his robotic servants that he himself made, called "Robots".

Though the "Save the World" plot didn't blow many minds, Robotrek's gameplay was a refreshing change of pace. The game included a great deal of Character Customization for a Super Nintendo RPG, and the combat was an odd hybrid of real-time and turn-based. Unfortunately, the level of customization could be daunting; a poorly-specced robot made the game much more difficult than it already was. Additionally, like most Japanese RPGs before Final Fantasy VII popularized them in the west, it suffers from a sloppy translation. The game is still a worthy addition to any retro gamer's library.

Tropes used in Robotrek include:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The first town has one.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Japanese box art has the main character with a backpack full of scrap reading a book. The American box art is of a foreboding space station - which spoils the last few hours of the game.
• Artificial Human: The protagonist's mother. But it's nothing significant anyway.
• Axe Crazy: A Robot with an Axe is a thing to be feared. See Disc One Nuke below.
• Back Stab: Attacks from behind do more damage.
• Baleful Polymorph: Mice. Later, you can become a mouse at will with the right invention.
• Blind Idiot Translation: The game's story is fairly interesting, but at times almost impenetrable due to all the Engrish.
• Character Customization: You choose the distribution of each robot's stats, as well as its equipment and attack combos.
• Combos: You can make your own.
• Conspicuously Selective Perception
• Cutscene Incompetence
• Disc One Nuke: If you have some money and know what you're doing, you can make a Lvl 9 Axe fairly early in the game.
  • You can also upgrade said axe to the third iteration, which at Lvl 9 is the second most powerful weapon in the game.
  • Before the third boss fight, you gain access to a powerful hit all ranged weapon that shoots lighting. It's also very easy to upgrade this to Lvl 9.
  • To get an idea of how broken axes are in the game, a critical hit with the three-hit-combo macro from the backside will ONE SHOT NEARLY EVERY BOSS.
• The Doll Episode
• Doppelganger Attack: Done by an early boss.
• Einstein Hair: Dr. Einst, natch.
• Gadgeteer Genius: You are on your way to be one.
• Global Airship: Two: the first lets you travel all around the world, while the second lets you explore space as well.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Mint the newspaper reporter.
• Hello, Insert Name Here
• Item Crafting: You can either combine items together or use level-dependent recipes to make from scratch.
• Just a Kid
• Kid Hero
• Kid With the Remote Control
• Mons: An interesting take, since you make them.
• Pamphlet Shelf: You learn to make new items from scratch by reading books, so you'll be checking out every bookshelf you find. There's even a hidden library that contains one of each volume in the game.
• Party in My Pocket: Literally, since the player's robots are contained in capsules.
• Preexisting Encounters: Random encounters are of this variety. Though in many cases, the enemies don't appear until you get close to their hiding places. And a few are invisible.
• Shout-Out: Oh, one of the endgame weapon is a blade that shoot fire birds? Now, where did we see that before?
  • Made by the same developers. So it's somewhere between an Author Allusion and a Running Gag.
• Translator Microbes: At one point, you must craft an item that allows you to speak with animals. And when you get turned into a mouse (see Baleful Polymorph above), you can automatically communicate with other mice (while still understanding humans as well).
• "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Meta Crab and Big Eye. Meta Crab introduces the fact that from here on, everything the player did to attack the other enemies without much in the way of retaliation is ineffective (i.e. you MUST start using Melee attacks). Big Eye cements what's necessary in boss fights from there on out. If you are ill-equipped for Big Eye, aside from grinding, the average player stands little chance.