Custom Robo: Battle Recolution for the GameCube has long been a favorite of mine. The game itself came out in 2004, a year and a half after I was born. I'm not sure when my family picked up a copy of the game, but I vividly remember playing as far back as I can possibly remember. This was the first game I ever beat without assistance, and holds a special place in my lil gamer heart because of that.

I've never been the best at fighting games like Custom Robo, but I was able to button mash my way through as a 10 year old, which can be either a pro or a con for the game. I don't remember much of the actual story, and have been replaying for that very reason. I remember something about a dome and a flat earth... The lore around this game is weird.

As a kid, I know I gravitated towards the 'male' robos (why the robos need to be gendered is beyond me), which, looking back, was a fairly clear sign of me being not a girl. Now I have a preference to the 'female' robos, specifically Milky Way. I think if I had to pick, Milky Way would be my favorite robo, with Ray_01 a close second. Very basic choices, but I haven't gotten far enough in my re-play-through to have much choice of robos (I don't even have Milky Way yet, I just love her design).

The game is really short, with an average play time of under 10 hours for the main story. I doubt anyone will actually play a nearly 2-decade old game based purely on some random Neocities site, so I'm going to explain the majority of the plot so you can know the lore without dedicating 10 hours to a video game. Also because infodumping feels SO good.

Custom Robo for the GameCube, known as Custom Robo: Battle Revolution in Japan, follows our player-named protagonist (who I'll refer to as 'Hero') as his job search leads him to become a bounty hunter Robo commander. He's never used a Robo before, and seems to know jack shit about them, despite most people owning one. He even has a parts generator (the machine that gives you Robo parts you've unlocked) in his bedroom and yet he has no idea what it's for. All he knows is that his now-deceased father told him to become a Robo Commander and by god he's gonna do it.

First, here are some terms you'll see a lot:

• Robo / Custom Robo: the robot lookin' guy you fight with
• Holosseum: The battlefield used in Custom Robo Battles
• Dive: going into a holosseum for a battle.

Anyway...

Despite his lack of experience, or even knowledge, Hero gets a job interview at the bounty hunter company, Steel Hearts. After speaking with Ernest, the owner of Steel Hearts, and Harry, one of the bounty hunters, Hero is allowed to tag along on a job stopping burglers at the local lab. There, he gains the Robo Ray_O1, a prototype Robo that is still in the testing phase. Now the only one able to use Ray_01, the lab manager, Linda, asks him to report back often. Ernest decides to hire Hero after Hero takes care of the majority of the burglers at the lab.

Now that he has a Robo, Hero needs a license to legally use the Robo. Harry takes him to the licensing center and Hero succeeds at getting the lowest level license, allowing him to work as a mercenary.

Soon enough, Steel Hearts gets a serious job. Don from the local chinese resturant, Daimon, reports a rogue Autonomous Robo attacking the resturant... by the time Steel Hearts arrives, a victim has been killed by the Robo, which is long gone.

Now, we learn a few things.

• Autonomous Robos were created for repetetive and hard labor, and should not be able to fight.
• One of our new coworkers, Marcia, has a mysterious power to "half-dive" into someone's Custom Robo and witness their thoughts (a "full-dive" being what a Robo battle in a holosseum is.)
• The "Robo" that killed the man was not a Robo, Marcia says it seemed like a living being.

The Police Squad take Marcia in for questioning as Ernest gets a call from Bogey, the owner of a cafe that we visited prior to going to Daimons (all that scene got us was the introduction of Evil, a mercenary from a different company called Dark Blue).

Bogey's complaint is about a man making a killing on (illegal) battle bets. He's incredibly strong and Bogey will start losing money if he keeps winning. In order to fix this, Hero and Harry join the tournament, hoping to beat this man, called "Shiner".

To Be Continued as I re-play more!