Gotcha Force - Wage battles for the sake of humanity in a child's sandbox!

I remember being very excited for this game when I first read about it in a magazine. It sounded like it had everything I could want in a game, from team-based multi-player to free form combat. And then the game came out and every critic hated on it, and like a sucker, I believed them. Years later when the gamecube was on it's last legs, I happen to run across this game at the gamestop for a used price that was unusually high. As it turns out, this game is something of a collectable, so I snatched it up just for shelving purposes. What surprised me was that I ended up having more fun than the critics would expect me to have! This is a crazy awesome game here people, it's a victim of a conspiracy!

Multi-player is a blast

Gotcha Force was released in 2003 for the Nintendo Gamecube by Capcom. It's about these toy-sized aliens called "Gotcha Borgs" who from the sky and are out to conquer Earth. Going by the name of "Death Force", it also seems like every normal weapon is useless against their tiny onslaught. So what can defeat the Death Force? Other Gotcha Borgs! Enter: Gotchaborg G-Red and his annoying child partner Kou. Seems like friendly gotcha borgs only team up with kids and not tactical-minded adults, and thus the fate of the earth is left in their incapable hands.  It's not the best story ever written, but kids would really get into it since apparently they are the only ones capable of saving our world from a tiny-sized threat.  Seriously, if it wasn't for G-Red specifically saying "Only Gotcha borgs can defeat gotcha borgs", I'd just run them over with a car and save the entire world.

Seriously though, this game has an arcade-style experience. IF you ever played Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs Zeon, you got the same exact battle system here. In fact, Gotcha Borgs is what started it all! You set up a team of gotcha borgs to fight the opposing team, when a borg is defeated their life points are deducted from the team's lifebar. Deplete the opponent's lifebar completely and you win, it's all very simple. What makes this fun however, is the sheer variety of borgs you can use! There are over 200 of the little guys and you'd be collecting and trading them like you would pokemon! And those 200 borgs are split up into 20 different classes, offering you plenty of strategic options to create the best team for your needs. Each borg has their own cool style varying from vampire swordsmen to pop idols. You have borgs for strictly offensive roles, and borgs who administer first-aid. It seems like this was a game MADE for online play, which it sorely lacks.

Japan actually got toys based on the game.

The voice acting is hilariously bad. It's almost like English-as-a-second-language bad. As you wage war in the battlefield (read: your little sister's room), you end up hearing a lot of chatter coming from the kids, so while it is irritating to some, you might actually find yourself engrossed in the action as you hear the kid cry when a borg is lost, and cheer for victory when the battle is going your way. Graphics are what you'd expect for a 2003 gamecube game, plenty of bright colors to appeal to kiddies though. Sorry FPS fans, no signs of brown or bloom here.

I think this game is great, but it's just short of being absolutely perfect. If online multiplayer was as strong back then as it is now, we'd have a seriously real game on our hands. And this is coming from a guy who doesn't even enjoy online multiplayer that much. It has all the strategic elements that you'd expect from such a game, over 200 playable characters, and chaotic gameplay to keep you interested, it just lacks that extra special seasoning that would have made this game truly delicious. Kiddy game this is not, people. Check it out.