BioMotor Unitron Game by Yumekobo Reviewed by kclas 4/6/2000 kclas@iname.com Size: 8 megabit Save: 3 save slots Released: 2000 Works with: Neo Geo Pocket/Color **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Regardless of how I may bash this game, I must admit that I played it compulsively for about 3 days. It's not hard, it's not impressive in any way, and it's no revolution in gameplay, but something about it is fun. I guess it plays slightly on the pokemania disorder. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Contrary to what SNK's marketing department would like you to believe, "NGPC's first RPG" isn't an RPG. On an RPG scale where Pac Man gets a 0 and text based AD&D gets 100, BioMotor Unitron is about a 12. It does have turn based battles, and that's about the extent of this game's RPG elements. There are no puzzles, minimal story, no plot twists, NPC's are mostly irrelevant, and the dialog is definitely useless. Basically this game can be summed up by the following: -build arms -fight in the arena -fight in the dungeons to gain money -buy upgrades and materials -repeat The arena offers a series of battles, which you must win in order raise in rank, eventually earning the title "Master of Masters." A final rank, "Legend" is attained by defeating all 4 of the elemental boss characters plus the final boss in succession at the arena. The four "randomly generated" dungeons in the game supply seven levels apiece of easy prey for you to build your levels on and collect money from. There are also scattered treasure chests from which you can obtain money and items. SNK's marketing department is on the shady side of things here, too, as the randomly generated dungeons are not randomly generated. The dungeon levels are randomly selected from a set of pre-made levels, and you will quickly notice repeating levels. On the bottom floor of each dungeon lives an elemental boss that will give you a medallion if beaten. You can collect the medallions to trade for rare and powerful items with the local bard. How the bard acquires or carries all of this heavy equipment is beyond my understanding. There is a fifth dungeon that appears under the arena after you achieve the "Master of Masters" rank, and this dungeon contains the main boss in the game. One great unexpected feature of this game is that it does not end after the final boss is defeated. You are dumped back in town and allowed to collect materials and build arms indefinitely, which allows you to build up ultimate unitron to use in link battles. The battle system is simple, and winning or losing depends mostly on who has the hardest hitting hardware. Some items have effects on attack and defense power, but they are mainly unnecessary. A typical boss fight can easily be won by increasing your defense, decreasing the bosses offense and defense, then attack, attack, attack. It's a fairly simple formula that wins every fight in the game. Liked: The open ended nature of the game. Hated: The battles are entirely too easy. Most dungeon battles are over in one round. Most arena battles are over in 1-3 rounds. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The graphics in town are nice, and the NPC's are well drawn. Unitrons are also pretty good looking, though they have relatively few colors. But... Yumekobo was working on a schedule, and it shows. A major graphical complaint is that there are no backgrounds in the battle scenes. Every battle takes place on a reflective grey background. Maybe it's a special type of smog only found in unitron land, who knows. Also lacking is the artwork for the dungeon enemies. The enemies are hideous. Dragon Warrior 1 had better artwork. The drawings have 3 colors, one of which is invariably grey. The dungeon bosses pretty good, though. The dungeons themselves look pretty much like dungeons from NES Final Fantasy 1. Liked: Unitrons and NPC's look nice. Hated: Everything else. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Bad, horrible, terrible. Turn the sound all the way down and save your batteries. The sound reminds of of NES music from about 1985. Liked: The ability to turn the volume dial all the way down. Hated: All of it. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Control is very basic, and there is probably no possible way to make a mistake. Everything is menu based, no real-time anything. It can become annoying to repetitively click the joystick to navigate the menus. Liked: Simplicity. Hated: Click click click through menus. **************************************************************************** Improve: The graphics need time to be completed, and the sound needs to be redone. There is not much of a story, and the game is very short. This looks like a game that was just not given the time to be finished properly. RIYL: **************************************************************************** Final Words: The gameplay is relatively shallow, and by no means difficult. If you are looking for an RPG, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a light diversion that can be played for short time periods every now and then, this game might compel you keep collecting, building, and winning. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: *** Graphics: ** Sound/Music: * Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: *** Total: 52% Final Score: 60% I hate to let graphics and sound completely drag a game down **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: (Any secrets?)