Gotcha Force (2003)

Reviewers really did bad with this game, I remember at the time, it received a shower of lukewarm scores.

In reality, this game is what people dreamed of Pokemon AND MORE. Tons of different characters, every character feels unique, real time gameplay, multiplayer, so on, so on... My complaints are that the story is very bad/non-existent, getting x character may feel grindy, and gameplay can get repetitive. It definitely could get some help in these aspects.

But for what it is, gosh, if you love it, you DO LOVE IT! Closer game to this one that I can think of is Custom Robo, but in my opinion this is WAY better. If you can, give it a chance. It's one of my favourite games, even with its flaws and I feel it more than deserves being played.

Gotcha Force is the epitome of a hidden gem. It is an underrated game that many know about, but only glimpse at and decide it isn't for them.

GF is a Japanese, anime inspired video game based on action figures. You play as a child who obtained a sentient action figure that is an intelligent life form. Your aim is to collect many figures and defeat a great evil enemy. Along the way you meet other characters, nemesis become allies and etc.

IT sounds pretty childish, no? It does until you actually play it. It's a third person action game. It's pretty basic, you have movement, blocks and a couple of different attacks, but the difficulty ramps up pretty damn quickly for a game like this. After a while you begin to question how a child could play this after getting your rear handed to you several times in a row. It starts easy but the difficulty curve is amazing.

There are a lot of figures to collect, some have guns, swords, hand-to-hand attacks and many different types. I prefer the twin-sword types myself. You put together a team using your GP. As you get further in the game you get more GP. You use GP to put Gotcha's in your team. Some use few GP, some use more. At first you can only have one or two figures, then later you can have a bigger team of up to five but your limited GP makes you think about who you need - you have to decide a team made up of power high -gp types or low disposable types. Towards the end you can use any figures you like, with power to match because the enemies get bigger, harder and come with better powers and higher HP.

It's seriously worth a play, it's a better game than it looks.