NOTE: This article is from the oprainfall Campaign Hub, written by an independent campaign, and hosted on the oprainfall website. The opinions herein may not represent the opinions of the oprainfall website.
Hey Operation Rainfall readers, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since our last update! A lot has happened in the world of Medabots, from new model kits, manga reprints and oh, just a new game. Unfortunately, all of that goodness has been directed exclusively to the Japanese audience. Given Natsume’s continued inability to localize the 3DS entries, Medabots fans outside of Japan have been feeling left out …
2015 looks to be a year of improvement for Western fans, as the Australian media ratings board has renewed hope that despite Natsume’s inability to release new Medabots games, they still could dig up the old ones. New ratings for both Medabots: An RPG Adventure and Medabots AX have been issued in Australia. This is a good indication that the games will be added to the Gameboy Advance Virtual Console for Wii U in the future. Due to the nature of this leak, no exact release information is known. To clarify: this is only a rumor at this time, though it is a promising one.
For those unaware, Medabots: An RPG Adventure is a 2003 Gameboy Advance release that currently stands as the only mainline Medabots game to be released outside of Japan. The game itself is a remake of 1999’s Medarot 2 on the original Gameboy. Due to the television anime airing at the time, a lot of similarities are shared between the two. This means you’ll see familiar characters like Ikki Tenyrou and Metabee duke it out against The Screws gang and the Rubber Robos. The game is played out like a traditional RPG with a world to explore, but those that have played the series know that’s not the main attraction here. Mainline Medabots games have a unique relay-style battle system that has users commanding a group of three individual bots (with one set as the leader) in a race to defeat the competition. You issue a command and then watch your Medabot run to the centre of the battlefield to launch an attack before your opponent can do the same. The first to defeat the leader Medabot or the entire opposing team wins. This battle system lends itself well to a focus on customization. Medabots: An RPG Adventure features hundreds of parts that affect the way battles turn out.
Medabots AX stands as the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan, though no Japanese version of Medabots AX exists. Its counterpart would be Medarot G which launched in July of that same year. While the games contain different story lines (AX starring Ikki Tenyrou whereas G is a story about Medarot 5‘s Koishimaru Tensan), the battle systems are identical and the two share many of the same assets. Both are fighting spinoffs with gameplay similar to that of Super Smash Bros. In the AX version you can battle it out with 30 different Medabots that you’ll remember from the anime.
Like all Medabots games on handhelds, An RPG Adventure and AX were released in two versions. The Australian board only rated one release for each game, but I imagine both the Metabee and Rokusho versions will be available. Together the duo make up two-thirds of the Medabots video games released in the West, with the Nintendo Gamecube’s Medabots Infinity currently unaccounted for. As Nintendo has yet to offer a Gamecube virtual console, it might be some time before that one’s available.
This is big news for the Medabots fandom. Should these games see a re-release, they’ll be the first official movement the property has seen in the West in nearly a decade.
