maxlords
06-02-2005, 06:16 PM
Ok, here’s one a lot of people missed because it started out in the bargain bin. Car Battler Joe for the GBA was a Natsume release and irritatingly enough, exclusive to the US as far as I know. I don’t know if there was a Japanese release or not, but I do know that when I went to buy it in Canada, not only could I not find one, but no one even had it in their computers! Anyway, I finally had to track a copy down thanks to a kind fellow DPer.
When I got the game, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d heard it was good and I knew how hard it was to find, but other than that it was a “racing/RPG” I didn’t know anything about the game itself. Naturally I had to play it, and surprisingly I was instantly hooked! Car Battler Joe is, of course, about a young car battler named Joe. Big shock there huh? Well, the story is about Joe wanting to become a famous car battler like his father, who has mysteriously disappeared. Apparently Joe and his family live in some sort of post-apocalyptic Mad Max-ish sort of world where if you want to actually leave your village you have to have a heavily armed vehicle to fight off all the ruffians. Hell, sometimes the bastards don’t even wait for you to leave the village!
In Car Battler Joe, you are trying to solve the mystery of what happened to your father, as well as raise money to keep your family business going. You take on contracts such as courier, assassin, and many more. Some pay well, some pay diddly squat. You can use the money to upgrade your business, make modifications to your car, and buy items. The game is fairly simple, but where it really shines is the battling. Battling in Car Battler Joe consists of driving around the roads between towns. Invariably, the routes are littered with enemies chasing you left and right, gunning for you at every turn. Small cars, large cars, even bosses lie in wait for you on your perilous journeys to help pathetically helpless townsfolk establish new villages and build your business and reputation. The battles are in a sort of 3D which reminded me quite a bit of the old SNES Mode 7 scaling methods. The cars are fast and the action can be brutal!
The music and graphics are pretty standard for the GBA, and I found some of the music to get tiresome later in the game, but you’ll be too busy having fun to even notice. A racing/destruction game combined with an RPG-style town interface that allows for micro-management of your vehicle turns out to really be a bit of the best of everything. Chances are you’ll find yourself hooked as well! If you can’t find Car Battler Joe in the local bargain bin, you’ll probably have to resort to eBay to grab a copy. Right now, sealed copies are selling for around $20-30 each, and very few are on eBay. Demand is low as no one really heard about the game or knows how good it is. This is one title I expect to skyrocket in price eventually! Fair warning though: The ending to the game is rather lame. It’s the gameplay itself that makes this one good, not the big finish!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3fd5dc14.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/180c96cc.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/63e77966.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8c13f55b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/fe1ae07a.jpg
When I got the game, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d heard it was good and I knew how hard it was to find, but other than that it was a “racing/RPG” I didn’t know anything about the game itself. Naturally I had to play it, and surprisingly I was instantly hooked! Car Battler Joe is, of course, about a young car battler named Joe. Big shock there huh? Well, the story is about Joe wanting to become a famous car battler like his father, who has mysteriously disappeared. Apparently Joe and his family live in some sort of post-apocalyptic Mad Max-ish sort of world where if you want to actually leave your village you have to have a heavily armed vehicle to fight off all the ruffians. Hell, sometimes the bastards don’t even wait for you to leave the village!
In Car Battler Joe, you are trying to solve the mystery of what happened to your father, as well as raise money to keep your family business going. You take on contracts such as courier, assassin, and many more. Some pay well, some pay diddly squat. You can use the money to upgrade your business, make modifications to your car, and buy items. The game is fairly simple, but where it really shines is the battling. Battling in Car Battler Joe consists of driving around the roads between towns. Invariably, the routes are littered with enemies chasing you left and right, gunning for you at every turn. Small cars, large cars, even bosses lie in wait for you on your perilous journeys to help pathetically helpless townsfolk establish new villages and build your business and reputation. The battles are in a sort of 3D which reminded me quite a bit of the old SNES Mode 7 scaling methods. The cars are fast and the action can be brutal!
The music and graphics are pretty standard for the GBA, and I found some of the music to get tiresome later in the game, but you’ll be too busy having fun to even notice. A racing/destruction game combined with an RPG-style town interface that allows for micro-management of your vehicle turns out to really be a bit of the best of everything. Chances are you’ll find yourself hooked as well! If you can’t find Car Battler Joe in the local bargain bin, you’ll probably have to resort to eBay to grab a copy. Right now, sealed copies are selling for around $20-30 each, and very few are on eBay. Demand is low as no one really heard about the game or knows how good it is. This is one title I expect to skyrocket in price eventually! Fair warning though: The ending to the game is rather lame. It’s the gameplay itself that makes this one good, not the big finish!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/3fd5dc14.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/180c96cc.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/63e77966.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/8c13f55b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/maxlords/fe1ae07a.jpg