Genre blending has been a pretty big trend lately. Action/adventure mixed with driving, role playing mixed with just about anything, and now fighting mixed with the Pokemon-style collection RPG. Gotcha Force is a 3D fighting game where players control a force in an open, interactive environment and battle enemies from all angles, all while collecting new fighters to add to their force.

It all begins when a boy named Kou finds a mysterious figurine. The figurine can talk, and it tells him that he is a Gotcha Borg named G-Red and that more of him are scattered around his town. As Kou runs into his friends he discovers that they all have Gotcha Borgs too. As you battle friend and foe, the plot unfolds.

Ok, so the plot sounds silly, but don’t let that affect your opinion just yet; as with any other game, the gameplay is the most important part. The game is set up like this: As you collect Borgs, you organize them into forces. You then take your force to battle against either a computer’s or a friend’s force. You can have up to two forces per team, and each player controls one Borg at a time. When the first Borg of a force is defeated, the next in line comes out and you fight until you’re out of Borgs. There are lot more details to it all, which I will go into further.

When creating a force, you are limited to the amount of Gotcha Force (GF) Energy you can use. Each Borg requires a certain amount of GF Energy; usually the bigger ones need more while the smaller ones don’t need as much. As you play through Story Mode and defeat enemy Borgs, the amount of GF Energy you can use goes up. For example, towards the beginning of the game you only have about 800 GF Energy points. G-Red costs 300, a Claw Robot costs 350, and a Ninja costs 150, so that would be all of your 800-point team. Later on you can unlock really big Gotcha Borgs like dragons that cost over 1000 points each.

Gotcha Force features over 200 different Borgs you can acquire, so with that many at your disposal you can easily come up with a lot of different forces. Luckily Gotcha Force gives you 20 slots to create forces in, each with 30 slots for Borgs, leaving tons of room to play around with different combinations. To help organize the forces you create, you can name each force as well. 

Each Borg is extremely unique and has their own set of attacks and abilities. The design of each Borg is very creative and no two Borgs look alike. Each fighter has a normal attack and a special attack. Other Borgs also have melee attacks and charge attacks that make their regular attacks even more powerful. There are Borgs that are powerhouses, Borgs that are quick, and also support Borgs that can heal allies or affect the status of their enemies.

Story Mode is where you will unlock more Borgs, so that’s where you’ll be spending most of your time. The objectives in Story Mode never really change – you just battle waves of enemies until you’ve defeated them all. At the end of each battle, depending on your performance, you’ll most likely earn new Borgs. The more times you play through Story Mode, the more Borgs you will earn and the rarer they will be. The really rare Borgs take some work to unlock, however, since you unlock them parts at a time. These parts are called data crystals, and it can take anywhere from 2 to 4 data crystals of a certain Borg to finally unlock them.

Aside from Story Mode there is also a Challenge and Versus Mode. In Challenge Mode you can either team up with a computer controlled force or a friend and battle endless waves of enemies until you are defeated. Each time you defeat an enemy force, a stronger one comes. This is a great mode to test out a new force or team up with a friend and see how good your forces fight together. Versus Mode allows up to 4 players to test their force and skill against each other.

Gotcha Force also has a trade feature, allowing you to trade Borgs and data crystals with friends. Since the Borgs you unlock throughout the game are somewhat random, each person that plays the game is going to have Borgs that other players don’t have. Trading allows you to get Borgs that you otherwise would have had to wait much longer for.

The controls in Gotcha Force are nice and simple. Left and right dash your character left and right, A jumps (or for certain Borgs A makes them fly or use a jetpack), B is the primary attack, and X is the more powerful secondary attack. L and R cycle through targets, and the Z button allows you to monitor where your ally is. The controls feel a lot like Virtua On; since you stay locked onto your target at all times you’re mostly strafing and firing. Sometimes the jump button doesn’t feel very responsive, but it’s not often enough to ruin the experience.

The graphics are pretty plain, but the Borgs sport a lot of detail. You can see all the intricate design that went into some of the Borgs on the Borg’s spec screen. The environments are blown up places around town, such as a construction site, a boy’s room, a skate park, and a classroom, for example.

The sound effects are good, but the music and voice acting can get pretty annoying. Not all the music is bad, but some of the places you spend most of your time at (like when building your force) it gets really old. All the blaster noises and explosions sound really good, though, and you don’t notice the battle music too much once you get into the fight.

Gotcha Force has a kiddie look to it, but it’s such a fast, action-packed game that I don’t see a young child having quick enough reflexes to really enjoy the game. The game is so fun to play, and there are so many Borgs to unlock, that this game could last for quite some time. It’s even more fun if you have a friend that’s also playing through the game, cause then you have someone to trade with and test your force against. Gotcha Force is entirely underrated and deserves a look.

Gameplay: 8.7
Even though the battles are the same thing over and over, it’s just plain fun to fight. No one ever complained about Power Stone or Virtua On – Gotcha Force is in the same vein as these fighters. Four players duking it out in an open, interactive environment is fun! Plus, with all the Borgs to unlock, there’s a reason to play it more than once.

Graphics: 8 
The textures are solid colors and the levels are made of simple shapes, but tons of detail went into the Borgs. Different backpacks, mounted guns, wings, blades, etc. are equipped on each Borg making them look battle-ready and just plain cool.

Sound: 5.6
The soundtrack and voice acting could definitely use some work, but not all the music is terrible and the sound effects fit perfectly.

Difficulty: Medium
Story Mode starts out really easy, but soon you realize that was just to get you used to the gameplay. It quickly begins to pick up and enemy Gotcha Borgs become more aggressive and quick. It’s still not super hard, but it’s definitely a challenge.  

Concept: 8.8 
I think the all out melee multiplayer games are great. It’s a nice departure from the technical fighting games that are coming out these days: just dodge and fire. Having a huge environment is cool too, cause then when a giant Borg joins the fight it takes the fight to a whole new scale.

Multiplayer: 9
Gotcha Force is a great multiplayer game. It allows players to show off the force they have created using their own Borgs and put it to the test. The trading option is also very nice, cause now you and your friend can increase your collection faster than if you were on your own.

Overall: 8.5
Gotcha Force has to be the most underrated, overlooked game of the year. Ever since Power Stone died with the Dreamcast, there hasn’t really been an entertaining 3D four-person melee fighting game. Gotcha Force takes the Power Stone-type genre to the next level by allowing players to create their own custom team out of hundreds of available fighters to pick from. Some gamers may get sick of the fighting after awhile, but I think most will be pleased with how much fun it is.