Gotcha Force
GameCube
Game Analysis
Written by DJ Hadoken Exlamparaaghis
Edited by GamerCurls
Overall Objective
Collect and train Gotcha Borgs to assemble a powerful force to defeat the evil
Galactic Emperor and the Death Force from planet Mega Borg.
Level Objective
Defeat all enemy Gotcha Borgs.
Basic Rule Set
Gotcha Force (alternate spelling: Gacha Force) focuses heavily upon collecting miniature robots called
“Gotcha Borgs” and mastering control of them in order to develop the best
“force”. The player controls a single Gotcha Borg in a stage that is more or
less shaped like a cube. The controls are fairly straightforward and easy to grasp. The A button is used to jump and “boost jump”. The B button is used for primary attacks and can be held down for charge attacks. The X button is used for special attacks and can also be held down for charge attacks.
The Y button is used for “Power Burst” which allows for the player and the player’s teammate to go into a “super mode” where the Gotcha Borgs’ speed and power are increased for a limited time (with the recharge time of their weapons being greatly reduced).
In order to go into Power Burst in two player mode, both teammates must press the Y button simultaneously. If the player is playing by themselves, then pressing the Y button will automatically activate Power Burst.
The player can dodge attacks by double-tapping the analog stick in any direction.
Before battles, the player can edit their force which they will use for battle. The amount of Gotcha Borgs a player can have in their force is determined by the player’s “GF Energy” which increases after every battle by about 10 points. Gotcha Borgs usually cost about 100 points and above.
Only one Gotcha Borg can be controlled by the player at a time. When the Gotcha Borg is destroyed, the next Gotcha Borg on their force will be called out.
The player loses when all of their Gotcha Borgs have been defeated.
Characters’ Moves
Each Gotcha Borg has its own unique moves and controls. For example, some Gotcha
Borgs use charge moves, while others are close range, and others are long range.
Other Gotcha Borgs (such as dragons and jets) can only fly in the air and their
moves consist of primarily dropping bombs or breathing fire on their opponents.
Some attacks will automatically lock onto opponents, while others must be timed
correctly or properly aimed.In addition to this, some Gotcha Borgs have the ability to combine with other Gotcha Borgs when they go into Power Burst, which introduces a new control scheme for the combined Borgs; a short-range “Machine Borg” may become a long-range Borg when combined with another Machine Borg.
Enemies
The enemies that the player first encounters in this game are the standard Death
Force units, which consist of very weak Gotcha Borgs. These Death Force units
are easy to identify in a battle because they are always colored black and
red.Soon however, the player’s enemies in battles will become regular Gotcha Borgs. Some bosses are exceptionally larger than the player’s own Gotcha Borgs, such as the Galactic Emperor, which is a giant ship that the player must jump on and attack in order to defeat.
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Power-ups
The only power-up that occurs in this game is when a player goes into Power
Burst. Other than that, power-ups generally do not exist for Gotcha Borgs, with
the exception of certain Gotcha Borgs that have the ability to transform and
become more powerful after their gauge has charged.
Items of Interest
Weapons
There are no weapons that a player can pick up during a battle. The player must
rely on the weapons that their Gotcha Borg’s come equipped with, which can range
anything from melee weapons, lasers, rockets, to status altering weapons, such
as poison attacks.
Equipment
There is no equipment that a player can pick up during a battle or collect in
order to increase the stats of their Gotcha Borgs.
Interface Screen
The interface screen of a battle consists of two bars at the top left,
indicating the player’s along with their ally’s combined GF Energy and another
bar which indicates the same for the opposing team’s GF Energy. These bars
decrease as Gotcha Borgs are defeated.At the top right of the screen is the Power Burst meter. At the bottom left of the screen is an indicator of the player’s Gotcha Borg’s remaining health.
When a Gotcha Borg jumps, a jump gauge will appear at the center bottom of the screen. This gauge indicates how much time the Gotcha Borg has to continue jumping.
The bottom right of the screen indicates the status of the different Gotcha Borgs’ weapons. Sometimes there will be a charge gauge for the X or B button, or both. This area also indicates the amount of ammo remaining for a Gotcha Borg if they have a long range weapon. When it reaches 0, there is a gauge that recharges. The Gotcha Borg cannot use that specific attack until the gauge is fully recharged.
There is a Target Cursor in the center of the screen, which will change from yellow to red when a player’s Gotcha Borg is close enough to attack an opponent. The player can switch targets by tapping the R button. The player’s Gotcha Borg and camera will automatically face in the direction of the target.
Outside of the gameplay, the player can navigate the main world map to select which areas they would like to battle in next. There are icons in different areas indicating a new battle and what type of battle it is. Yellow exclamation points indicate normal battles, while red exclamation points indicate difficult and special battles. There are also icons that represent team battles and training battles with computer allies. Other icons indicate boss battles.
Game Play Element
Time
For the most part, there is no presence of a time limit in this game. In the
later stages, time plays an essential role when the player is fighting against
the Gotcha Borgs which have the ability to transform and combine with one
another. It is pivotal for the player to defeat these Gotcha Borgs before they
enter into Power Burst and combine with one another, becoming much more powerful
and regaining their health.Interestingly, there also exist certain Gotcha Borgs that have the ability to freeze time in the game, allowing them to freely attack enemy Gotcha Borgs.
Triggered Events
After about 10 levels or so, the player will fight a boss battle and then the
map will be updated with harder challenges. This persists until they have
reached the final boss battle and finished the game.When the player has finished the game, they are allowed to play from the beginning once again with the Borgs they have collected. As the player completes the game multiple times, new rare Gotcha Borgs will be unlocked.
There are many allies which will join the player in the story mode. Most of the time, they will only join the player if the player is first able to defeat them in battle. The player will continue to gain allies until the end of the game.
Implementation
A.I.
The A.I. of this game is well balanced, and aside from the boss battles,
difficult to predict. The computer opponent’s teams also use teamwork to fight
the player, and even in the easier battles, it can still pose a challenge.
Though the player may frequently be outnumbered by opponents, the game is
balanced enough so that the player still has a chance to win. Before a battle, the player can usually choose their computer (ally) teammate or can opt to have no teammate. Some allies are more powerful than others. Each ally specializes in a certain “species” of Gotcha Borg. For example, Mana’s force consists of Nurse Borg types which will heal the player during battles. Kakeru’s force consists of Ninja Borgs which will help the player by attacking enemy Gotcha Borgs.
Procedural Content
The game follows a set story path, there really are not any ways that the game
deviates from this path or generates any random content in the form of side
quests or battles.The only true randomness in this game comes from the collection of the Gotcha Borgs themselves. The player can collect Gotcha Borgs by defeating them in battle. After a battle, if the player has captured a new Gotcha Borg, a screen will display what they have captured.
Some rare Gotcha Borgs require the player to collect capsules, which can also be collected by defeating Gotcha Borgs in battle. Once the player has collected a certain amount of capsules for a certain type of Gotcha Borg, the capsules will combine and the player will have gained that Borg.
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Player Investment
Character Empathy
One of the finer points of Gotcha Force is the player’s own connection to
the characters. As the plot develops, the characters become an important part of
this fast-paced game, as the player gains allies and tries to develop the skills
needed to win the final battle. The characters demand empathy with their cries during battle and there is a certain happy connection one receives from collecting the Borgs. They repeatedly prove their usefulness with so many different techniques of fighting. When damage is inflicted upon the player’s Gotcha Borgs, they may quickly be led to feel sorry for them and to curse their opponent.
As the game progresses, a person can easily spend long hours or patches of free time, testing out combinations of teams, and soaring through levels.
Gotcha Borgs become a part of the player themselves, and each battle won becomes a hard-earned investment. The player tends to gain a lot of appreciation for the Borgs, and their different skills and downfalls (since all creatures have flaws, why not Borgs?) that only make the player want to make them better, so they can prove to be of use to them in one tactic or another.
Symbiosis of Story & Design
Somewhere in the solar system exists a planet called Mega Borg, inhabited by
palm-sized robots called Gotcha Borgs. One day, a boy on Earth named Kou
discovers a Gotcha Borg named G-Red who has traveled across the galaxy in
pursuit of the evil Death Force, which is trying to take over the galaxy under
the leadership of the Galactic Emperor. Kou and G-Red decide to join forces in
order to stop the Galactic Emperor from carrying out his plans. One of the classic staples of Japanese animation and story is robots taking over the world, and Gotcha Force easily falls into the category of something that stepped out of Japan. With its oh-no-the-world-is-being-taken-over-by-miniature-robots story, it really should be no surprise that the design would reflect the Japanese anime style.
This game appears to have been made for the Pokémon audiences, but expanded in interests to try to bring in an even wider audience, and establish itself as something definitely not Pokémon. Its fast-paced battle system and challenging collection system makes the game design addictive and surprisingly very plot driven.
It is interesting to note, that through the process of the game, the Gotcha Borgs’ GF Energy (the main source of power for their attacks) fluctuates as a representation of the player’s courage. Because the story drives that the Borgs rely heavily on the main character, the main character becomes the source of the Borgs’ power and compels them into action. This affects the story, design and character empathy, all in one blow.
The player wants to try harder and therefore, the Borg wants to try harder. Gotcha Force succeeds in tying its story and design together in a way that is, honestly, not unique, but in a way that works, and that has been proven to work.
Symbiosis of Design & Art
In staying with the Japanese themes, the anime style flows very nicely with the
design of the game, and in turn, flows with the story. The cartoon shaded
characters in-game, and the art of the opening and inserted cut scenes flow
nicely together, tying together what could have been an otherwise disastrous
merge of two art styles.The merging of the level designs and art keep the levels looking simple, and yet providing places to find cover or to gain a height advantage over an opponent, and become useful at enabling the player to place their location on the map.
The art itself is flashy and bright, keeping the player’s eyes moving around the screen in an interesting mix of 2D and 3D art, all of which is designed to be objects from every day life... enlarged to give the player the impression of just how small the Borgs really are in comparison to their world.
The bright colors spill over, not only in the game areas, but onto the menus, which use mechanical looking objects in their design element. It all tends to flow in a way that brings everything together enough to center the focus on the story and characters, rather than making the eye have to search out desperately for something to lock on to that will not drive the player insane.
The game is interestingly very similar to our previous analysis, Puyo Pop Fever, with its brilliant colors and attention-grabbing graphics, as well as its very childish, yet for-everyone appeal.
Player Perspective
Target Audience
The target audience of Gotcha Force is aimed more towards the younger gamers of
about twelve to sixteen, with its bright color scheme and fast-pace to create
excitement with no build up - so there is no patience or long attention span
required to play and understand what is going on.The gameplay has no complexity to it aside from variations in movement speed, attack power, and a few abilities like being able to fly, or use a melee weapon at any range. It is very easy to pick up and play for a round or two and then stop (much like a classic arcade game).
The game is not just for younger gamers, however, as it is still plenty of fun for older gamers because of the number of Gotcha Borgs that can be collected, adding depth while the co-op and versus modes allow players to challenge each other and play with friends.
The simple square maps players fight on, and the varying cut outs on the overall level map, create an almost RPG-ish style that suggest to audiences a nostalgic moment from past games, then pushes them forward into the high tension action game that Gotcha Force really is.
The game truly succeeds in being a game that appeals to a large audience, offering its advanced designs and simple story. Some may play it for the story, others for the collecting, and others simply for the fun, high tension battles.
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Difficulty Progression
In Gotcha Force, the difficulty progression is fairly gradual, and there
are no sudden spikes around a level or single character. The beginning levels
are very easy and allow the player sufficient time to grasp the game’s basic
concepts and learn the controls.As the stages are conquered, new enemy Gotcha Borgs appear that have the potential to cause higher amounts of damage to increase the difficulty as the player becomes familiar with all of the game’s arenas and Gotcha Borgs. Although there are no sudden spikes in difficulty, the range of power between the different Gotcha Borgs allows for quick victories and the domination of one team over another.
However, the boss stages may present a much greater challenge than the player may have experienced beforehand. If the player has a strong enough force of Gotcha Borgs and they conquer a boss, the world map resets itself with more challenging battles.
Replay Value
The game has a high replay value with the 200+ Gotcha Borgs that can be unlocked
for play. The game makes trading Gotcha Borgs between memory cards simple, and
encourages friends to unlock different characters and then trade them.There is a character screen that shows all of the possible Gotcha Borgs that can be unlocked and which ones the player currently has. This creates visible goals for the player to work towards by playing through the game again and again.
There are a lot of action games out there now that deal with much more dramatic, darker subjects and it is starting to become surprisingly hard to find games like Gotcha Force and Puyo Pop Fever that offer mind-numbing hours of entertainment (like what you would find on free internet gaming sites).
So why not just go play those? Well, for one, free games online tend to lack the involvement and investment people crave. There is something appealing to players about the time and effort developers are able to put into a game built with an actual budget in contrast to some simple game another developer may have built on a Sunday afternoon.
The addiction value of Gotcha Force is very reminiscent of the internet gaming industry, just without all the pop-ups and loading times, not to mention that the player does not have to worry about lag or their computer going on the fritz when they have reached level 50 of a game that they cannot save.
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