Medabots AX: Metabee version and Medabots AX: Rokusho version are spin-offs of the original Medabots released in Japan and North America for the Game Boy Advance in 2002.
You play as Ikki Tenryou, who intends to compete in the World Robattle Championships. To qualify, Ikki must battle in and clear the six preliminary areas and all their robattle challenges.
Unlike the previous games, AX is a Fighting Game with both sides using 2 Medabots in battle. Depending on the version, your first proper Medabot is either Metabee or Rokusho. Your second Medabot is a mishmash of random parts with no clear theme. The player controls the Leader Medabot, while the second Medabot is AI controlled. Also unique to these games are the areas, with each having 2 to 3 "floors" to allow multidimensional combat between the 4 Medabots duking it out.
This game provides examples of:
- Absurdly High Level Cap: Medals can reach level 99, but they stop getting new AI commands around level 25. Furthermore, you'll likely finish the game's story around that level.
- Adaptational Badass: The entire cast gets this from the anime because in this game everyone has access to the Medaforce as a Limit Break on command once charged, whereas in the show the Medaforce was only regularly used by a few exceptionally powerful Medabots.
- Amazon Brigade: Several of the female Medafighters, like Karin and Erica, use a pair of female Medabots.
- Awesome, but Impractical: A Full Belzelga kit can dish out enough damage to destroy enemy parts in one hit, but you have to destroy his arms to do that. His headpiece's Revive power is meant to mitigate that by restoring his lost parts, but they come back at low health.
- Booby Trap: The Hunter and Cover-Up head parts set destructive traps for shooting and grappling parts respectively. If the corresponding part tries to attack, the trap inflicts heavy damage and knockback.
- Boss Rush: The World Robattle Championships are a long string of increasingly tough fights. Luckily, you get take a break after each victory to train or save the game.
- Charged Attack: Parts that feature laser weapons tend to have this feature. Holding down the buttons representing the part will give you a more powerful attack after a few seconds, but you'll probably be defenseless during the charge.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Winning the World Robattle Championships is only half the game.
- Homefield Advantage: Medabots with the Smacker (Male) and Purple Fin (Female) parts have an easier time moving underwater. Other legs parts like Ace Hooves (Male) and Queendresser (Female) are unaffected by slopes or other landforms.
- Limit Break: The Medaforce. After suffering enough damage or standing still to charge the Medaforce meter, each Medabot can unleash a powerful technique. Each Medal has a unique ability, so for example the Medaforce can either be a devastating attack or an emergency heal for your Medabots. Damaging Medaforce attacks can pierce Mercy Invincibility.
- Mercy Invincibility: After a Medabot takes sufficient damage, they enter a brief period of invulnerability while recovering from the attack. The only attacks that can harm a Medabot in this state is the Medaforce.
- One Game for the Price of Two: Much like a Pokemon game, the AX titles require you to play both versions of them to have every Medal and Medabot part.
- Permanently Missable Content: While you can normally win multiple versions of the same parts, there's only one set of parts that make a full Metabee, Rokusho, or Arcbeetle kit. Lose even one of them, you'll never get it back.
- Rainbow Pimp Gear: All of the equippable parts are part of a specific Medabot which, when brought together, can complement that particular bot's playstyle as well as looking like an actual character. But it's also highly encouraged to customize and mix and match your parts for specific situations or playstyles, which can result in having a mishmash of multicolored parts and styles on your bot.
- Starter Mon: You begin with a full kit of Metabee or Rokusho parts depending on the version you play.
- Tournament Arc: The plot is for the most part about this. Not just competing in the tournament, but earning the right to participate.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: A match ends when the leader Medabot on a team is destroyed, which for the player is always the one they control.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: After beating the World Robattle Championships, the credits start to roll. Unfortunately for Ikki and the player, that's when the Rubber Robo Gang steal your prize and take over.
