Car Battler Joe

Car Battler Joe is an obscure Game Boy Advance Action RPG published by Natsume. Yes, the Harvest Moon company.

The plot is fairly standard--you, Joe, must find your missing father by traveling the wastelands and dropping off cargo between towns, entering tournaments along the way.

What makes the game unique is the action-oriented battle system and the sheer amount of customization available--there are over 3 million part combinations. All cars have weapons attached, used with the GBA's shoulder buttons, and you can employ both those and traps to wreck your opponents' cars.


 * Action RPG
 * Adjective Noun Fred
 * Ancestral Weapon: Joe's G-COM that weaponizes his car was a gift from his father.
 * Collision Damage: Only in the first battle, though, as you're using a regular car.
 * Cool Car
 * Chainsaw Good: A couple weapons are saws of various types.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: All those Save Points? They all have different expositional information.
 * Disappeared Dad
 * Easing Into the Adventure
 * Fiery Redhead: Joe.
 * Guide Dang It: Playing without the instruction manual can be difficult as many items have short labels, and unless you're familiar with cars, some terms may be confusing.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: This goes for Joe and Pal.
 * Heroic Mime: Pal speaks for Joe.
 * The Hero's Birthday: The game begins on Joe's sixteenth birthday.
 * In the Blood: "You're pretty good at this, kid! Must be your father's genes..."
 * Just a Kid
 * Justified Tutorial: Joe's never driven a weaponized car before. Thankfully, they're also skippable.
 * Like Father, Like Son
 * Mecha Game
 * Nominal Importance: Joe's father gets a name, Jim Todoroki, while his mother doesn't.
 * Robot Buddy: The aptly-named Pal.
 * Save Point: Various Link Points, which also double as an in-game library.
 * Serious Business
 * Vehicular Combat
 * Weaponized Car: Every car in the game.
 * X Meets Y: Pokémon meets Mad Max.