In the next year, Nintendo’s brand new portable console, the GameBoy Advance, was released. NOISE soon started developing the next installment in the Custom Robo series for the GBA, that’d be released in 2002. Custom Robo GX was the name of the series’ adaptation for a portable console, now with 2D battles and other changes made to fit into the GBA’s smaller screen and lower processing power, such as removing the character from the overworld map and the individual areas. Now, the player had to navigate the world map with a cursor, similar to those of the Megami Tensei games, and select which specific area of a location you’d like to visit in a menu. This was the first game in the series that Nintendo had localization plans for, but, for an unknown reason, it was never completed.

Custom Robo (GC) american cover.

Two years later, in 2004, the most famous release in the series, Custom Robo: Battle Revolution, or only Custom Robo in the west, made its way to the GameCube. Back with the explorable overworld, new characters and robot parts, the game didn’t bring many new ideas to the table, mostly improving of what was previously done in the series. Saleswise, it was well received worlwide, achieving 400.000+ copies sold globally, with mixed reviews both in America and in Japan. With great sales, the series was finally establishing its foot in the west.

At the same time, a sequel to the GBA game, named Custom Robo GX 2, was being developed by NOISE aiming for a late 2005 release, at the end of the GBA’s life cycle. But, because of Nintendo’s newest portable console at the time, the Nintendo DS, already being a reality, the game was cancelled in favor of developing a DS game in the series.