Mecha-Men

Mecha-Men (Japanese: メカメン Hepburn: Mekamen)  is a card game/toy series released by Bandai. The game didn't actually do too well in Japan but it was incredibly successful in American, with the game and its TV show adaption surviving on foreign viewers/players alone.

Gameplay
The game includes a toy robot, named a Mecha-Man, and cards. There are a number of weapons and parts that can be bought and added to the Mecha-Man for some bonuses, with all of the parts coming with their own card to explain how the part works. Each part has its own set amount of hit points (HP) and if a part's HP runs out then that part can no longer be used in the battle.

The way a player wins a battle is by using their Mecha-Man's parts to attack and destroy the enemy Mecha-Man's head/torso's HP, upon doing so they are declared the victor. The Mecha-Man's parts can also be swapped in the middle of matches as long as the player has the appropriate card to do so, with both the parts and the cards being held in an item called a "Stand", which the Mecha-Man can be attached to by their feet.

The player must also worry about certain debuffs that can be added to their Mecha-Man by adding certain parts. For example, adding too many energy-based weapons to the Mecha-Man will give them a weakness to fire as it will overheat or some parts will give them a weakness against water, causing it to short-circuit. The game also features three statistics (stats) that will either raise or lower depending on the robot's parts.

Those three stats are the before mentioned HP, attack (AK), and defense (DF). All Mecha-Men start off with a certain amount of attack and defense and both of these come into play during matches, as an enemy will be unable to do damage to a robot if the robot's DF is higher than the enemy's AK. However, there are also many attacks in the game that targets DF specifically, allowing a robot to lower their enemy's DF until it is low enough for their attack to do damage on them. It is also possible to draw cards that increase a Mecha-Man's HP, AK, or DF by a set amount.

TV Show Adaption
Main article: Mecha-Men (TV Series)

The game has an adaptation that takes place in a world similar to our own. In the world of the show, the most popular sport of earth is Mecha-Men fighting, where two people attempt to win a battle with their Mecha-Man.

Series Synopsis
The series follows a small group of teens attempting to get into Mecha-Men fighting for the first time. One of their members, a girl by the name of Ann Tomochika, picks a broken down Mecha-Man from yesteryear who she takes a liking to. She swears to use the Mecha-Man, who she names Kibo, to become the number one Mecha-Men fighter in the world, facing many challenges along the way.

Notes & Trivia

 * It is not a requirement to actually have the Mecha-Man toy itself to play the game, though it is recommended to have them for better enjoyment of the game.