Officially, Gotcha Force is a game for kids. That is fair enough. It is bright and cheerful and full of cartoon children who save the world while all the grownups are off doing their taxes. It is silly and friendly and utterly uncynical. It is all about tiny wee space robots and their evil space adversaries from space. Kids will be on it like white on rice.

Many grownups will be too. Gotcha Force is plain old fun. It puts you in command of a fleet of robots and charges you with laying the smackdown on another fleet of robots. It is loud and bangy. It is full of flickery electronic explosions that will make your eyes water and, if you are tired, will also give you involuntary facial tics. It is fast, dumb, noisy and easy to pick up, which puts it leagues ahead of most everything else on the shelves at your local Gamer Hut.

But there is more here than plain old blowing things up. Gotcha Force is nuts. It is crazy. It is confusing and it makes no sense and it will disorient you. Mostly this is a matter of culture shock. The game's Japanese roots run deep, and it avoids Western pop-culture touchstones altogether. To play the game is to feel a bit like Bill Murray on the set of that talk show in Lost in Translation, to soak in something colourful and friendly and, well, alien.

This is not a profound thing, but it is fun. You watch Iron Chef and Most Extreme Elimination Challenge for the same reason.

Here is the story of Gotcha Force. One day on the planet Mega Borg, a race of friendly and cheerful robots lived happily. They came in many shapes and sizes. Some of them had giant drill bits for arms. Some of them had big laser guns attached to their heads. Some had jet boots that allowed them to jump high into the sky. Some had wings. Some carried chainsaws, just in case anything needed cutting down. Their society was just and peaceful and enameled in bright primary colours.

Then some evil space robots (who were painted in slightly less garish tones) attacked. For easy reference, they were called "Death Force." They took the robots of Mega Borg by surprise, and before anyone could call for negotiations, Mega Borg was gone. Reduced to rubble. Dust. Space dust.

Many of the friendly space robots survived the attack. Now collectively known as "Gotcha Force," they followed Death Force out into space, hoping to prevent any further destruction. As you may have already guessed, their travels took them directly to Earth. There, in a pleasant suburb called "Safari Town," Death Force was already setting up shop and plotting more wickedness.

Gotcha Force quickly made contact with the local kids, seeking help and shelter and... Um. Actually, it is not at all clear why Gotcha Force needed the kids. They were fierce robots and the kids were not. But the kids were glad to help, and they made a bit of a game of collecting the robots of Gotcha Force and making them fight against each other for fun.

What does this mean for you, the player? It means that Gotcha Force the game is equal parts fighting loud blasty battles and quietly managing a collection of toys. It is a bit like Pokémon, inasmuch as you build a library of chirpy things and try to figure out the best way to have them fight with each other, balancing their strengths and skills and powers against their opponents'. But it is completely unlike Pokémon too, because rather than just watching the critters trading blows you are out there in the thick of things, pulling the trigger to fire your rayguns and pushing the button to spray deadly blasts out of your wrists.

Think of it as Pokémon with all the boring parts removed. And with guns. And with more taunting.