Robotrek (USA) ROM

One of Enix's (and Quintet, of Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma fame) lesser known JRPG offerings, Robotrek is a decent, yet somewhat "childish," turn-based role-playing game experience with a quirky story and an innovative battle system unlike any other SNES RPG title available.

Apparently designed for a younger crowd, Robotrek involves the inventor-protagonist creating and customizing up to three robot fighters to do his bidding (battling, as the protagonist himself does not play a major role in fighting). Robots are customized in a multitude of ways such as backpack and left/right handed weapon selections, and are upgraded by finding spare parts, winning them, or by combining items (but nowhere near rivaling the level of customability in slightly similar mech titles such as Squaresoft's Front Mission series). Furthermore, "program points" are able to be distributed at the whim of player, allowing them to alter an individual robot's stats at any time. This level of customization offers an enriching and satisfyingly complex gameplay experience for an otherwise simplistic game.
Battles are turn-based affairs, using a variation of the ATB system to freely move and perform actions/attacks until their action bar depletes.  Players can only use one robot at a time, but are able to switch them out at will (slightly similar, in a sense, to the currently popular pokemon games).  Bonuses are sometimes accrued for winning battles under a certain amount of time or only using specific attacks to defeat the enemy, a nice feature uncommon to most RPGs.
Robotrek's biggest flaws are also the most superficial; the menu system is absolutely horrendous-looking and awkward to navigate, and the graphics, due to its targeting towards a younger audience, are childish and a bit poorly designed. The story and setting are also lacking. However, despite its simplistic and uninspired plot, Robotrek feels refreshing due to its slightly modernist sci-fi setting, which is completely underused in SNES RPGs (perhaps Enix's Star Ocean and Nintendo's Earthbound being two of the sparse non-traditional offerings).  It is otherwise a typical and unfortunately linear title, though.
To summarize, Robotrek is an enjoyable, innovative, and oftentimes deeply engaging experience, but due to its childish plot and extreme linearity, is ultimately relegated to the mediocre group of SNES JRPGs.  A bit more thought in developing the plot, non-linearity and sidequests, and perhaps a more mature-designed graphical scheme would have made this title great. It definitely warrants a play-through, however, especially if one has exhausted all of the SNES's finer offerings, loves customizeable mech games, or is a fan of the releases of either Enix or Quintet. It's not like any other SNES RPG out there. Therefore, Enix's Robotrek gets omega_b's "passable" rating of approval.