Robotrek

Robotrek, released as Slapstick (スラップスティック, Surappusutikku) in Japan, is a role-playing video game released in 1994. It was published by Enix and developed by Quintet and Ancient for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As its Japanese name implies, Robotrek was intended as a humorous game. Designed to appeal to a younger audience, Robotrek's main focus is on allowing the player to raise up to three robots which are built from spare parts that may be found, gained through battles, or generated by the player by means of the game's item combination system. Next Generation describes it as a predecessor to the core idea of Pokémon in the sense that the protagonist does not himself fight, but sends out his robots to do so. Like Pokémon, each robot was kept in a ball.