Review #524: Digimon Battle Spirit

 Girls just want to have fun and Digimon just want to battle.

Sure, you lil' Guilmon, sure, you do stand a chance.

 There was this weird little handheld called the WonderSwan Color that happened to get a ton of Digimon games, the one in the picture as well, but, as luck would have it, the Battle Spirit series would find a home on the Gameboy Advance as well. These were fighting games of sorts, with the objective being collecting more pellets than the opponent, as opposed to beating the data out of them.

 The game has only two modes 1P and 2P. For obvious reasons I couldn't try 2P, but I got 1P and it's a simple series of one on one battles until you get to the boss. In this game there are no lives or life bars, instead, every time you hit an enemy blue orbs will be knocked out of it, which you must then collect before they disappear in order to score points. The same is true if you get hit, albeit red orbs will be dropped. Either combatant can also pick up the very same orbs they dropped in order prevent the enemy from getting them. It's a weird idea, and one that lends itself to needlessly long bouts, as matches can't be shorter than 90 seconds. Matches take places on relatively large areas, filled with enemy fodder Digimon that exists to try to hit either player, as well as various platforms to hide or escape to in order to get some breathing room.

The final boss is hard until you figure him out, after which he turns into a total pushover.

 The character roster is alright. On your first booting up of the game you'll have access to Guilmon, Terriermon and Renamon, representing Tamers, Veemon and Wormon standing up for 02 and Agumon alongside Gabu... nope, alongside Sukamon being the reps from 01. Yes, Sukamon. Why, I do not know. That said, you can eventually unlock Impmon, the only 'mon without a Digivolution, Lopmon and BlackAgumon from 02 and a third Agumon that gets unlocked alongside a Gabumon, both having the same Omnimon Digivolution. Considering it's a GBA cart, they did a good job of getting main characters to represent their series, although Sukamon's presence is questionable to say the least.

 A button jumps, R button is a taunt and B is used to attack. If you hold up or dash before pressing B you'll get different attacks, and you can used directions and the B button to perform different attacks while on the air. Honestly, it's not a very fun game since the gameplay is relatively limited. The real kicker is that about a minute into the match Culumon will appear on the screen. The CPU always knows where he is, although the camera is so zoomed in on your character that you won't know where he is, the thing is... touching Culumon is what makes you Digivolve for a few seconds time. Whoever gets to digivolve basically wins the match, except the CPU since it's dumb, as every single hit will make the opponent drop 4 orbs, as well as being faster, with better jumps and more range on your attacks, some even having homing properties, all the while becoming invulnerable. It does't matter how much of a lead the winning player's got, if the opponent gets to digivolve and is mildly competent, he'll close the gap and win the match.

Even final-stage 'mons look brilliant.

 The one area of the game that deserves praise is the graphics. Characters were faithfully rendered in this simplified, cartoony style, and they look fantastic. Animation is great too, and they really managed to make each character come to life.... although it would've been nice if characters could've gotten a larger repertoire of moves.

 Digimon Battle Spirit leaves a lot to be desired, but if you're a fan of the franchise it might be an interesting rental(because apparently 'rentals' are still a thing. Because apparently you can still rent GBA games. Sue me.) at least. If what you wanted was a fighting game with multi-leveled arenas, there're better games out there, like the Rave Master GBA game, so if you don't care for the Digimon franchise... then there's nothing here for you.
 4.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Samurai Shodown - Warriors Rage

 The most underrated fighter on the PS1?

As per SNK's standards, character design is top-notch.

 I buckled up and prepared for the worse. Reviews hadn't been kind, and I had played Fatal Fury Wild Ambition, I knew that SNK's early 3-D days hadn't been the best. And so I went into training mode and picked that Kuki guy. Strong slashed caused this weird pause on the game, geeze, it wasn't looking hot.

 And thus I went into Story mode and picked Jin-Emon, because I always like getting the characters I like the least out of the way first. And.... and I started having fun. The game is really good. People complained about the three tiered-life bar being a gimmick, but it's an interesting one! Landing hits feels nice, the action isn't as fast as, say Rival Schools, but it's not as slow as your average Samurai Shodown game either. It's good. It's REALLY good.

 My one complaint the is the length of the Story Mode. The fights drag on and on and on, you even have to face a few opponents twice and, sometimes, 5-man gauntlets. The story mode shouldn't have been so bland.

Review #523: Digimon Rumble Arena 2

 Super Smash Digimon.

Greymon wins every time. Every time!

 Do you remember Digimon Rumble Arena? You probably don't, it was this little 1 on 1 2-D fighting game starring Digimon on the PS1. Well, Bandai took a completely unrelated Digimon game and localized it as a sequel, which is rather fitting since it's sorta similar... even if it's more of a Smash Clone.

 As previously stated this is a Smash Bros. clone, meaning that battles include up to four different combatants, taking place on relatively large, 2-D environments, featuring stage hazards as well as a few power-ups to change the tide of battle in your favor. Although, to be fair, there aren't many different power ups in this game. There're only three different modes: Arcade, a 8-stage ladder where you'll unlock every character, stage and ruleset, VS, in which you can battle up to three other players, CPUs or a mix of both under a decent variety of rules(Basic Timed matches, KO matches, to more bizarre rules like collecting the most digi eggs or capturing Culumon for points.) and lastly a Practice mode.

Digimon on the Wild West. I guess that makes sense.

 There were a few short sights when it came to designing the game. For instance, you can't have mirror matches since no two player can play as the same Digimon, which is very lame. And for as many quirky rulests that you can play under, there's no way to play in teams, it's always a free for all in here. Your mileage may vary on the character roster, you get all 8 classic Digimon from Adventure 01, but only Veemon represents Adventure 02 and only Guilmon represents Tamers. There're a few Frontier Digimon, the series that was on TV at the time, as well as an unlockable Omnimon and Duskmon from the movie, lastly, we get Black versions of Guilmon, Agumon and Gabumon, each having at least a single different attack from their normal counterparts. Most characters get two Digievolutions, starting on their Rookie form, to their Champion form and then their Mega.. or Ultimate if they didn't have a Mega on their show. Character balance is a bit iffy, particularly since most unlockable characters stay on their Mega form, but you can tinker with handicaps to even the odds.

 First thing to take into account is that like most Smash Clones... it feels a bit cheap. Physics don't feel quite right, as if everything lacked weight. The game isn't the most beautiful thing either, featuring some rather ugly animations. Regardless, you get a normal attack button, with X, that can be couple with different directions to produce different attacks, and a special attack button, Square, that can produce three different special moves. You can also grab enemies with Circle, jump with X or block with R1. Landing hits makes enemies drop digi-eggs which, when collected, increase your digivolution gauge, fill it to the top and you can press R1 to digivolve and get an entirely different moveset. Once you get to your final Digivolution, filling the gauge is done to perform an Ultra attack. Be careful, if you lose a life you drop a digivolution stage back.

Your mileage may vary on the character roster. Hopefully you enjoyed season 01!

 It's not the best Smash clone around nor the best Digimon game out there, but if you enjoy the franchise you'll probably get a kick out of it. It's kinda sad that they decided to focus on adding quirky rulesets that nobody will ever play instead of giving us basics such as team battles or mirror matches, c'mon, everyone wants to have a Palmon VS Palmon VS Palmon VS Palmon! All in all, it's far from perfect, and it fails to get the physics just quite right, but most of the basic gameplay feels relatively well, if a bit low-budget-y.

 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Digimon Battle Spirit

 More Digimon!

Poor Guilmon doesn't stand a chance against Mega-level Wargreymon.

 Yeah... there's more Digimon coming up on this blog! Battle Spirit is a game that I played quite a bit on emulators back when I was younger. I don't remember liking it too much, but it was certainly memorable.

 I've already cleared the game with two 'mons, and the game is... alrightish. The character roster is great, the graphics are beautiful and the core game is decent... it's only that whoever gets the Digivolution basically wins the game. It's not even funny. There's also a single single player mode which is just ridiculous.

 Basically, it's got charm, it's got style but it's got no substance.

Review #522: Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands(Nintendo DS)

 After these games, Ubisoft did seem to forget about the Prince...

The Prince won't even smile on the DS' cover, despite the kiddy art direction.

 Not content with trying to revive the Prince on home consoles at the time, Ubisoft gave it another go on the DS. For those not in the know, the Prince had had two appearances on the DS before, the misguided Battles of Prince of Persia and The Fallen King. The Forgotten Sands on the DS takes after the latter, a game that was welcomed with very low scores and much scorn, both due to its silly aesthetics and stylus-only controls.

 You play as our beloved Prince, having fallen victim to a cult's ceremony which robbed him of his memories. Luckily, he comes across his blade, which is possessed by a friendly djinn who'll aid the Prince throughout all 40-or so stages. The story is barely present, although it has a few nice pieces of artwork. Sadly, the game's graphics are very... childish, you play as a cute, tiny version of the Prince as he defeats other cutesy enemies while avoiding razor-sharp blades.

Even when swarmed.. the game is relatively easy.

 The game is played entirely with the Stylus, for good and bad. The game feels very automatic as a result, since you just tap and hold to the right or left of the Prince and he'll automatically run there, automatically jumping over any gap on his way, or run on walls when needed. You'll also need to roll, by double tapping on the screen, which barely works when needed, as well as jump from wall to wall, which sometimes the Prince has trouble realizing that you want him to jump from the wall he is clinging to. Controls work about 85% of the time, which frankly is something to be proud about. The developers deserve some praise for managing to cram so many of the Prince's actions onto the stylus, you'll be doing a lot of stylish platforming, like jumping from moving pole to moving pole and then land on a platform and then quickly wall jumping before the ground falls beneath your feet. A lot of the excitement from the console game's parkour segments has been replicated here, which is nothing short of fantastic.

 The game fares a bit worse on the combat department, the game will read your slashes as taps most of the time, which will make you vault over the enemy instead of slashing him. Not that it really matters since combat is so easy, like most of the game. You also get a few Time powers, like slowing down time or rewinding time, but the latter is a bit wonky, to say the least. The game's rewind length is hard to pinpoint, so sometimes it won't be able to go as far back as you need to save yourself. Another time, after rewinding time, it propelled me beyond the stage's bounds, which made me die upon falling back to the ground. It feels very janky, like it needed more polishing. There's also an ungodly amount of waiting, since the game will engage in short, but numerous and unskippable, cutscenes almost every single time that a door closes or you step on a switch, just to show you what has happened... even if the door that closed or opened is directly in front of you. It sounds like a small nit pick, but the frequency of these do add up, making you wait quite a bit of time on the whole.

Razia is like Navi, but not as annoying.

 The game is made up of forty or so levels... but they are very short. You can unlock a secret stage on every chapter, for a total of four bonus stages, by going into the Start menu and... moving the camera towards a.... light source...? You don't even get a sound acknowledging that a new stage has been unlocked, you simply pan the camera to the left, on the stage select, and see if a new red dot has appeared. There's no bonus reward for clearing this, but you can collect more money to spend on upgrades or costumes. Not that you really need it, since money is relatively plentiful.

 The Forgotten Sands on the DS... is not as bad as it could've been. A bit too simple and automatic for my tastes, and the unnecessary, but mandatory, stylus-only control scheme is too imprecise for my tastes, even if it's better than a lot of other games that tried the same gimmick. While the kiddy artstyle is not a good fit for the series... it's not too bad of a game, and there's some fun to be had with it.
 5.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Digimon Rumble Arena 2 & Prince of Persia - Forgotten Sands(DS)

 One prince, two games. Nothing to do with each other though.

Ain't no Digimon without Greymon and Garurumon.

 I know for a fact that I used to play this one when I was younger... yet I've no memory of ever unlocking anyone besides Neemon! Regardless, I've been playing it a bunch and it's decent enough.  It does fall into the same pitfall that many other Smash clones do of having weird physics, which means that moving around, landing hits and jumping feels... weightless. At leas the game is fun to play, even if the roster is a bit lackluster. You get the 8 classic mons, Veemon, Digimon Frontier's Agunimon, fan-favorite Guilmon, black versions of the usual suspects(Agumon, Gabumon and Guilmon) and two digivolutions for each! As well as a few other mons that don't digivolve, like Omnimon and Duskmon. It's a decent roster.

 All in all, it's more fun than it deserves to be.

All versions of Forgotten Sands have the same cover. Am I to devise a sentence for each?!

 If there's one thing I hate it's tacked on stylus or motion controls, so it'd be safe to say that I'd hate this kiddy version of the Prince and it's dumb controls. But I don't. I mean, they are imprecise, yes, and I'm having some trouble with the game registering my attacks or my wall jumps... but it's rather impressive how well they managed to cram the Prince's acrobatics into the game.

 It's surprisingly not bad, you may even call me... impressed.

Review #521: Marvel Nemesis - Rise of the Imperfects(DS)

 Ya don't get any more imperfect than this.

EA's original characters have no place in the cover.

 Garbage. This game is garbage. This is a 1 on 1 arena-based fighting game that manages to get everything wrong. There's not a single good thing to find in here.

 The story is about this one guy collecting super heroes to create evil clones and evil counterparts. There're three modes: VS Player(Please don't subject anyone to this trash), VS CPU and Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode has a few character cut-outs between fights that try to tell a story and fail miserably. VS CPU instead forces you to play against the ugliest green recolors of every character, which sucks since you can unlock alternate classic costumes for the heroes. The cast of characters is alright, you get a few Marvel classics and a few original characters that... are pretty darn ugly. And they get ugly green recolors too!

The green recolors are uglier than Pokemon's green shinies.

 The game fails on every single level, but let's start with the controls. Moving your character around is very unwieldy, which is why you can press L to toggle auto lock-on... which is not a solution at all since the tracking sucks and this won't guarantee you landing your attacks. Speaking of attacks, even the basic B button combo moves your character all over the place, so good luck landing hits, melee or projectile. And you've a measly four attacks: B, B+R, A and A+R. That's it. And landing attacks is nigh impossible, although it's very easy to stun-lock your opponent with simple B button combos. And if you want to fly around or crawl on walls... you have to use the touchscreen. What the hell? Regardless, poorly implemented controls and poor gameplay.

 But what's even better? Quality Control is nowhere to be found. Graphical glitches abound, collision detection is terrible, you will land, and receive, attacks that shouldn't have hit all the time. One time I went directly through the floor to a black abyss simple because I got hit. Nobody playtested this thing, and this shouldn't have come out in this state. Heck, even if it didn't have any glitches, it shouldn't had come out period, because it's got a terrible foundation.

Not even Wolvie can make this piece of trash entertaining.

 There's absolutely no fun to be had playing this game, it doesn't even fall under the so bad it's good label. Just avoid it.
 1.0 out of 10