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