Review #526: Digimon Battle Spirit 2

 The battle spirit never dies.

Agunimon is a certified badass.

 Digimon Battle Spirit was.... it was a game. While the end result was lackluster, very lackluster, they had their hearts in the right place, so maybe with a sequel they'd be able to do their vision justice. Or maybe it's just more of the same.

The game... offers the same exact modes as the previous one, 1P and 2P and that's it. There's a new minigame too, but you won't get much mileage out of it. The biggest change to the game is the character roster... gone are the various 'mons representing different eras of the TV series, now every single character comes from Digimon Frontier, and there're less characters overall! You get the five main protagonists as well as the.... let's call him sixth ranger. There're two bonus unlockable EX versions of Agunimon and Lobomon, which differ from their normal versions on their digivolution, but the unlock requirements are ridiculous... unless you've got another friend, or gameboy advance system, to link them both and have a few 2 Player matches, since these unlock these characters much more easily.

Digivolution, signaled by the bolts over a character, lasts for a short while, but strengthens your super moves.

 The game plays basically exactly the same as the previous one, A jumps and B attacks. You've more attacks this time around, previously you had a special move with B+Up, now you also get B+Down, and some characters get chargeable moves, or neutral hold B moves. As a whole, while it's not much, there're certainly more ways to lay down punishment on your enemies, which is very welcome. Digivolution is much better too, now you fill a gauge as you land hits on your enemies, once full, press A and B together and you'll enter Digivolution mode. This DOES NOT change your base form, but now when you use special moves(Up+B, Down+B, combo enders, aerial Up+B, aerial Down+B) your character will indeed turn into its digivolved form for that particular attack. It's a faster alternative to how it used to be, and now getting to digivolve doesn't mean that your opponent is screwed out of it or automatically lost the match since it isn't as overpowered as it used to be.

 The objective of the game remains the same: Land hits on your opponent so that they drop colored orbs. Whoever collected more orbs when the time runs out wins the match. There's a new element thrown into the matches though, crystals. Now, every now and then your opponent will drop a crystal alongside, or instead of, the colored orbs. Collect five of them and you can press Up+A+B for a super move that makes the opponent drop a TON of orbs. It's definitely a neat addition to the game, even if it's not much of a game changer.

Not much of a fan of Frontier's premise, but the designs are badass.

 As a whole, Battle Spirit 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. The gameplay is much improved from before, but unless you're big on Digimon Frontier... the character roster won't do much for you. If you leave character preferences aside, this is undeniably a better game, and much fairer too, albeit the lack of more recognizable Digimon might be a huge turn off for some, Frontier isn't one of Digimon's most liked series after all.

 Still, even considering that it's a better game... it's still a rather dull one. The lack of modes is a almost a crime, and the fact that you battle the same CPUs in the same order every time you play 1P mode will quickly grow boring. The game could've used a Free Battle mode, in which you could fight CPUs or Players under different rulesets, like a life/stock system as opposed to colored orbs or maybe a king of the hill mode. Something different from the 'collect as many orbs as you can' shtick. At the end of the day, if you like Digimon... there's no much else you can get on the system, but if you need a fighting game fix, there're many better alternatives.
 4.5 out of 10