When hearing the name Bakugan Battle
Brawlers, images of huge battles taking place over a wide area may occur in
people’s heads. After taking a peak at a few clips of the anime show, I was
getting excited to try out this game, as it features lavish battles in the same
vein as Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, and other popular children’s anime shows.
Unfortunately the Bakugan Battle Brawlers video-game doesn’t come close to
mimicking the exciting battles found on the show, instead it gives gamers
something else.
There are a couple of different
options to choose from when players first load the game: battle arena, tutorial,
my room, and story. In battle arena up to four humans can battle against each
other and teams to see who is the best brawler. Sadly this mode is offline only.
The tutorial mode is pretty in-depth and shows players how to battle in the
game, which is useful in the story mode. When players load up ‘my room’ they
will be able to edit their characters, change their deck, view their
collections, and even get tips from the Battle Brawlers.
The Story mode is the real "meat" in
the game, but there is not enough fat to keep players interested for long.
Players take on the role of a nameless character that loves Bakugan. Through a
series of events, players will eventually meet up with the main characters from
the show. They will become friends with characters and battle against and with
them. Pretty soon they will try to stop an evil plot that threatens to destroy
the world. Gamers have a general over-world map and can select predetermined
places to go: Bakugan shop to upgrade their desk, park to get free battles and
score some extra Battle Points (currency in the game), tournament battles that
advance the story, and other places.
The biggest issue that players will
have with this game is the battle engine, or lack thereof. The object of each
battle is to collect three Gate cards. So at the start of each battle each
player throws a Gate card on the game field. Then they must select a Bakugan and
then throw it on the battlefield and hopefully make it land on one of the gate
card. Being a Wii game, the developers put in motion controls so players can aim
and making a throwing motion to toss their Bakugan and try to steer it to land
on a gate card. This creates a problem because trying to steer the Bakugan is
very difficult. It is like making a large cruise ship do a 90-degree turn in
less than a minute to dock safely at port, which will not happen.
Once players successfully manage to
get a Bakugan on a Gate card, there are two way to win. The easiest way is for
gamers to get two of their Bakugan’s on a specific card. The other way to win is
to battle for it. When a Bakugan from each side lands on a card it will open the
battle screen. Here players can boost the stats of their creatures from the
remaining cards they have in their decks. After players have boosted their
monsters they will participate in one of three mini-games: shaking, timing, or a
shooting battle.
Shaking battle will have players
going into a mild seizure attempting to shake their Wii-mote as fast and furious
as they can to gain more power to defeat their enemies. The timing battle is
when players must press the correct buttons or shake the Wii-mote as specific
icons go past the screen. The last battle is a shooting battle and players must
aim the Wii-mote at the screen and shoot the icons that match their Bakugan’s
attribute, which in this game means its color. If players beat their opponent
they will win that Gate card and start the battle all over again until three
cards are won.
The television show is all about
battles that are fast and furious with a lot of action going on between the two
Bakugans. This should have translated perfectly to a video-game. Instead players
are allowed to participate in only three(!) different mini-games to win battles
throughout the entire game. This would not be so bad but the main focal point of
the game is going into battles to gain more experience to upgrade their Bakugan
or purchase new ones.
Bakugan Battle Brawlers is rated
Everyone .
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Gameplay: 5.3
As explained earlier in the review, Bakugan Battle Brawlers falls flat in
many areas. The lack of a real battle engine is the main culprit. There are only
three mini-games that players will be able partake in for each battle, which
means this game gets monotonous quick.
Graphics: 6.5
The graphics is one of the few high points in this game, and that is not
saying much. The character models are decently detailed and look similar to the
anime series.. The character and monster animations is also really good, the
only issue is the lip syncing that is way off that looks like an old kung-fu
movie.
Sound: 5.5
The voice acting in this game is terrible. The voices are high pitched and
try to make the most mundane topics exciting. The sound effects and music are
also very generic and boring. It is best to place your TV on mute the entire
time this game is turned on.
Difficulty: Easy
Concept: 5.0
This series seems to take the best features of the most popular gamers: Yu-gi-oh
and Pokemon. This seems great in theory but the execution of it in this game is
horrible.
Multiplayer: N/A
At the time of this review I did not get a chance to test out the
multiplayer.
Overall: 5.6
Purchase Bakugan Battle Brawlers only if you are a fan of the show. It is
obvious that this game is made for younger gamers that don’t mind repetition in
their games. If you are looking for a little variety in a game that includes a
deep storyline and interesting battles, you will need to look elsewhere.
