It’s almost like clockwork. You
can set your watch to it, the release of a fighting game based on an animated
action cartoon on the "Cartoon Network." At last count, I personally own
several titles from the "Naruto" franchise, a "One Piece" title, a "Totally
Spies" game, countless "Dragon Ball Z" games, a "Justice League" title, a
couple "Yu-Gi-Oh" games a "Xiaolin Showdown" game and who knows how many "Pokemon"
games. Every one of these shows, is or has been featured on Cartoon Network’s
"Toonami" wrap around show. They all feature plenty of action, colorful
characters and maybe just a little adult humor thrown in for good measure.
Problem is, just because it’s a hit on TV, doesn’t guarantee the same success
when licensed onto a video game. Case in point, today’s review of Zatch Bell!
Zatch Bell! revolves around what
should be a pretty decent video-game plot. Every thousand years, the Mamodos
are unleashed on Earth and must battle one another for reasons unknown (the
game doesn’t really give a good idea). These Mamodo are essentially demons,
but unlike westerner’s thoughts of what a demon is, the demons from Japan
appear to suffer from the same frailties as humans, there are good demons and
bad. These Mamodos only have a certain amount of chutzpah in them, and for
that reason they must find humans to bond with. Doing so, a spell book is then
placed into the human’s hands (I don’t know how they originally got there and
the game doesn’t either) and the human can unleash powerful spells to come out
of the Mamodo while in battle. In the TV show, the emphasis is on how these
two characters interact with one another and help each other through life’s
lessons, you know, meeting girls, dealing with homework, trying to avoid being
killed by psychopaths, typical teen stuff.
"He’s a wide eyed six-year-old demon boy
wearing a dress, fear him."
OK, so let’s start off with the
good, the game features a whole heck of a lot of characters, 20 or so. I have
only seen the show a few times and recognized some of the secondary
characters, but I am taking for granted that all that are featured in the game
were at some point, in the TV show. Regardless, there is a whole heck of a lot
of selection here. Each character (team really, since it’s a Mamodo and it’s
human spell reader) has it’s unique look and alignment (good or evil) plus
there’s that whole attacks and spells thing as well. The next positive is the
game’s voicework, it does fall in line with how the character’s talk and
appears to feature the same voices from the show.
Now that those items have been
said, let’s talk about the negatives, in which there are plenty. The game’s
fighting engine is very confusing and poorly implemented. The game is not a 2D
fighter like I felt it should have been. Instead, the game takes place in the
various places around town that a Mamodo may run into another, like a school
yard. From there the battle is visualized in 3D, with you looking down on your
character from a 3rd person perspective. Now here is where things get sticky,
for one, you must control the camera view with the thumbstick, and keep your
opponent in front of you. When you do that the repeated pushing of the same
button allows you to fire off spells of differing power. If you tap and hold
for a short amount of time the spell will fire fast, but be weak, if you hold
it for longer, then the power of the spell will increase, but you in turn
increase your chances of getting hit yourself. Did I mention you only have a
couple of different regular attack, one "big" attack and a defense spell? Well
for a fighting game, that isn’t an awful lot of attacks. Plus, the whole
combat engine is so, unrealized. Pressing and releasing quickly is a strategy
that you can use throughout the game to pick off your opponent is so blasé
that you almost think it’s a lapse in the programming. And in order to stretch
these battles out a bit, there is a power gauge that has depletes as you use
your attacks, when it is gone, you must avoid further attack by hiding behind
objects and running around until the meter fills up again. If you cause enough
damage your super attack becomes available and through a series of random
button pushing, your enemy will more then likely be decimated by it’s
monstrous attack.
"Yes, being run over by a car is one of
the attacks this character has."
Now there is another kind of
thought put into the battle, and that is to attack the spell caster and knock
his book from his hand. Now I mention this little factoid, but understand that
the game must not really want you to do this because it is darn near
impossible. The game suffers from some really poor collision detection and in
order to actually strike the book in an opponent’s hand requires a level of
concentration only found by those who study the mating patterns of the common
earthworm. No, I am not kidding, this is a feat that in countless tries was
achieved only once and then the ensuing result was the opposing spellcaster
ran over and picked the book up, causing his Mamodo to be rendered helpless
for approximately three seconds, or exactly not enough time to find the said,
Mamodo and fire off a shot.
Now there are some oddly placed
mini games that are meant to elicit some off the cuff fun for you and anyone
else who wants to do a little multiplayer action. The games aren’t what you
would expect from a fighting title. Instead you are treated to a rousing game
of "collect the fish" or "kick the book into the fire". Any sort of battling
is limited to one-on-one, and therefore the very deceptive "up to four
players" icon on the back of the game is only directed towards the mini-games.
Another disappointment.
Now as we enter into our third
month of Next-Gen consoles, it is quite clear that I am becoming spoiled, as
the visuals in Zatch are weak at best. The framerate is all right and I can’t
really complain about the slowdown, but I also can’t commend the developers
for the looks either. Arenas are lacking in originality, and I would have
preferred more objects to hide behind and use. The in-game cell shading tries
to keep up with the cartoon yet fails to do so. Character’s look almost pasty
and lacking in detail. Sure the big colorful explosions jump off the screen,
but it’s a one-trick pony that dries up really fast.
"Rival spellcasters duke it out."
The game’s sound effects were
disturbingly poor, battle cries are played almost to a loop as often as you
rattle off attacks and the bone-busting cracks of a powerful attack being
slammed into a opponent were so under scored that I almost tested my surround
sound system. It wasn’t until I popped it into the GameCube system on another
TV (I was playing it on my Wii) that I realized the sound effects were just
plain, off kilter. They made no sense, and in some cases seemed to be
improperly dubbed to the actual hit.
Finally, the game makes no sense
from a storyline/plot perspective. Now I know that the show is pretty far out
there in terms of the whole concept and some of the crazy things that happen
to the characters but there is no real cognitive flow to the game. It expects
that you must have watched the show and can piece together the very fractured
and unresolved storylines that the various characters have. Comments make no
sense and the whole idea behind the game is never fleshed out to a cohesive
point.
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Gameplay: 5.0
Very badly designed fighting
system, the game has no imagination as to differing attacks. Actually
connecting with an attack can be difficult. Don’t even start on having the
spellcasters attack one another with melee strikes.
Graphics: 4.7
The only eye-catching graphics are
the initial flashy attacks the characters use, then they become really
repetitive. The character sprites are missing some of the flash that is
required of an action anime and the level design was too drab.
Sound: 5.5
The use of the voice actors from
the show buoyed this score above a five, otherwise the flat sounding sound
effects and poorly matched sounds cause the game to suffer even further.
Difficulty: Medium
The game suffers from challenges
that shouldn’t be there. Collision detection, the power meter that depletes
after a few shots, it’s an exercise in real futility.
Multiplayer: 3.8
The really ridiculous four player
mini-games are horrible. The split screen VS ability is not any better. The
multiplayer portion of the game is not good at all.
Concept: 4.0
It’s a poor use of license from a
truly original and innovative cartoon. I requested this title because of all
the recent fighting games that are based on a cartoon, I felt this one had
real potential.
Overall: 4.3
Zatch Bell! ends up being a mish
mash of unrealized ideas and poor gameplay
