The Holiday season must be upon us because I'm getting review copies of games based on very popular toys. The only time that happens is in the short months before major gift buying begins. One of the most popular toy lines right now is the Bakugan Battle Brawlers, another in a long line of Japanese imports. Similar to Pokemon, Digimon and any of the numerous other ones you can think of, it's a card game based on some mystical premise with giant creatures that morph from Bakugan balls to engage in battle. The toys are a bit deeper than just cards though, with battle arenas and small figures with magnets in them. At least, I think that's what is going on. My 11 year old was too hyper to explain properly when I gave him the game to try out, so I'm not sure what is going on.
From what I hear though, that's perfectly normal. While I consider myself a geek, I never got into any of the Japanese imports. Frankly, they are too damn confusing for an old guy like me. I still struggle to remember the rules for Magic: The Gathering, much less the laundry list of what-if's for a card game based on a cartoon, or is it the other way around? Either way, card game, cartoon - now video game. Released for every current platform Bakugan Battle Brawlers made my 11 year old squeee with supposed glee, but how did it play?
It played like the card game. What did you expect? Something different? In the card game, as in the video game, the point is to battle using your Bakugan monsters to capture the gate cards from your opponent. In your artillery you have three Bakugan to start with, and in the story mode you can purchase more Bakugan monsters to use as your warrior slaves. The 11 year old only had so much patience with the tutorial, there are a lot of precision controls to master when tossing the Bakugan ball into the fighting arena. I suppose it might be a bit simpler on the Wii, which is the platform I'd suggest you buy this game for if you are to buy it. If not that, the DS for sure. This would make a great DS game.
The story mode cut scenes are well done - cartoony - but well done. In fact, I found the animation to be a bit better than the cartoon that it's based on. It's sharp and fits right into the anime scheme. Once you've chosen your monster and tossed it into the ring, then you get to choose it's additional power based on the cards you have in your deck. Then you battle. Sadly, it doesn't turn into a 3-D fighter at this point. Instead, it turns into Guitar Hero. Using the buttons, a side scrolling tab with circles scrolls across the screen and you have to time your button taps just like in the guitar game it seems to be copied from. The more spot on you are, the better chance you have of winning.
There is a versus mode, which can be played by up to four people in the household. I played with the 8 year old, who tired quickly of the game and wanted to school me in Madden 10. The fundamentals are the same in versus, but there are all kinds of power ups littered across the arena area for you to capture with your Bakugan ball before battle. I really didn't follow what the heck the power ups did, I think they added health points, but the arena battle in versus mode is a nice little setup. Once you throw your Bakugan ball, you can use the directional sticks to float it around the arena as it loses momentum. Again, this is probably a better experience on the Wii, with the motion control.
Wired: For this type of game, it's got pretty nice graphics and animation. It's currently the hot toy franchise among children right now so it's got that going for it. If your kid is into these types of card games, they will most likely enjoy Bakugan Battle Brawlers. A lot can go wrong with these types of games, from poor graphics to terrible game play, but this one seemed to have gotten a competent mix together.
Tired: However, if your kid isn't into these kinds of card games don't even bother with picking up a used copy of the game. For some reason I found it more confusing at the adult level than the boys did. There were too many slow moments in the game to hold the interest of anyone with a slight level of ADHD.
Bakugan Battle Brawlers (Activision) for Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS
