Beyblade
Score: 10% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Crave Developer: Takara Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action
Graphics & Sound: The only appealing part of Beyblade's presentation is the anime-style character designs. I really enjoyed the still images of the characters and their special moves, but that's about it. Even though the tops look interesting in still images, they're little more than blurred, spinning images during the entire game. The menus are boring and the arena is just as bland. Even the special effects aren't much to marvel at. The audio portion of the game is just as bad. The music easily grates on your nerves after the first few notes and the sound effects are weak. To make matters worse, there's no real consistency. Sometimes the sound of tops banging into each other is louder than the music and announcer. As an added annoyance, there are no sound options, depriving you of the ability to turn off certain effects.
Gameplay: I just don't get it. I consider myself pretty up to date on what's popular with kids these days, but I still don't get it. I mean, I've played Poke'mon, and have even developed Yu-Gi-Oh as a guilty pleasure, but the allure of Beyblade is lost on me. For the uninitiated, the game revolves around customizing tops and battling them against each other - making it something like battle dreidle. Now, I can see how this would be popular as a 'real' game where you buy parts and get to build the tops yourself, but as a video game it just doesn't work. After an opening cinema (which is sadly the most exciting part of the entire game), you are prompted to name your character and select one of two Beyblades. Once in the Options menu, you can select one of two modes: Tournament or Free Battle. In Tournament mode, you take your Beyblade and compete in matches with other random competitors. After your match, you are awarded with Bey points which can be used to customize your blade. Customization is possibly the only saving grace in the entire game. Between matches you can go to the store and buy additional parts for your Beyblade which add new abilities. You can also buy new launchers to get an extra boost and buy special 'bit chips' that allow you to use special moves. In the end, this is pointless since the pieces do nothing and most battles end with a ring out. Free Battle plays like Street Fighter in that you and your opponent choose one of 10 characters, each with their own personal Beyblade and battle.
Difficulty: There are three ways to win a Beyblade match. The first is to beat your opponent's top into submission, the second is to knock your opponent out of the ring and the third is to get their top to stop spinning. As nice as it is to have these options, the ring out the most common. The sad thing is, there are times where your top will spin itself out of the ring without even touching your opponent. Overall, the game is flawed and unbalanced. Playing through the tournament is hard since you're given very little to start with. In addition, your opponent will always get a 'great' launch while you're more likely to get 'good' or 'poor' ones. This gives your opponent a decidedly unfair advantage since his top is more likely to knock yours around since it's spinning faster.
Game Mechanics: This is quite possibly the most non-interactive game I have ever played. At the beginning of the match you launch your Beyblade by waiting for a meter to fill up and pressing 'X'. The problem is that the meter tends to dwindle in the lower parts of the meter and blaze through the faster parts, resulting in the aforementioned bad launches. The instruction book says that you can control your top while it's in the ring, but you can't. Beyblade is a weak game in every aspect, even for a budget title. People who are fans are better off spending their money on the real thing.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association Savage: Battle for Newerth