Hello everyone, Digital-Ranger here doing well my first
Video Game Review here and form the tittle its well Digimon (because what else
would it be) and it's on the Digimon (WERE SO NOT SUPER SMASH BROS. WE SWEAR
WERE NOT) Rumble Arena game. So the story on why I decide to review this game
is because like Saturday I went to my store where they sell old game, book, and
toys (the place is called Bookmans really great place) and I found Digimon
Battle Arena. I played it and loved it and so I deiced to talk about it in a
blog post because this game is so fun. Now for this review I am breaking it
down into a few categories with Back Story, Story, Graphics, Game Play/
Charters, Level Design, Music, and extras. Also all the sources of these pictures are from verious sources both on youtube and the internet.
Backstory
This is a Smash Brothers clone because Super Smash Bros. was
like the most popular thing at that point in time and there were so many Clones
of this game. So Namco Bandai decide to do their own version with Digimon. I
don't mind that to be perfectly honest, I mean if the games play different
enough and are also enjoyable then I really don’t' mind all too much, now this
was release on the PS1, AH YES THE PLAY STATION 1 the holy grail of gaming consoles
for kids who grew I had gup in the mid 90's yes I am one of those people who
had a PS1 growing up, it was my first real consoles I had it growing up and I played Tiny
Toon Adventures: The Great Beanstalk, Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing
Tour, And finally the PS1 Blast Masters remake I and recently rebought that
because NOSTALGIA!
Story
THERE IS NO STORY its A FIGHTING GAME, and you fight… and fight… and fight. Both
are on equal levels of complex story telling.
Graphics
Graphically speaking its out dated but it’s nostalgic, I
mean you had to grow up with this blocky looking style in the PS1 days, and
since this was a late PS1 game the Graphics are I assume at the Max they can
be. And hell we even have Voice clips which were rare mind you it doesn’t sound
all that great but still it’s something. But it does look awkward seeing Omnimon without his cape, Galletmon is better since he lost his cape 1 episode before the end of the series. Also Steve Blum you do a too good of a
job at Reapmon, like you brag so much I want to punch you in your face. Yes my
only complaint with Steve Blum is that he does a too good of a job.
Game Play/ Charters
Game play wise since it’s a fighting PS1 game the controls
are not all that complicated the D pad controls your movement, the Square
Button is a light attack and combo attacker, Triangle and Circle are special moves, and the X button lets you jump. The L shoulder button lets you block and
the R1 shoulder button allows you to let you Digimon Digivolve and pressing it
again allows you to do a super movie. The back L and R buttons do nothing in
the battle.
For charters you have Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon, and Gatomon
from Digimon Adventure, Veemon and Wormmon form Zero 2, and finally from Tamers
theirs Guilmon. Terriermon, and finally Renamon. All of the charters can Digivolve
into their Mega forms except for Wormmon but more on him latter. Each charter controls
good and I feel there is no 1 charter truly over power one another. I mean like
when charters fight each other you can break the AI combo and vice versa.
For Digivolving there is a Digivloution gage where you can
power it up through fighting another opponent or cards that increase your gage
to full. ALSO the copy of the game I got did not have a manual so I do not know
what the cards do so don’t ask and could not find a copy of the manual online
either.
Level Design
The levels are OK, but I wish there was an Omega Stage for
each stage. You see the stages themselves they feel a bit too cultured and not
real big wide open are for a Constance fight stage. Well there is 1 stage
Reapmon state but it continues get distorted and gets real distraction at points.
But rather ones for area and it can be a big distraction at times as well. Now to unlock all the charters you would need
to play 1 player mode and go ass each Digimon to unlock to play each mega
Digimon indecently and there are 6
rounds total + a mini game and the end boss
Speaking of which the end boss of the game is Reapmon OR
GOKUMON (YES his Japanese name really is GOKUMON, I know I was surprise too!)
Now Reapon is a cheating baster, his special moves last for way to long
(including his super movie), he’s bigger then you are, more powerful then you
are, he… he… HE… He can be defeated rather easy, LET ME EXPLAIN. If you just
spam the Triangle button over and over again then you can defeat this guy
quickly. Hell I had a few times where I got a perfect. It’s not perfect though
for like Gatomon and Impmon my recommendations press Triangle and then GTFO to
the right or left until the time runs out.
Music
The music is pretty Damn impressive I mean they are just
insert songs and all but they are really good though. my favorites would have
to be Out in the Country This Power in Me A Wish for Life, there are just to many
good tracks I can’t chose them all. The only
one I guess is freeze Artic since it’s just ok (STILL a better ice stage theme
then FUCKING X3’s Blizzard Buffalo Stage theme (I HATE THAT THEME SO FUCKING
MUCH)
Now in the Japanese Sound Track you got remixes of a bunch
of different insert songs from Digimon’s Past like Butterfly, Target, Biggest
Dreamer. Speaking of Biggest Dreamer that is for whatever reason the only Japanese
sound track that make it in the whole game (Oh man now I miss Kouji Wada even
more).
Extras
now for extras there are a bunch of things to unlock u this
game, the unlockable charters are Omnimon unlock through completing the game as
Agumon and Gabumon, Imperialdramon Paladin Mode unlock through Veemon and
Worrmomn, you can get Impmon/ Beelzemon if you complete the game as all 3 Tmaers Digimon and finally if you complete the game without a single loss
then you can unlock BlackWarGreymon (again just use the Wormmon Triangle trick).
also you can unlock Reapmon if you play the game in player 1 mode and complete
just once, and it feels so good playing as Reapmon. You go and pick
BlackWarGreymon again in Vs. Mode by pressing the Select button his color
scheme is instead of black and gold it’s black and red. No I bring that up because
BlackWarGreymon X color scheme also has red on it, just saying. Now if you also
went through the PS1 memory card library you could see that the memory card
slot if Terrimon (AKA adorable as all hell, AKA just so soft and fuzzy, AKA
just precious (NOW THAT’S AN INSIDE JOKE NO ONE WILL UNDERSTAND HERE).
Over all I say give this game a look because it’s rather
fun.
I admit I think I like this game a bit more then I should have because I am a very active Digimon fan. It’s not perfect with the voice clips, the controls are a bit unrespond at times, Reapmon is a bitch to beat at a lot of points too, even with my cheat, and also a bunch of lag at times, including if you pick Renamon and use her special move. But it’s a pretty decent Fighter game and I do enjoy it quite a bit. I do know there are 2 sequel games out their like Digimon Rumble Arena 2 and All Star Rumble, But I’m not sure if I will take a look at them or not. Same thing with Battle spirit 2 I have it but I need a Game Boy to do it. And also not sure if I could look at another game as well.
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