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jp's Bakugan: Battle Brawlers (DS)

[December 5, 2017 04:29:40 PM]

My kids had Bakugan way back when though I don't think they ever played the "real" game - just had the figures. Since I picked this game up for next to nothing I thought it would be interesting to see what the actual game was about and how it was adapted into videogame form.

I played for a few hours, with no real intention of continuing and I'm both impressed and disappointed...

a. I don't really understand the basic stats/mechanics of the game - as it is played for "real". Your monsters have a value - higher number is better, and a "type" (element). Since combat in the videogame is resolved through mini-action games (swipe really fast, match your taps to these icons flying across the screen, follow this path quickly with your stylus, etc.) I have no real sense of how the stats matter and to what degree. If your monster's value is higher, I know you get an advantage, but I'm not sure if you can always make up for a disadvantage with, say, really good stylus skills.

b. The real game has a dexterity component - I think - because you have to roll/throw your monster in ball form onto the playing field and get it to land on a metallic card, at which point the magnets kick in and the ball opens into a creature (a pretty cool toy if you ask me). Anyways, the same mechanic applies in the game and its implemented in a way that's pretty clever. You select a direction and swipe to launch your monster. Then, you can swipe more to move it around the play area (pick up bonus tokens) before trying to get it to stop on a card. There's additional stats that make this easier/harder (get more/less time to move around, ease in changing direction, strength of the magnet and a few more). So, for what is ostensibly a card game - with toys - it was neat to see that they made sure that dexterity mattered in the game. I can't think of other card games where this might happen, so I guess Bakugan is a more interesting game than I thought initially?

c. AFAIK, the overall structure of the game is that you play in a series of tournaments - improving your Bakugan along the way, buying new ones, etc. until there's some showdown at the end (there's strong hints that your Bakugan is up to no good, so I'd expect some reversal at some point). I played the first single player tournament and almost finished the co-op tournament where you're paired up with an AI teammate against a pair of AI opponents. It works and is interesting UNTIL I lost a bunch of matches where I had no input (AI played AI, lost, played lost, and we lost the match). THat was a bit frustrating - AFAIK, I can't change what my AI teammate has/uses....so I felt a bit powerless and at the whims of chance.. So, I decided it was time to move on!