Zatch Bell!: Mamodo Battles
Based upon the manga by Makoto Raiku, the show is now airing in America thanks to Cartoon Network. The series focuses on a young junior high school kid named Kiyo whose father discovers an unconscious mamado named Zatch Bell. A mamado is basically a “demon child” who possesses strange powers. Every thousand years a hundred mamado converge upon Earth and battle it out to be the king of their race. If this sounds like familiar territory, it should, because it’s essentially a similar premise to the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises.
Gameplay:
With the entire concept of the show revolving around the mamodo gathering together to duke it out, it seems only fitting that it be made into a fighting game. The only problem is that unless you are familiar with the show, you’ll have basically no idea what the heck is going on. To make matters worse, the gameplay itself boils down into a glorified button masher that doesn’t dole out a lot of satisfaction to the gamer for achieving a victory.
Two mamodo and their human counterparts square off against each other inside of a ring. While the controls are essentially as easy as press X to attack and Square to special attack, there is something to be said about watching two children (freakish, yet magical children) kick the crap out of each other. Seeing a little tike unleash a knee to the groin of their opponent or uppercut them into the air gave me a strange humorous feeling that I can’t quite explain. That doesn’t mean that the game has a whole lot of entertainment value or variety mind you, I guess I just got some sick twisted pleasure watching two kids get beaten up.
There are however some moves that you can pull of, though don’t expect a large attack list or variety for each character. For the most part the kids all control the same with regular attacks, but once you start tinkering with their special powers things do get a little interesting. Blasting a bolt of lighting across the screen, turning into a clone of your opponent’s partner, or even unleashing some hellish powers helps elevate the combat slightly. It also helps that you are given free reign to walk around the ring in complete 3D, so there are plenty of chances to dodge attacks.
The controls are solid and responsive, so that’s not really an issue. My only real complaint with the gameplay is the fact that there is no strategy required and you can beat any opponent simply by hitting the controller as hard and as fast as possible. There are a couple of modes to help shake things up a bit, but they all revolve around the same basic combat principle. I found the Story Mode to be particularly frustrating because it doesn’t exactly take you from place to place in linear fashion. Instead you have to select a location and see if anyone is there to fight, if there’s nobody there then you just wasted time going through two loading screens. The other modes are typical to the fighting genre, though it’s fun to develop a character and strengthen them for play in a couple of sections.
To make matters worse with the fighting, the game has the all powerful near-one-hit-kill attack that seemingly can’t be blocked in full. The worst part about it is that all you have to do in order to execute this deadly maneuver is press L1. Fortunately you have to build up your gauge by successfully landing regular attacks, and your special attacks deplete this meter, but it’s still a broken concept. I did find it interesting that the move can be countered with another ultimate technique and if that happens it all boils down to whom can press the Square button the fastest.
The gameplay is nothing new, and it’s simple beyond belief, but the fighting is crazy enough that it can be entertaining. You can’t go in expecting something with depth like Soul Calibur, though some attempt at crafting a strategy and setting character moves apart from each other would have been appreciated. This is a game that will be most appreciated by fans of the show, and even in that case I’d say this is a weekend rental at best.
Graphics:
One problem that most anime to game titles face is an inaccurate representation of the visual nature. Fortunate for Zatch Bell! that’s really not the case and from what I’ve seen of the show, the cel-shaded graphics here capture the look perfectly. I never really noticed any abundant aliasing or clipping, and the framerate is smooth sailing. That really helps things out considering that the character models lack some detail and the environments, for the most part, leave a lot to be desired. Disappointingly barely animated cut scenes during the Story Mode are a shame, since there was so much more that could have been done with the anime’s wild look.
Audio:
The voice acting is uninspired and awkward, not to mention repetitive, so from that standpoint there is a lot left to be desired with Zatch Bell!. The music is above average, but nothing to write home about even though it fits the mood of many a battle. My biggest beef with the sound department comes from constantly recycled phrases and sound effects. Even though the game sounds wild, thanks to all of the crazy stuff going on, the material gets used over and over again.
Conclusion:
I had sort of a love/hate relationship with Zatch Bell!: Mamodo Battles. I liked the quick paced insane battles and found them very easy to get into, but a little too simplistic once I realized the biggest strategy available was accomplished by pressing forward and X repeatedly. There isn’t enough variety between characters and the moves that they have are equally disappointing since there aren’t enough. The presentation of the game is very represent of the anime in almost every regard, though most sound bytes are used constantly. This game will only be appreciated by fans of the show, though you'll probably be happier with a rental instead of a purchase.