Created by Sega, Bleach: The Blade of Fate is an anime-inspired fighting game for the Nintendo DS handheld system. In North America, the fighting genre on the NDS has been much ignored by the majority of developers and publishers, perhaps due to the limited control scheme and difficult integration of the touch screen. However, Japanese NDS owners have enjoyed a boon of fighting titles over the past few years. Bleach was released in Japan last year, but Sega has decided to bring it overseas and test the success of the title on North American shores.

Primarily, Bleach relies on a text presentation over a series of slightly animated character screens. The narrative follows Ichigo Kurosaki and his quest to save a friend scheduled for execution. The stylistic anime visuals are representative of the popular series of the same name. Unfortunately, many will be lost in the story if they’re not familiar with the characters already. I found myself struggling to keep up due to my lack of knowledge on this particular anime series.

Gameplay

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Of course you don’t need a particular knowledge of the story to enjoy a solid fighting game. Bleach includes a variety of game modes such as story, arcade, challenge, versus and a training mode. Arcade mode is simpler for folks who want to jump right into the thick of things. It pits you against opponents that gradually rise in strength and cunning. Challenge mode was nearly impossible for me to handle. It’s designed to test your ability to perform combo moves, one after the other. Still, it’s excellent practice for what you have to face off against in the story.

The 2-D fighter offers a variety of punches, kicks and special attacks to annihilate your opponent. Additionally, the game has loads of defensive moves to implement, specifically dodging. The sidestep dodge saved my character quite often as it helped me quickly switch sides with the opponent. The player can also use running dash moves and jumping air attacks to provide a little extra offense.

I had a real problem trying to pull off the special effect attacks. Each time I pushed the correct series of buttons usually ended in failure, perhaps due to my lack of reflexes. Rarely was I ever able to pull off a four button combo and had to stick to the two and three button combos to win matches. It becomes frustrating towards the end of the match, especially when your opponent can annihilate you with the best special moves.

The game also uses over a hundred spirit cards via the touch-screen to add modifiers into play. For instance, you can remove your opponent’s ability of use rush for the match or add damage percentage to certain attacks. The only fault of modifiers is the quick pause it takes to get the card into play. You have to divert your attention briefly before rolling back into combos.

While Bleach offers download play as a multiplayer option, it’s really a chore to wait for each match to download to one other DS. Multi-card is certainly a better deal and removes the waiting period for matches to start up. Another core element of multiplayer resides in wi-fi four player action. Unfortunately, my success on finding a lag free match seemed to be hit or miss. Latency is always a problem with fighting games and Bleach isn’t any exception. The wi-fi mode offers regular matchmaking as well as connecting with a friend.

Graphics

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Visually, the only stand out graphical element occurred during the large scale attacks. The bright colors would splash across the screen before the player released a devastating attack. Additionally the speed of the game was represented well in the graphical engine. Player movement and animations were accurate, fluid and quite varied. The camera angles are always perfectly fine and highlight the animated backgrounds very well. The game runs smoothly and load times are typically minimal.

Audio

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The musical tracks were likely taken from the anime television shows and really started to grate on my nerves after several hours of play. The voice acting was also representative of the show and the actors did a decent job of portraying their characters. The sound effects are perhaps the best aspect of the auditory effects and seem to capture the essence of battle during each round of play.

Conclusion

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Bleach is an above average fighting game that uses the full capabilities of the Nintendo DS. While the storyline will only captivate anime fans, the vast amount of gameplay features in the single player mode and the solid structure of multiplayer will give fighting fans a plethora of play time. Compared to the rest of the genre, Bleach: The Blade of Fate is easily the best fighter on the Nintendo DS and is worth the retail price for any fan of anime or 2-D fighting games.