Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
That is one creepy looking kid following me around.
Tags: Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on Oct 19th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury (title page) | 1 - 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Fighting | No | ||
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High school student Kiyo is your standard Everyman. He’s got a few friends, studies to make sure he passes class and just tries to get on with his life. He also has an unbreakable bond with a small kid who shoots lightning out of his mouth whenever Kiyo says a magic word. Together they’re destined to fight off a hundred other freaky looking little kids to see who is king of the tiny freaky looking kids. Just like you, you see.
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You play the game as both Kiyo and Zatch, battling other teams for supremacy of the Mamodo world. Both are on the battlefield at once, though only Zatch ever does the fighting – your job as Kiyo is to tell him to shoot lightning. You earn new spells as the game goes on, but for the most part they’re variations on a basic projectile spell or a basic defensive spell. They’re even partitioned into an attack and defense button – you hold it down longer for a higher level spell.
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It’s slightly awkward that the character you control isn’t the character that fights, but this is how it’s done in the TV show. Zatch does a good job of sticking to Kiyo for the most part, but he’ll occasionally get away from you. If you use too much mana you can switch to Zatch for a faster recharge, but he takes more damage and your attack power is cut in half. Learning to time your downtime is the better part of victory. If you can point Zatch in the right direction and keep him attacking the rest tends to take care of itself.
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However, keeping Zatch pointed in the right direction might turn out to be a problem. The camera is absolutely nightmarish. It veers wildly from side to side and resists your attempts to correct. You can autolock and fire to keep yourself covered, but you may often find yourself running blind into obstacles and enemies just because you don’t see them. It’s disappointing because a lot of what the game is doing visually is pretty good. Characters are faithfully recreated in 3D and manage to look pretty good. It’s not as true-to-show as the cel shaded Naruto: Ultimate Ninja by a long shot, instead going with a more traditional look. There may be prettier eye candy out there, but this is no slouch. Now if only the game would let you look where you want to look.
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Mention should be made of the scenes between the battles. The art is sharp and detailed (though mostly still images moving against a background – you know the drill.) The story seems to be taken from the TV show and delivered in capsule form – it’s melodramatic and a little bit silly, but makes for a better fight setup than fighting game fans have come to expect. Problems rise where bare-bones retelling of only the most dramatic parts of every episode don’t stand up without context. A half hour of character development, context and drama doesn’t boil down to ten lines very well. There’s always the option to skip ahead to the fight, of course. There are some extras here that may appeal to fans of the show. Unlockable content includes new teams in versus mode, minigames and other goodies.
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The game never quite manages to rise above its TV roots. Fans of the show will be interested in playing through their favorite episodes or fighting their friends, but the uninitiated will find the entire affair curious. Switching between two characters on the battlefield is unique the way it’s done here, but the horrible camera and simplified combat aren’t going to appeal to anyone who isn’t already regularly catching the series on Cartoon Network. Only recommended to fans looking for a new Zatch Bell fix.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Faithful to the show. + Switching between two characters on the battlefield is an interesting twist. |
4.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- The camera. - Makes no real sense to people who haven't seen the show. - Combat has no real depth. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Fans of the show will adore it. Anyone else is more likely to scratch their head in puzzlement and move on to more complete fighters. | |
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Tags: Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
Posted by Michael Hanning on Oct 19th, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
