Maz
The gameplay isn't that bad, since it plays out as your typical tower defense. You level up your partner bakugan and their corresponding unit the more you use them. Both of which have their own attribute advantage which can be used against the appropriate stage. There's also a fairly decent variety of enemies that come through each stage. I also found myself having to go through a few stages more than once due to how fast the rounds passed and how quickly/tanky some enemies were. Not to mention space management for units, cost/upgrades for units and the size of the stage were also a factor. Gate cards do give a small percentage boost against certain attribute bakugan which is nice. Music and character sprites are fine and I actually found most of the sprites for the scenery to be really well made, such as the ones for the science lab and lake areas respectively. Those are the only good things I can say about this game as its as mediocre as it gets.
The story consists of constant backtracking to areas you've visited to unlock a new area with a newly acquired ability. Nothing wrong with this, but the problem lies in the constant random pop up battles that happen once you enter that new area. I ultimately serve no purpose to the story and is just filler to level up your bakugan.
Tower defense gameplay on the other hand handles exactly how you'd think it does. The downsides to this are, once you've unlocked Aranaut, a unit that can target multiple ground and air units, you don't really need to go back and use the other attack oriented units as they'll have become obsolete. It basically boils down to spamming the field with a combination of Aranaut, Akwimos (slows down incoming bakugan) and Linehault (powerful single target attacker).
Stats on the enemy bakugan don't really mean much when it comes to attributes, as they all play the same regardless. There's zero post game, so you'll just end up back to the last area before you faced the final boss. Other than that there is a mode that let's you replay any of the 32 stages the game offers.
Overall, I'd skip this if you're a fan of the show as it introduces a completely different battle system than the original and not very satisfactory on completion.
Pros:
The gameplay is serviceable for a tower defense
Nice background sprites
Variety of enemies and unique units to level up
Cons:
Some stages are a challenge, but not enough
Lame story
Not much strategy as you can just wing it the set up I explained
Just play BTD6
The story consists of constant backtracking to areas you've visited to unlock a new area with a newly acquired ability. Nothing wrong with this, but the problem lies in the constant random pop up battles that happen once you enter that new area. I ultimately serve no purpose to the story and is just filler to level up your bakugan.
Tower defense gameplay on the other hand handles exactly how you'd think it does. The downsides to this are, once you've unlocked Aranaut, a unit that can target multiple ground and air units, you don't really need to go back and use the other attack oriented units as they'll have become obsolete. It basically boils down to spamming the field with a combination of Aranaut, Akwimos (slows down incoming bakugan) and Linehault (powerful single target attacker).
Stats on the enemy bakugan don't really mean much when it comes to attributes, as they all play the same regardless. There's zero post game, so you'll just end up back to the last area before you faced the final boss. Other than that there is a mode that let's you replay any of the 32 stages the game offers.
Overall, I'd skip this if you're a fan of the show as it introduces a completely different battle system than the original and not very satisfactory on completion.
Pros:
The gameplay is serviceable for a tower defense
Nice background sprites
Variety of enemies and unique units to level up
Cons:
Some stages are a challenge, but not enough
Lame story
Not much strategy as you can just wing it the set up I explained
Just play BTD6
The game has little to no story. All matches include the same three characters with repeated generic dialogue and a plot twist easily seen coming.
I'd say the game is more trainer than battle, focusing on increasing your bakugans mental power with mini games such as petting, bouncing etc. (kinda like a pet simulator). Once the meter is full you can then play in 5 different minigames to max out your bakugans G Power. The pet simulator part is cute but rather meaningless as you can pick up mental power boosters that spawn often while also waiting in your bakugans appropriate attribute zone. Meanwhile, while the 5 minigames do increase in difficulty depending on your bakugans level, they do eventually start to become repetitive the third time around.
The battle portion of the game is picking a set of any 3 of your bakugan while trying to knock out the opponents opposing 3 bakugan. Battles are basically 2 turn based with essentially boiling down to, whoever has the bigger number wins. You can increase your G Power mid battle using abilities cards, using attribute specific bakugan that gain a boost depending on the stage (you'll never use this), and lowering the opposing bakugan G Power if your bakugan has an attribute advantage over it. Since you can check what Bakugan the AI is using in the next battle, the latter option will be you're best bet. While there are some tricky ability cards, you'll hardly run into any and battles should be a walk in the park. These 2 factors together drive the "combat" down and give it a degree less of difficulty.
After the battle is won you earn a new bakugan with G Power that is higher than the bakugan you are currently using. The idea being to switch them out for the stronger ones. Problem is, the game gives no insentive to go back and level up your old bakugan, so you'll end up repeating this process the whole game, again making the game way too easy.
There is no post game fortunately. The music and bakugan models are fine and the full 3D models are all ripped from the console game just downscaled.
Like I said, the game is more "trainer" than "battle", it focuses too much on the pet simulator aspect and while it does stay true to the physical version of the bakugan game, the lack of polish really brings the game down.
Pros:
Collect (some) of your favorite Season 1 Bakugan
I liked how the bakugan bounced in joy as I gave them head pats :)
Cons:
Repetitive minigames
Shallow pet sim
Easy to "farm" mental power
Accurate but boring combat
The final boss jobbed to Masquerade
Even if you're a fan of bakugan I still wouldn't recommend this to you.
I'd say the game is more trainer than battle, focusing on increasing your bakugans mental power with mini games such as petting, bouncing etc. (kinda like a pet simulator). Once the meter is full you can then play in 5 different minigames to max out your bakugans G Power. The pet simulator part is cute but rather meaningless as you can pick up mental power boosters that spawn often while also waiting in your bakugans appropriate attribute zone. Meanwhile, while the 5 minigames do increase in difficulty depending on your bakugans level, they do eventually start to become repetitive the third time around.
The battle portion of the game is picking a set of any 3 of your bakugan while trying to knock out the opponents opposing 3 bakugan. Battles are basically 2 turn based with essentially boiling down to, whoever has the bigger number wins. You can increase your G Power mid battle using abilities cards, using attribute specific bakugan that gain a boost depending on the stage (you'll never use this), and lowering the opposing bakugan G Power if your bakugan has an attribute advantage over it. Since you can check what Bakugan the AI is using in the next battle, the latter option will be you're best bet. While there are some tricky ability cards, you'll hardly run into any and battles should be a walk in the park. These 2 factors together drive the "combat" down and give it a degree less of difficulty.
After the battle is won you earn a new bakugan with G Power that is higher than the bakugan you are currently using. The idea being to switch them out for the stronger ones. Problem is, the game gives no insentive to go back and level up your old bakugan, so you'll end up repeating this process the whole game, again making the game way too easy.
There is no post game fortunately. The music and bakugan models are fine and the full 3D models are all ripped from the console game just downscaled.
Like I said, the game is more "trainer" than "battle", it focuses too much on the pet simulator aspect and while it does stay true to the physical version of the bakugan game, the lack of polish really brings the game down.
Pros:
Collect (some) of your favorite Season 1 Bakugan
I liked how the bakugan bounced in joy as I gave them head pats :)
Cons:
Repetitive minigames
Shallow pet sim
Easy to "farm" mental power
Accurate but boring combat
The final boss jobbed to Masquerade
Even if you're a fan of bakugan I still wouldn't recommend this to you.
The story loosely follows the anime but has been streamlined. Brooklyn and his team dont appear, there's also zero tension/interactions between Tyson and the other BladeBreakers when they battle, not to mention an anticlimactic ending. These elements along with the gameplay caused all fights within the tournament to turn out extremely tedious and monotonous.
As a side note, I didn't actually fight Kai in the final round but in the second or third. I actually ended up fighting the 2 other goons on his team (not including Tala). I'm not actually sure what triggers this, but the only reason I could possibility think of is due to the order of which I chose who to play as.
Gameplay wise, you have and attack and defend action which can stack the longer you hold down each button. A jump button, dodge button, a special move meter that increases over the course of the battle and does more damage the more meter you consume. Engine gear which increases RPM (HP) after activation for a few seconds. Finally, you have 2 basic combos, light and strong, which take no effort to pull off.
This game had a few neat mechanics, but it ultimately doesn't matter considering the most annoying aspect of the game, that being its lack of difficulty.
Here's how to play this game:
Tap A to dash at the other players Beyblade, then tap up, down and A again for a strong combo. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game while throwing in a few special moves and I'll guarantee you'll never lose.
Another aspect of its lack of difficulty to highlight is, that the game actively goes out of its way to hold you hand and nerf the AI if you fluff your launch at the start of combat. For example, I always launched with about 90 - 100% power and depending if it was on the high end or low end of that spectrum, the enemy AI would always start off with an RPM within a similar ballpark to where I stated at. It was never to the point where me or the AI had abysmally higher or lower starting RPM. You never felt challenged as even during the supposed climactic fight with Kai, his RPM would fluctuate depending on my launch. I went 3-0 against him using Daichi and safe to say I could've easily done the same with Kenny.
Customization is very bare bones, with beys and bey parts all going by a star rating system. The overworld, character headshot and beyblade sprites were all serviceable for what they are. The music sounds more like it came out of a Gameboy color game rather than a gba game. Not to mention there's always this crunchy crackling sounds whenever the music plays. Post game is non existent as all you really can do is finish your beyblade collection and play the world tournament over and over to your hearts content.
The very few things I did end up liking from the game were mostly not even dependent on the main gameplay. For example, I liked that you would need to keep an eye on your beyblade and repair it or it would take too much damage and break. Same goes for the launchers and ripcord. I did enjoy the details of the beyblade sprites getting slower and losing detail as they lost spin. The physics of the beys during battle was also pretty neat.
Overall the game seems like a missed opportunity. It had a solid foundation of what could have been a decent top-down arena fighter, but the lack of difficulty and hand holding made it a chore to get though.
Pros:
YOU CAN COLLECT OVER 80 OF YOUR FAVORITE PLASTIC GEN BEYBLADES!!!
Cons:
Literally everything else
Only play this unless you're a die hard Beyblade fan and for some reason this tickles your fancy, otherwise skip this. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT IN THE EYE!
As a side note, I didn't actually fight Kai in the final round but in the second or third. I actually ended up fighting the 2 other goons on his team (not including Tala). I'm not actually sure what triggers this, but the only reason I could possibility think of is due to the order of which I chose who to play as.
Gameplay wise, you have and attack and defend action which can stack the longer you hold down each button. A jump button, dodge button, a special move meter that increases over the course of the battle and does more damage the more meter you consume. Engine gear which increases RPM (HP) after activation for a few seconds. Finally, you have 2 basic combos, light and strong, which take no effort to pull off.
This game had a few neat mechanics, but it ultimately doesn't matter considering the most annoying aspect of the game, that being its lack of difficulty.
Here's how to play this game:
Tap A to dash at the other players Beyblade, then tap up, down and A again for a strong combo. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game while throwing in a few special moves and I'll guarantee you'll never lose.
Another aspect of its lack of difficulty to highlight is, that the game actively goes out of its way to hold you hand and nerf the AI if you fluff your launch at the start of combat. For example, I always launched with about 90 - 100% power and depending if it was on the high end or low end of that spectrum, the enemy AI would always start off with an RPM within a similar ballpark to where I stated at. It was never to the point where me or the AI had abysmally higher or lower starting RPM. You never felt challenged as even during the supposed climactic fight with Kai, his RPM would fluctuate depending on my launch. I went 3-0 against him using Daichi and safe to say I could've easily done the same with Kenny.
Customization is very bare bones, with beys and bey parts all going by a star rating system. The overworld, character headshot and beyblade sprites were all serviceable for what they are. The music sounds more like it came out of a Gameboy color game rather than a gba game. Not to mention there's always this crunchy crackling sounds whenever the music plays. Post game is non existent as all you really can do is finish your beyblade collection and play the world tournament over and over to your hearts content.
The very few things I did end up liking from the game were mostly not even dependent on the main gameplay. For example, I liked that you would need to keep an eye on your beyblade and repair it or it would take too much damage and break. Same goes for the launchers and ripcord. I did enjoy the details of the beyblade sprites getting slower and losing detail as they lost spin. The physics of the beys during battle was also pretty neat.
Overall the game seems like a missed opportunity. It had a solid foundation of what could have been a decent top-down arena fighter, but the lack of difficulty and hand holding made it a chore to get though.
Pros:
YOU CAN COLLECT OVER 80 OF YOUR FAVORITE PLASTIC GEN BEYBLADES!!!
Cons:
Literally everything else
Only play this unless you're a die hard Beyblade fan and for some reason this tickles your fancy, otherwise skip this. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT IN THE EYE!