Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury

Rating ESRB: Teen Genre action Publisher Namco Bandai Games External Links Official Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury Website

Welcome to Zatchbell and the World of Mamodo Battle; or as I like to call it "Pinocchi-mon" puppet monsters. The game Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury is a parallel to the popular anime and manga series Zatchbell. The story behind Zatchbell is that every millennium, one hundred creatures called "Mamodo" come to Earth to do battle with each other to win the title of Mighty King of Mamodo World. Zatchbell is one such Mamodo. Zatch ends up befriending a young student named Kiyo, and together he and Kiyo work side by side to best the Mamodo who seek to defeat him.

Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury is a tag-team style fighter in which the player takes control of both Zatch and Kiyo, switching back and forth as is necessary. The gameplay is decently paced with simple-yet-enjoyable dodge, dash, and attack controls. The game features several play modes such as arcade and story, and has a variety of multiplayer options. In story mode, the main characters follow their way through episode after episode of similar battles with different Mamodos. The system is simple and each level adds one or two more moves to the characters' ability lists. As the enemies get stronger, Zatch's moves become more powerful and varied.

The controls are somewhat simplistic for a fighter. Almost every attack in the game (with the exception of the punch) uses the exact same button. You can hold this button to attack, you can hold it longer to shield, and even longer to spit out spells and general annoyances at the enemy. The learning curve for the game is slow but steady, with an immediate exception for the targeting and camera control sections of the game.

One of the multiple factors holding this game back is the terribly incompetent A.I. of your opponents. The enemy Mamodo can and often will get stuck in a corner or on random items in the area. While the occasional free battle is welcome, this ties in directly with another important problem: the hit detection. In Zatchbell you can stand directly in front of your opponent and miss, while they can pass through the player and score a hit while punching the empty air behind them. Fighting games require flawless hit detection to succeed, and Zatchbell is a total bust in that regard.

While the graphics in Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury use cel-shading to look just like an episode of the show, each in-game cut-scene is a hacked-up set of stills set to flash animation. Still pictures of the characters dance around the screen while audio taken from the show plays a memorable scene that sets up the upcoming level. One annoying problem with the sound isn't the quality of the work, it's the repetition of each character's special move name over, and over, and over again each battle. It would be like having two boxers yell, "Punch!" every time they threw a jab in the squared circle.

Zatchbell: Mamodo Fury feels like a rushed release for Namco Bandai, aimed directly at fans of series. By forcing out a game just to make a few quick spin-off dollars, the game was practically destined to fail. The title itself isn't entirely bad, but most gamers will want to let this one cool on the shelf. Most people glancing at the game would probably be too afraid of the large-headed child in the dress on the cover to try it out anyway.