Bleach: Shattered Blade Review (WII)

Bleach: Shattered Blade for Wii deserves attention, especially since the anime series has such a huge following on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Fans of the series and Japanese animation will get a swift kick out of it, while casual players should rent before they buy.

Episode Mode opens with three selectable chapters, featuring Ichigo, Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya and Renji Abarai. A back story fleshes out as you proceed through these chapters, revolving around mystical spirits (called Hollows), Soul Reapers (those who hunt the Hollows) and an executioner's sword broken into pieces – the Shattered Blade. As you complete these chapters, new characters get unlocked with their own sub-chapters. An arcade mode is also available, for those of you who don't really care about the story and just want to get into the brawling.

Developer Polygon Magic cut a few corners during the game's development. The storyboard sequences in Episode Mode, for instance, are just stiff explanation sequences with no real action, unlike the anime series. Furthermore, there are no differences between Episode and Arcade mode, aside from the lack of these sequences.

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