Bandai showed off Digimon Rumble Arena 2 at its booth, and I had the opportunity to play a little one-on-one with a Bandai employee.

Rumble Arena 2 plays uncannily similar to Smash Bros. thanks to its control scheme. As a result, it is very easy to pick up and play. You start off by picking one from a variety of Digimon to battle as, each one with its own special moves and attacks. Then you hit the arena and duke it out. Punching the opponent releases blue energy balls that you can collect to charge up. Once you have enough, you can use the energy to morph into a larger, stronger incarnation of the character.

This evolution mechanic is pretty much the only thing that separates this from Smash Brothers, as they both really play almost exactly the same. Stages are a little more complex with obstacles that can get in your way such as flames. Graphics on the PS2 version did the job in recreating the popular creatures from the series, but they aren't anything too spectacular.

Fans of the Digimon cartoon series will probably get the most enjoyment out of this game, as it is supposed to release with over 40 different playable characters. For everybody else though, while this is a decent game, it just seems all too much like a Smash Brothers with Digimon characters to me.