There's apparently some unwritten law that states that the majority of Bandai's anime-based videogames must royally suck. That's really the only way to explain the abominations that are InuYasha: Feudal Combat, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Never Ending Tomorrow, and now Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles. This ultimately annoying fighter is about as mindless as an old potato and just as difficult to consume, a shame since its visual presentation is actually quite delightful.

All this game's developers needed to do was make the actual fighting enjoyable but they fell flat on their faces. Mamodo Battles is nothing more than a button masher to the stars, a game where it's not about Up, Up, Down, Right, Triangle, Square, Circle, Up, Down but rather Up+Square and Down+Square. The system contains about as much sophistication as a slovenly bag lady with birds nesting in her hair. I ran around, I mashed buttons, I unleashed several fire balls until my little Mamodo was tired and needed to recharge, I exploded with a special attack conjured up by my human counterpart, I threw more fire balls. It's all just brainless fodder that was fun whenever I played against a friend but only for brief periods.

Getting into the heart of the game, Story Mode basically runs down the whole point to this series, how every thousand years these little guys and gals known as Mamodo travel to Earth the beat the corn pops out of one another in their quest to become king. They're capable of unleashing all of this magic but need human partners in order to use it, thus every character in this game comes with a friend who you can use to conjure up special attacks.

The mode allows you to select from a handful of teams and engage enemies in the most pointless of battles (such as beating up a pony because he wants to go to England), and this is made worse by the fact that it can take several moments to find an opponent. I've never played a fighting game (until now, of course) that lets me travel to various locations only to discover that there's no one there. It's just absurd.

To its credit (and I'm being generous), there are quite a few teams in this game including Bari/Gustav, Brago/Sherry, Tia/Megumi, and many more. There are also a ton of levels such as the Middle School, London Suburbs, The Quarry, Holland Suburbs, South Pole, Doc's Home, Fairy Woods, the River Bed, and several others, so if anything, there's some variety here. There's also Time Attack, Develop Mode (where you can use points to upgrade a character's Striking Power, Spell Power, and HP), Practice, a Bonus Mode that enables you to unlock and collect cards, 1P versus mode, and then 2P versus. Not the meatiest of options, but it's certainly better than nothing.

Then there's the audio and visual presentation, and this is the only area where the game shines. The cell shaded characters look quite nice when set against the 3D backgrounds and all of the characters are voiced by the actors from the show. That's not to say these voices are fun to listen to because they aren't, but if authenticity is what you're looking for, you'll be pleased.

It's sort of unfair to expect this title to be as solid as Virtua Fighter 4, yet at the same time Bandai's intention is very clear: to craft these horribly playing games and hope that the various bells and whistles will be enough to attract fans who will in turn defend these atrocious titles because they feature lots of pretty pictures. To that I say, don't fall into the trap, or rather, IT'S A TRAP! If you absolutely have to own everything Zatch Bell then be my guest, but with so many excellent games coming out this holiday season, Mamodo Battles shouldn't be on your wish list.

Our Final ScoreBad

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