Beyblade takes the Anime impression into a boring video game experience that should be avoided.
Platform: PSOne
Developer: Takara
Publisher: Atari
Genre: Fighting
Age Rating: 3+ PEGI
Release Date: August 23rd 2003
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Game Score: 1.5/10
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Summery:
Beyblade takes the Anime impression into a boring video game experience that should be avoided.
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Beyblade is one of those impressive Anime series you'd see on Television and that they'd make a huge amount of Beyblade related toys and other merchandise. Takara along with Atari unleashes it's own Beyblade Video Game that doesn't have a storyline to follow, that's only the start of the problems of this cash in here since Beyblade takes the Anime impression into a boring video game experience that should be avoided.
When you first boot the game up you first need to create your character from either a boy or a girl then you'll select one of 2 different Beyblades, either Dragoon S or Dranzer S and then you're ready to take on the Tournament. Before that I'm going to explain the only good thing you'll find about this game. Customize mode allows you to edit and change parts of your Beyblade or you can purchase different parts in a shop with earned BeyPoints. The catch is that the Blades you'll use work exactly like the real Beyblades in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, of course you'd need to have expert Beyblade knowledge to know that. There is plenty of ways that you'll create a strong Beyblade or a Beyblade that just flies all over the stadium and it's accurate to a degree that any part you'll use has it's effects like with the real toys.
Tournament mode puts you against 7 rounds in which you'll face off against a different Beyblader. The first issue is that the Bladers are picked randomly and there's no way to see who coming against next unless the game goes ahead and picks a random Blader which no sense especially when you face Blader B and then Blader A which seems ridiculous. Most of these rounds are simple enough and if your Beyblade gets damaged you'll have the option to repair it but your Blade's stats are reduced temporally. If you do lose a battle then you'll need to start over again or you'll need to make adjustments to your Beyblade so you'll progress better. After beating 7 rounds in the Tournament there's no reason for you to replay it again at all since the Tournament rounds are only 7 rounds and they're short and you're only reward for going through all that is just a simple random Beyblade part.
When you're done with the Tournament you can face 8 other Bladers you'll remember from the original TV series in Versus Mode along with the option of allowing a second player to upload his Beyblade stats through their Memory Card onto the second controller. While it includes the 4 Blade-breaker members along with being able to play as the Bladers from the show in Versus but it's disappointing that you can't fight against other members from the White Tigers, the All-Stars, the Majestics and other Bladers from the show.
The biggest problem you'll have with this game is that the Gameplay in Beyblade is extremely boring to play. In real life you simply launch the Beyblade into a Bey-stadium for the Tops to destroy each other until one either lands outside the Stadium, the pieces fall off or they stop spinning. This game on the other hand you start off with select which Blade gimmick you want the Blade Base to use for the battle if the Blade Base you've selected has Multiple tips on the base. When launching your Beyblade you wait for the countdown and then you have to Press the X button at the right time when the launch bar reaches full to get a strong launch or falling will result in a weak launch. The Beyblade then hit the Stadium and you can just watch the Beyblades just battle it out or you can control them using the analog stick, when the Beyblade collide with each other you press the X button at that timing then you'll gain LP which can be used to Summon your Bit-Beast to damage your opponents Beyblade or you can save them for the next round to use a Special Launch attack which increases it's stats for a given battle. However the controls are stiff and sometimes it they can make your Beyblade fly all over the stadium before flying out. This will make you having to spend your BeyPoints on parts that will help with it. Your opponents they don't provide much of a challenge besides Max's Beyblade which can send most Attack Type Beyblades Out of the Stadium easily if you're going in aggressively since he's a Powerful Defense Type. BeyBlade simply lacks any actual depth and results in having you stick to the actual Beyblade Tops themselves.
The worst thing that you'll see with Beyblade is that it's probably one of the worst looking and sounded game for a PlayStation that was released in 2001 for it's orginal Japanese release. By the year of 2003 you'd probably be sticking to the PS2 or anything that looks way better then this chewed up garbage. The graphics look horrible and pixelated at the very least, the anime portraits and faces look absolutely ridiculous and the animations on the Beyblade are blend and look even worse when they stop spinning, the same implies for the Bit-Beasts which lack any animations which makes them nasty to look at. The sound doesn't fair any better with Generic soundtracks without any memorable music tracks from the show besides the Opening Theme. The sound effects are really annoying along with DJ's terrible voice-work. There is no other game on the PSOne game that I can think off that presents itself in the worst way possible then this one. (except Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22)
This game feels more of a out-dated PlayStation game that probably should have the hardcore fans either watch the show or to just play with the actual Beyblade Toys. If you're still watching the series then watch out for Beyblade V-Force in September, otherwise stay away from this console Beyblading experience especially when it's at full prize. There's no other worst games you can find for your PSOne then this one.
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The Pros:
1. Beyblade statistics that work like the real Beyblades
The Bads:
1. Bad Graphics and Rubbish Animations
2. Only has 2 simple Game-modes
3. Ridiculously Random at picking Bladers
4. It's short, incredibly boring and the controls are stiff
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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