Great first Bleach game for the Wii, a must-have for fans and worth a try for non-fans!
Set in the realms of an anime by Tite Kubo, Bleach is about amazing people (human and non-humans) with amazing 'spiritual' powers, societies in other dimensions, and a whole bunch of other anime-inspired themes. This game does not follow a series arc (ala the DBZ games) but instead creates a unique story-line for each character to follow (all around a central theme). The story is set in the time period just after a quelled rebellion in the 'soul society' (the realms where the "Soul Reapers", the protectors of humans and human spirits against evil spirits -called Hollows- live). If your an import fan you know that story already--if not, Cartoon network hasn't gotten this far in the series progression. In any case, a large blade has been shattered into many pieces at the end of that arc. The storylines in this game follow each character trying to obtain these shards (for their own reasons each) which leads to many fights with the other characters. Without going any further into specifics of each story, let's just say it's not incredibly involved and gets repetitive, but the overall effect works for trying out each character (but a very stripped down story overall for each). this is very different from other anime (as stated, DBZ, also Naruto) where you play through the show's story arcs (or manga, for that matter). It would have been nice if this game followed the series to play through some of those great moments.
Other modes are typical for this style of fighter (arcade pits you against 8 CPU rivals with a reward of the game's form of currency), VS is just that, one on one battles, and a 'shop' for buying in-game extras such as graphics, sound bytes, and storyboards from the episode mode.
The character selection is pretty good, with great representations of the main characters from the show (and a few that haven't been introduced yet in the US dubbing versions). The graphics are well done with each character represented well and the voices spot on for the series. There is no Japanese track--but then again I have only seen one episode in Japanese so that's not a huge loss for me.
Okay, so, the controls and the fighting, the meat of the game. The controls work great for this unique style of fighting. You perform basic overhand, side slashes, stabs, and up swings with the same motions of the wiimote. The basic attacks are very fast and you can slash forever--if it weren't for an attack gauge the drops as you slash your way--it recovers when you let up (so you just can't slash forever--you 'tire out', kind of a nice feature really). Stronger attacks are performed by doing the same motions while holding in the A button (for stronger) and B trigger (for special) attacks. Each person has uniqe strong and special attacks, different attack ranges (some don't even have swords), and speeds. Dashing or 'flash step' is performed by holding the c-button in while moving, and basic movement uses the analog on the nunchuk. Then there's the Bankai Gauge/mode. "Power-up" of your "Bankai" gauge is done by shaking the nunchuk and attacking/being attacked. When filled, you simply flick the nunchuk to power up your character temporarily (Bankai mode--your character, now in a super mode/higher level). This speeds you up and changes your special attacks with devastating punishment made possible for many characters. This is fleeting and you aren't invincible at this time, but you are pretty strong. The characters are fairly balanced if used properly--there are a few stronger/weaker ones however, but that just follows how those people are in the show (one character from a 'healing squad' actually heals people when he attacks with his sword--he can only harm by attacking with special moves not using his sword! That ramps up the difficulty of that story arc!).
The flaws with the game run along the lines of not enough true episode content, repeitive 'episode mode', and a bit 'hack and slash-ee'. Deffinately a longer/more in depth story mode would help out here--maybe for the next release (although I don't think we need 150 playable characters as in the new DBZ!). The controls work pretty good but occasionally don't register exactly (then again, that may be my own lack of finesse there). Some hard-core fighting game gurus I'm sure have problems with the simplistic controls/lack of long combos that they're used to. That can be a plus too for some.
The pros run from the great character models, the bonus content for the character models and unlockable characters, and the great source material the game comes from (yes, I'm biased a bit). Also, the controls do work well--not overly complex by any means but not completely simple (again, some will want long combos and more buttons to hit in sequence I'm sure). Kind of smash-brothers in a way with the attacks.
Overall I think this is agreat first Wii game from the Bleach series. I look forward to what more can be done for the Wii and more along the Bleach lines. The DS game appears to be very good and the anime gains in popularity in the US all the time; I figure we'll be seeing more Bleach titles in the future.