A good foundation ready for tweaking
User Rating: 7.5 | Bleach Wii: Hakujin Kirameku Rondo WII
Bleach: Shattered Blade is a Wii fighter that came out relatively early in Wii's life in Japan and was only recently localized (in text and voice acting only) for US fans. That being said, it's less impressive now then when it first released and developers were still figuring out the remote capabilities. Bleach sets itself apart by featuring an original story that isn't part of the canon anime or manga. The Episode mode (story) has you pick one character and follow there side of the plot, fighting your way to the end (obviously). There are only a select number of characters for the mode, so you don't have to play with each and every character included in this game (32 is a pretty big number for a fighting roster). Then a classic arcade mode is included where you pick any of the characters you have unlocked and fight 8 increasing skilled opponents. Pretty standard. You can earn currency by completing Arcade and Episode modes to spend at a shop in the game to unlock most of the extra unimportant content. Battle controls boil down to waving the remote in a vertical, horizontal, or thrusting motions to execute 3 basic strikes. Holding the A button and swinging Up or Down (vertical is in split into two different strikes) left+right, or thrust to execute guard-breaking, combo stopping critical strikes. Holding the B button and swinging in the 3 basic directions activate special attacks. You guard with Z and dash with C. Ultimately, this settles into you flailing for a few seconds and using a critical strike to knock down your opponent. Two elements create what is strategy for every fight and those are the Stamina meter and Bankai meter (special meter). The Stamina meter decreases with every attack action and quickly regenerates when not attacking. This keeps people from abusing the insanely fast basic strikes and flinch-inflicting criticals, or spamming any one special move. The Bankai meter in filled up by either dealing or receiving hits, and by shaking the nunchuck. Once full, shake the nunchuck again, watch an animation, and the character unleashes a new weapon, form, or just gets more powerful. Bankai form lasts as long as the meter is filled and it continuously drains. The character's speed and strength hike up, they get access to a super special that usually drains the rest of the Bankai meter, and their other specials either deal more damage or change completely (the former most often). Visuals are acceptable. The character look great (their faces anyway), special effects are just shiny enough. The backgrounds in stages don't have much flair, but are familiar for the fans. The game supports 480p, but only 4:3 perspective. Regardless, I played on widescreen and I didn't notice much distortion. I did notice occasional pixel loss, and mismatched mouth-to-voice animation. Also, every character has a Bankai animation and you'll have to sit through it every time a character uses it (yep, more than once per battle). Sound is kind of weird. The music isn't from the anime, but it suits the game well. Expect a lot of fast-rock. The voices are all excellent, but they are just too quiet in all the wrong places. Even with settings adjusting, the characters intro taunts and victory phrases are all whisper quiet, and they say some of the best lines there. The mid-battle voice work is at a good volume and shouldn't get annoying unless spamming certain attacks. For those who are not fans of english voice work, you probably will be able to get through the game by muting or setting changes, but you don't get the satisfaction of a *** voice setting. The game is not horrible, but it doesn't do much to stand out. The remote-for-sword controls is a great idea, it just hasn't been fully flushed out here. What is here is a solid foundation. If your a fan of Bleach, you might as well buy this because it is fun. If your not a fan of the anime or manga, you should try it out to experience the gameplay, but it's certainly not a good long-term investment 
