Zoids: Battle Legends

"Armored Core... Only With Animals..."

Gameplay - There is no real way to explain the gameplay easily. It is a mixture of things and the only real way to know how it moves is to be a fan of the show. If you like the show then you pretty much know how everything will move and react as... Well it is based on the show. The large robots will move slow and be powerful, the small ones will be fast and less powerful. There are "flying" zoids but they don't fly only hover. (This is fixed in Zoids Battle Legends III) Luckily Zoids Battle Legends (The US Version) is actually Zoids Battle Legends II (From Japan) but don't worry we don't lose anything. ZBL2 is actually everything that was in the first only revamped. Anyway... The game play is amazing, yet hard. It takes a lot of practice to get good at this game and the AI is not forgiving. The game spans a few modes which are pretty basic. Story, Vs, and a few other extras. The neatest part is customizing your Zoid with weapons and other unique features to make it well.. yours.
Overall: 9/10

Story - I'm not 100% sure how to rate the story... I would give it a 10 as the story in this game is almost the same as the shows. The game follows both series which follow Bit and his Liger Zero and the other follows Vahn and his Blade Liger. Now if you were to compare this to most other games of its genre it ranks pretty well up there... But nothing amazing.
Overall: 7/10

Graphics/Sound - This is both the games good point and bad point. The graphics are very sexy, the zoids themselves look just like they did in the show, move well and the special effects are just overalll badass. The environments are also VERY nice. The down part is the sound... The sound effects are perfect but the voices are horrible. While the acting isn't bad its not the same voices for most character which, if you are a fan, makes the experience seem a little lame.
Overall: 6/10

Play Time/Replayability - There is a hella lot to do in this game. The difficulty is insanely hard, even when its on normal!! So you will be playing for awhile. With around 20 pilots to unlock and around 100 Zoids to unlock this game will last awhile! While most of the zoids are similar *just like style or little changes* it is enough to consider them different zoids. If you want to go by totally unique zoids there are around 50 of them. There is also the huge assortment of weapons you can attach which adds even more variety to the game.
Overall: 10/10

Final Recommendation - One of the best "Anime to Game" vidoe games I have played in a long time!

Overall Average: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/04