Barcode Battler Senki

"Why, oh why did they make this game?"

Remember Barcode Battlers? You swiped a Barcode from a box of whatever through a special handhold unit and it turned into a monster you could battle your friends with. It was sort of like a ghetto Monster Rancher.

(Funny related story - my friend bought a used Barcode battler for 20 bucks and two kicks to the head from a kid in the neighborhood. He took it home and it didn't work. He got the 20 back, but his head was sore for days.)

Anyhow, fact of the matter is that apparently the Japanese caught on to the Battlin' craze even though it failed really badly in North America. That is probably why we'll never see the release of Barcode Battlers the video game here. Believe me, this is no great loss.

I don't like this game for one reason. As far as I can tell, there are absolutely no barcodes involved! What a come on! Also it's all in Japanese, and impossible to figure out. I think you select moves for your fighters and put them on some hexagonal board. I haven't figured out how to move them, and I don't think I'll spend any more time trying to figure out how.

This game is bad. Very bad. Well actually not so bad, more confusing, yes very confusing. Don't buy it, importing's expensive and the guy at the store will laugh at you for buying such a bad title.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99