Digimon World Championship

"You know when you let the CPU do things automatically?"

Wow. You know, after the last two iterations of Digimon World, I was looking forward to this. Sure, the other ones were a little slow, and the storylines were contrived, but they were actually fairly solid and were accessible by any age of game player or level of RPG fans. Welcome back to the Digital World... but not the series. This time, things are quite, well, different.

Graphics: 5/10

Well, this is a DS RPG and none of the Digimon games for the DS that have made it to America have been amazing. Sure, you have a CG animated opening sequence, but that's about it. Fortunately for me, I've always been a fan of 2D gaming, but those who prefer more 3D graphics will not be impressed by these in the slightest. There are some 3D scenes, such as the cube when you choose to battle, or the Digital World you can choose locations to hunt in when you choose to go hunting for new digimon. The Digimon graphics look like they might've been taken from the GBA Digimon games. 2D sprites are all over, which is definitely a plus for some since all the Digimon are rather recognizable. The 'battle grounds', which you'll see rather often, are all rather small and very easily forgotten. The Digimon movements are quite minimal, and simple. All this ties in, of course, to the gameplay.

Gameplay: 7/10

Certainly an important factor of this game is this. And it's done fairly well. If you remember the first Digimon World back on the PSX, then this may seem very familiar (minus the numerous toilet requirements). If you remember the virtual pet craze, this will be familiar as well. Play through the tutorial or skip it, it's pretty easy to figure it all out. Clean up after the sparkling spots that marks the Digimon's digital, ah, 'leavings.' Pick up the digimon when you're in the 'farm'-mode, and move it/them between the various cages (where the digimon trains in specific fields, such as HP, various genetic XP, Attack, and many other things). Oh, and don't forget to feed the digital beasts. Your first Digimon comes from an egg (and eventually other digimon you get will degenerate into its egg form. This seems to be absolutely mandatory, and is basically useful for when it comes to eventually evolving the digimon to its Mega level form.

Evolving ties into this quite well. In this game, there's somewhere over 200 digimon available from about 8 different base forms. From In-Training to Mega, you'll find that each basic digimon form can evolve due to different ways that it's trained. It may evolve when it reaches a certain amount of environmental experience (Dragon, Holy, Data, Virus, etc), the number of Reverts (changing back to DigiEggs), how many battles the Digimon's been in, and other ways. Oh, and the game isn't very specific most of the time as to how to evolve the Digimon into a certain evolution, so you'll want to look up an FAQ to get the one you want specifically... or trust your own intuition. It's not that difficult to guess, though. Once you get them to Ultimate and have unlocked the ability to evolve the digimon to Mega, you may get a message from a computer generated character that tells you when that digimon can evolve to Mega, and how. Useful, quite, but it would be even more useful if the game did that every day of the in-game calendar.

Each month is comprised of 8 days. Each day, you get to make decisions regarding what to do for the digimon. Train, battle, feed, clean up after, heal, etc. Time passes automatically, even if you go out Hunting for new Digimon, go to the Shop to buy new supplies (such as meat for the Digimon to eat. Oddly enough, it seems that every digimon is a carnivore) for cages, digi-dex upgrades, new hunting gear, and new cages for the 'digi-farm.' When you choose to hunt, you can choose a site on the digital world that is named quite well- Swamps, Volcano, Desert, etc, all with a 'digital' naming scheme. Hunting requires you to draw a loop around the digimon and pull back with the rope until the Digimon's HP reaches zero. In this regard, it's a lot like the Pokemon Ranger game. However, this time you can use poisoned meat, paralysis traps, bombs, and explosive traps to damage the digimon as well before or during the capture process using your stylus. This section is quite likely the most fun, and quite literally the most 'hands-on' you'll get with your digimon. Keep in mind that your digi-farm has a data-cap: basically, you get a pool of space to allocate to your digimon. Your little Digi-dex thing also has a space limiter that can be upgraded (fortunately, you get so much money in battles that upgrading shouldn't be a problem), but can determine just how many digimon you can catch in a single hunt. Keep an eye on your time, because it's ticking away every second that you're hunting.

Battling is, on the other end of the spectrum, the least hands-on experience in the game. You choose up to three qualifying digimon for the battle, and you pit them against up to three other opponents. You can choose their tactics, such as Attack, Special Attack (where they tend to use AP-using techniques to inflict damage), or Support (where the digimon uses healing technique or boosting techniques to assist your team). Battling is given a 2 minute limit, which is good, but you'll find that after a few real days of playing that the battles will more likely be finished within 30 seconds. Battling is, however, how you increase in rank, gain the licenses required to evolve the Digimon to the next evolutionary step, gain money, and increase the space you have in your digi-farm for the cages you can install. Winning certain battles also unlocks various upgrades for the farm, new locations you can hunt in, as well as new equipment upgrades altogether.

With all this said, you'll probably be playing this to play against people online. That's where the game shines, allowing you to join tournaments or create your own, as well as battle those you know and don't know. It can be fun, but again, the battles are still automatic.

Music: 2/10

Music? I'm sorry... but I didn't really hear it. The sound effects were okay, but the music wasn't really there. It's something that's difficult to bring up, however, considering just what this game is. Most sim games aren't that great with music (at least, on the DS anyway), and this doesn't impress. Turn the music off, plug in your headphones to an MP3 player, and enjoy your own favorite music. You aren't missing a thing.

Story: 1/10

There's no story. This hearkens back to a favorite series of mine (well, Monster Rancher 1-4 anyway, along with the MR Advance games for the GBA), in that stories aren't exactly necessary. However, at least MR gave an attempt at a storyline and some actual characters. You don't even have a physical presence of any sort within the game. This game is simply not for those who are looking for a plot or storyline. Instead, your reason to play this game is simple: beat all the battles in the game. Win the World Championship. Play against friends and strangers online. Have fun, hunt, capture, and raise Digimon from egg to Mega-level and all over again within the span of days. You'll be challenged, from time to time, by NPC rivals you never really meet, but will battle against over and over and over.

Replayability: 8/10

Games like this are hard to decide. On one hand, it could go on almost forever, as long as you enjoy letting the game be on auto-pilot about half the time. There are a few issues, however. For example, when the digimon evolves, any stat training it's received basically go down the tubes (and 3-5 point stat increases are hardly effective after a while), as the evolutions do make the digimon a lot more powerful.

Bottom Line: 4/10

This game is hard to recommend. On one hand, it's easy to get into and can offer a lot of replayability to those who don't mind not being able to interact too many times. There's a load of recognizable Digimon, but some just didn't make it in, which is rather unfortunate... okay, so the line-up is about half the size of Digimon World: Dusk or Dawn's digimon line-up, but still. Personally, I like being able to take control during a battle, which is what kept me into the previous Digimon World games (along with the sheer number of Digimon, the customization capacity, and breeding system), and as a result this game was a bit of a let-down for me. To others, this is a great casual pet-raising game where you don't have to watch it all the time to make sure things are going right. You just have to clean up after the digimon, and you're all set to let them do their thing.


Buy or Rent: If you're a digimon fanatic that loved the original Digimon World for the PSX or still play with Virtual Pets, buy it. If you're not, rent it or borrow from someone else.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/11/08

Game Release: Digimon World Championship (US, 08/26/08)