Beyblade VForce: Ultimate Blader Jam

"A mediocre game for a great system."

I do not play Beyblades at all, play them, or watch them, excepting this game, so keep that in mind while reading my review. I got this game as a birthday present, so I had no anticipation for this game. This game is based off the an anime TV show, and therefore some people may like it more or less than I do.

Gameplay: 4: This game is not very interesting. You play as one of the beyblades either trying to get to the finish or knock a certain other beyblade off. You switch characters, although that doesn’t do anything. The game is very easy in my opinion. It was easy for me to beat this game in less than one hour on my first try, and I’m basically just a mediocre video-game player. The controls really bring the score up, as they are pretty easy to learn and play with. The main two things that you will use are the D-pad and the L button, so it is not very confusing, and as it is said on the box, anyone 3+ can play it.

Story: 5: The story for me is boring and has some gaps in it. Some people may have seen the show and know the story far better than me. I personally found the story monotonous and started not reading it because I’d rather not read endless dialogue.

Graphics: 2: The beyblades are the only reason this gets a 2. The beyblades are mediocre, but they beat the checkerboard area that you go around. The only chang there is in the checkerboard was the colors of the checkers. The background is just a sky, which I found confusing as the places were not supposed to be flying and did not portray any of the locations. Occasionally when the beyblades fall off they appear in front of the checkerboard squares. Also, sometimes your enemies look the exact same and the only way you can distinguish between them are the lines above your enemies.

Sound: 9: The sound is sadly the best part of the game. There are nice tunes for the levels and startup screens. There are noises when you land, do your power thing, hit another beyblade or wall, and it has a clicking noise when you are seeing how much power your beyblade has. So, the sound is very good for a game boy advance game.

Replayability: 4: The replayability in this is decent, seeing as you can try to unlock the bonus stages or collect all the items in the levels. I did not see any point to collecting all of the items, since it is very monotonous and boring.

Buy/Rent: Neither, unless you must have all of the beyblade games. You can buy many other better game boy advance game so this is unnecessary to have. This is the first and only game I have ever sold.

Overall: 5

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/03