Zatch Bell! Electric Arena (Game Boy Advance)

CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
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Overall score: 4.4 (2.0 stars)
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Product summary

Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 01/19/2006
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 11/22/2005

Like so many other cartoon-licensed games, Zatch Bell!: Electric Arena captures the personality of the show it's based on but doesn't really offer much in the way of engaging gameplay. Beneath the sharp sprite-based graphics and Manga-style cutaways, which admittedly do look very nice, this is just a poorly designed fighting game that even the show's youngest fans are likely to laugh at.

In Zatch Bell, human beings fight alongside magical dolls known as mamodos.

In the Zatch Bell! cartoon and comic book stories, magical creatures called mamodos have come to Earth to fight it out for the crown of the mamodo world. There's just one catch--the mamodos need human partners in order to use their powerful spell books. Central to the show are the characters of Kiyo, a 14-year-old boy, and Zatch, a mamodo that wants only to be a kind king, although unbeknownst to him, he has a dark past and powerful hidden abilities. The two-on-two fights that occur between the various teams and the subsequent moral dilemmas that arise are the main focus of the franchise, so it makes sense that Bandai would orient the video game around fighting, too.

The game offers a decent assortment of characters and play modes, including a two-player versus link option. Other play modes include story, free battle, challenge, and survival, along with four minigames inspired by the show. Initially, only a pair of teams are available for play, but by playing through the story, challenge, and minigame modes a few times, you'll be well on your way to unlocking all 12 teams.

Matches are set up Street Fighter-style, with the two teams squaring off in the middle of a wide, two-dimensional battlefield. Successful attacks will drain the recipient's stamina meter. In order to win the match, a team has to win two out of three rounds. Only the human member of the team can take damage, although both the human and mamodo can perform attacks. For the most part, team members stick close together and function as a single unit. If you push the jump button, the human and mamodo will jump in unison; if you hold back to guard, they'll both cross their arms; if you perform a magic attack, they'll both pause to cast the spell; and so on.

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