Zatch Bell: Mamodo Battles

I haven’t watched Zatch Bell. There, I said it. I’m not the anime fan I used to be.

It was the absence of familiarity with the series that put me in the place I am now: a place of confusion (what in the world is a Mamodo?), and a place of intrigue and unimaginable interest.

Zatch Bell is a fighter with a fantastic attack and combo system. I could stop there and that would justify my interest in the game. But knowledge of the show was not the only thing I didn’t have – I didn’t know what to expect from the game either. It began with quirky characters (four of which were playable) and brief story elements that were shown with voiceovers and changing anime stills to show their fluctuating emotions. “Hmmm, an RPG,” I thought. “Or could it be one of those weird dating sims?”

Neither.

Zatch Bell is best described as Street Fighter meets Tobal No. 1. There’s action, suspense, and dozens of unrealistic super powers that fighting games have seemingly abandoned. Electric blasts, deadly force fields, lunge attacks – this is where the genre was born!

Special attacks call for special camera angles, but other than that the view stays focused on the sides of the characters. No one can jump, except when performing attacks that have a jump (or a hop) within them. That means that the top D-button, the one that typically sends fighters into the air (that’s probably why we call say “Up”), pushes fighters into the level and around their opponents. Think of it as the eight-way run Soul Calibur uses but with fewer limitations and more maneuverability.

No move list was available within the preview build, but the attacks are not at all difficult to learn. Ten minutes of practice and you’ll have figured out that the X button is the main punch/kick combo trigger. Tap it a few times and watch the action. Square is your special attack button – press it alone to strike with a projectile. Use holding positions (hold up, down, left or right plus the square button) to execute additional attacks. Add a few rolling motions (a la Street Fighter) for more devastation.

Special attacks are limited to an attack meter that fills as you dispatch and receive hits. I’m not sure if there’s a trick to maximizing it other than frequent attacks, but once it has reached its limit, you may call upon a stronger power (such as a giant, fiery dragon) that will nearly wipe out your opponent’s health in one sweet blow.

These too are executable by pressing just one button.

With the exception of boss battles (if that’s what you can call them – I’ve yet to make that determination), four fighters will enter the ring during each battle. When I say four fighters I mean two contenders and two sidekicks; and when I say ring I mean any location that sparks a fight. Rivals are everywhere, including one strange-looking kid who has the face of a duck. Is it a costume? Or was he born that way? He won’t tell. It’d blow his cover if it was a disguise, and if he were born that way he probably wouldn’t want anyone to know.

The stranger the character, the weirder his or her attacks may be, and the more pain they may inflict. Duck Boy (a nickname I cooked up) can, with the aid of his sidekick, glide in the air and strike down on his opponents with a moderately damaging air strike. That’s what sidekicks do, whether they’re fighting for the good guys or the little ugly guys who talk quack. They fight alongside the main character, follow his or her lead and do things based on your actions.

Zatch, the requisite young boy and the star of the show, has a sidekick who’s a few years older. He says he won’t leave Zatch to fight on his own. Thus they explore each location together (via a simple menu screen. Select the desired location and you’ll jump there automatically). Semi-cheesy dialogue ensues, and in less than a minute or two another enemy will have made its presence known. Time to fight!

Which ends up being the best part of course. The music is pretty good, the cel-shaded graphics look nice, and the anime stills were wonderfully drawn. A few of the enemies had cool voices, sounding dark and almost eerie, but not too serious. This is based on Zatch Bell, after all, and as it turns out Zatch has that typical child voice that 80% of the anime shows use.

Consequently that made it a bit more fun to play as Zatch and the other child characters. They’re small, annoying and look harmless, but they’re the most deadly of all. I had a blast experimenting with Zatch’s electrical powers.

Coming to PlayStation 2 and GameCube in October, Zatch Bell is one of the most anticipated anime tie-ins. Its inspired Street Fighter-style gameplay is a welcome addition in a world where the only thing we have to look forward to is another Tekken or Soul Calibur sequel (Namco rules, but the genre needs more than that to survive). Zatch Bell gives The King of the Iron Fist Tournament a little competition, and it gives fighting nuts like myself a reason to have faith again. Don’t miss it.