Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a big world and it certainly has a bright future on the Nintendo Switch. Let’s jump right into this thing.
While I wasn’t personally sure how the game was going to function after seeing the preview for it a few weeks back, I did have some reservations about it off my initial viewing of gameplay, but from what I have played of Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, it’s actually going to make their fanbase really happy. Heck, it is probably going to gain some traction with first-timers.
The cel-shaded visually led game immediately throws you into the world of Bakugan while inferring there are several different elite people in the world — those who have Bakugan, those who do not. After getting through an awkward game of soccer at the beginning of the game, your main character finds themselves in front of a crashed orb which happens to be a Bakugan. Taking the chance, and grabbing the orb, which is the first Bakugan encountered in the game, and the main character is immediately invited to join a club of Bakugan fighters and get trained by the best of the best. This is how the game begins.
Story aside, the real flavor to this game is exploring and fighting, with the latter being the reason you want to play this game. The fighting in the game is broken down into a few categories. In the actual fighting sequences, you get to choose how your Bakugan fights by using a series of options. Initially, you get things like a ‘laser’ option, which delivers a powerful blow to enemies, and you can also choose a healing option that helps you continually survive a match. Outside of choosing how to fight, using the directional buttons, you also can collect energy discs during the match, which allows for your Bakugan to recharge their fighting options quickly. How fast the brawler recharges is up to your efforts during a match, which isn’t that difficult when you’re playing a CPU-driven character. Recharging fast will give you an advantage during a fight and allow for your Bakugan to act more quickly. It will also determine the type of move your Bakugan is going to do. If you can heal quickly, then attack quickly, you’re going to be golden in the game. I would imagine that when you’re battling real players, you’re probably going to be scouring the battlescape for these energy discs to pick up and throw to your Bakugan. The collection of discs will be a lot more competitive and less patterned. It will offer up a small strategic challenge at the very least.
If the fighting sounds incredibly simple and shallow with the above description, just know that it isn’t. The customization of your Bakugan comes in a well-planned skills tree that is easy to navigate through and easy to unlock as you progress in the game. The skills tree allows your Bakugan to grow and provides different strategies for the trainer to choose from. This is great because it allows you to feel less trapped with your fighting options. If you know you’re going to take on a lot of damage during a fight against a powerful enemy, then you can prepare for it by assigning healing. If you want to be on the offensive, then you can prepare for that too. That’s the flexibility you want in a long-toothed game like this.
Customization is also huge, where the player can personalize their adventure, which was a big deal during the initial preview session with the developers. They want players to feel like they’re going on a journey that they control and for the most part that is the case, at least in the first three hours. I know customizing is a big deal for most players in the gaming world and this game allows for you to do such things, which can also play into a strategy. We can get more into this during the review later, but just know it’s a big part of the game.
On the girth of this game, it seems like a HUGE world to explore…for a game of this type. There are lots of cityscape areas to explore, many people to talk with (you want to do that for various reasons that this impression won’t get into), and people to play against. The world seems huge, at least comparable to a Pokemon game, if not bigger in some respects. I’ll definitely be diving into more of it as the weeks roll by.
Anyway, the game does some fun things and is probably going to unveil more as I progress. As it stands, it’s more than I thought it would be and I’m having fun with it in-between stressful reviews of other games.
Stay tuned for more concrete info as the journey through Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia continues.
