by Matt Remley

Created on: April 08, 2009

One of the most popular anime and manga series to come out of Japan in recent years, Bleach, has now been recreated into a Nintendo DS game. The game itself was developed by Treasure Co. LTD, published by Sega, and was released in North America on October 10th 2007. Blade: The Blade of Fate was very well received by several gaming publications.

While this game is the first Nintendo DS Bleach themed fighting game to reach North American shores, it was later followed up by Bleach: Dark Souls. That aside, is Bleach: The Blade of Fate a worthy purchase considering the fact that other gaming consoles have 3D versions of Bleach games?

Story & Game Play

While it may be hard to figure out from the game itself, the story of Bleach is very long and drawn out. However this game only centers on one season of the Bleach anime in which the main character, Ichigo Kurosaki's friend Rukia is scheduled to be executed by the Soul Society for giving her Soul Reaper powers to Ichigo.

Players can pick from 26 unlockable characters straight from the anime and manga, which will keep fans attention for hours. Most of the battles are easy if the player is experienced at fighting games, but can become challenging if played via Wi-Fi connection with people from around the world.

One could think of this game as a simple version of Super Smash Brothers with Bleach Characters, because up to four characters can be on the screen at the same time and on teams. To make the matches even more challenging there are also two floors to certain levels, and that makes things interesting because players can jump between the two at any time.

Each character has an arsenal of attacks that are also from the anime and manga, but to use the ones that cause high damage players must build up their power bar. In addition to that, the touch screen of the Nintendo DS is used for Spirit Cards that can power up the players character or even attack the enemy.

To gain more Spirit Cards players must play through the game modes or use the in-game money given to them through the modes to purchase them through the Urahura Shop. One interesting fact is that the Urahua Shop doesn't just sell Spirit Cards; they also sell different color outfits for characters, pictures, sound effects, and music.

Sound & Graphics

For a Nintendo DS game, the sound effects for Bleach: The Blade of Fate are pretty impressive. Characters have perfect voice over that are true to the Bleach anime, and the music isn't that bad either. It's pretty neat hearing certain characters yell out the name of their attack before they do it as well.

In regards to the graphics of Bleach: The Blade of Fate they aren't 3D, but they aren't that bad for being 2D. Just like the sound effects and hearing the characters speak, it's nice to see them almost living and breathing. On the downside it would be nice to see a more impressive opening movie to the game than want has been placed in this game.

Improvements

There aren't many ways that the developers of this game could have improved it outside of better graphics and a little bit more variety in character selection. This game is way better then the average fighting game, especially because it has multiple game modes, and the ability to be played on Wi-Fi so up to four players can battle it out for bragging rights and in-game money.

Final Score

7 Out of 10. - Above Average - (10 Being Perfect, 1 Being Horrible.)

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