GBAtemp game of the week- #26

[FAST6191]

We are back with a new edition of the GBAtemp book game club. We still get new viewers so the general idea for those is each edition has a game suggested by us and then anybody that wishes gets to play it does so (or they can recount their time playing it) before discussing it among the other members. We wish to note that the selection criteria go beyond simple quality (this being no basic top ? games list) with something interesting on the industry side of things before or after release, an attempt at a new genre, a twist on an existing one or one that rarely works on the platform (FPS on a handheld, RTS on a console and so forth), a great soundtrack or something along those lines. ? games list (although such games certainly feature) as the suggestions can arise on the basis of a great mechanic, a great theme, something of note within the industry (a swansong or something) or something along those lines. Special features or additional criteria do occasionally get wound into things but normally something from the homebrew, commercial, rom hack or otherwise (paid homebrew/hardware for example) from one of the systems we tend to cover around here will be featured.

#26- Draglade (NDS)

Fighting games have not had the easiest time on handhelds when either emulating or acting as a scaled down version of their console/arcade counterparts. However these last couple of years have demonstrated time and time again if something is not working on a given medium or getting a bit stale then mixing it up is worth a go. Here developers Dimps (with Atlus later bringing it to North America) who are best known for Dragon Ball Z Budokai, some street fighter ports, a bunch of sonic titles and anime tie in games tried their hand at an original IP to create the Draglade series (although the second title is Japan only).
As hinted at above the game is less about memorising lists of moves and instead takes a cue from music games (although rhythm and timing has long been a key component in fighting games) and does a fair line in story as well (at least as far as the genre goes) with a few different stories for the various characters.

US Trailer


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[/p]GBAtemp release thread[/p]

Licensed title company should stick to what they know or should they spread their wings?. Discuss it in the thread below.

ongoing discussion

gbagotw should get you other links in this series

 

[gifi4]

I do remember completing this, only to be let down by the fact that number 2 wasn't localized, there are translations though but not completed.

Still have my save file backed up, pretty good game in my opinion.

 

[The Masked Man]

I played this to death when it first came out. I thought it was a great twist in a fighting game regardless of it's flaws.

 

[wasim]

I thought this is another lame game... since this is in GBAtemp Game Of The Week i'll give it a try !

 

[1234turtles]

i remember when i bought this game from gamestop it was pretty under rated it had good online too, though its probably dead now.

 

[BigLord]

I've already tried it out. Pretty fun game so far, I like the combo system and it's actually challenging.

I need more fighting games on the DS

 

[ChaosZero816]

I was never aware that this game was in English. *Facepalm*
Played through it in Jap. Oh well. Good times.