Like many other 18 to 30 gamers out there, I watch a bit of anime. I wouldn’t loads, but I know my Naruto’s from my DragonBalls and one of my favourite anime’s is bleach.
Unlike the Naruto game that will soon be released in Europe, Bleach slaps you straight in the center of its story and to the uninitiated this can be more than a little confusing.

Bleach is about a school student named Ichigo Kurosaki, a boy who from a young age could see souls and spirits. After a chance encounter with a Soul Reaper, Ichigo gains the powers of a Soul Reaper and vows to protect the good spirits while killing the bad. The series is hugely popular in Japan and has recently become available in the UK on DVD.

While the game deals with characters from the anime, it has nothing to do with any of the story. The original series writer, Tite Kubo wrote the story for the game and introduces a new character named Arturo Platedo who is trying to escape from being imprisoned. The name ‘Shattered Blade’ is a reference to a legendary sword known as the Sokyoku, which has been shattered into pieces, Ichigo and co must try and collect these pieces and put them back together. Unfortunately this is a trick by Arturo Platedo to help with his escape.

The story of the game won’t win any Oscars anytime soon but it works for the game, its reason enough for the characters to have a scrap, and that’s all the player wants to do anyway, have a good brawl. In Bleach: Shattered Blade there are over 30 characters to choose ranging from Soul Reapers, humans and Espada. But unfortunately only a few of them are selectable when first turning on the game and the majority need to be unlocked via the Story or Arcade mode.

Arcade mode is as you would expect, fight through several stages of one on one fights until you finish, its simple and fun for the most part, as long as you don’t get a tired arm. Controls in the game are interesting, Sega have adopted a motion sensing combat system which is what you would expect for a game where most characters carry massive swords, holding certain buttons pull off heavier or special moves and depending on the direction of motion alters the move being made, for the most part the motion works flawlessly and I can tell Sega have tried to make a good fighting system but it comes off sometimes as cheap. Let me also add that there are no other control options for the game, Wiimote controls are the only option you have to play.

While there is a stamina system in place to stop the player from simply attacking with waggling the Wii-mote around, slashing automatically for several seconds in a row before running away to let their stamina charge back up and then go back in for an attack still happens far too much. It’s a shame that some people (and the computer) sometimes do this as I think it spoils the games design.

Specials and Bankai’s stay true to the series, with each character having a special finishing move which can be used, these work as a short cut-scene and then you get control of what you want to do. I like the mechanic but some specials seem too powerful for what they are, while others seem a little too weak. I wish there was a little more balance in the game but I can see a lot of work has definitely gone into it.

While the anime was originally voiced in Japanese, a Japanese language option hasn’t been included in the game, instead only English is available which is shame as I feel the English voice actors don’t do the characters justice compared to their eastern counterparts. Lines don’t sound correct in English and I think it sometimes gets lost in translation with lines like ‘I grow bored with your face’ which I will admit, made me spit out tea with laughter the first time I heard it. Also accents and pronunciation is a big problem with words like ‘Bankai’ being pronounced as ‘Bonkay’ fans of the series will grind their teeth.

The game is definitely great fun 2 player and even more fun for a 3rd person watching two people standing up and flailing their arms. It’s a shame no 4 player battles where included in the game or online fighting modes. Seeing as the DS fighting game had this I hoped the Wii version would of also.

Closing Comments
Bleach: Shattered Blade is a fine example of a Wii fighting game, mainly because there aren’t that many to compare it to. Its expanded character list is great for fans of the series and brawlers alike, but a lack of additional multiplayer options means this game could get stale quite quickly. A good base for a fighting franchise, I hope the next one will be better equipped for a match to the death.

Score 7.1

+ Stays true to the anime
+ Large character list
+ Motion controls are fun..

- …until your arm falls off
- No online play
- Voice acting is terrible.