GENRE
	Action
	DEVELOPER
	Mistic
	PUBLISHER
	Atari
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	CONNECTIVITY
	No
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The Game Boy platform in its various incarnations has been home to games based on television series and movies, both popular and obscure. Beyblade G-Revolution is one of the current crop of kid’s anime titles, and kids battling each other with spinning battle tops (the titular Beyblades) and unleashing hidden mystical animal powers “Bit Beasts” for the purpose of being the world champion. However, the game fails to be entertaining in every category.

visuals

The two different aspects of the game- top battling and RPG interfacing- are both lacking in graphical keenness. It is obvious that most of the graphical work went into the top battles; these top-down affairs take place in graphically identical arenas, which is disappointing. The engine handles the scaling and rotating of both arenas and the Beyblades pretty well, and rotation effects convey with a glance if a top is about to fall. However, from about 300 rpm to upwards of 10,000 rpm there is no discernable difference in speed. Also, camera work is below average as the arena zoomed in and out the opponent’s top sometimes disappears from view.

Though some of the top designs are neat, they are just a swirl of fury for most of the match and difficult to distinguish from others in battle. Most disappointing as far as in battle graphics are concerned is the fact that every “Bit Beast” (super-move) looks identical to each other one. A brief fiery swirl and background fade, then a repeated clash of tops each time. Considering there are upwards of one hundred tops to collect, it would be silly to expect unique animations from each, but maybe one per group would have livened up the proceedings.

The overworld is sub-par in every regard. Areas are unlabeled and often look similar, leading to confusion when traveling to a new location on the map. Environments use few colors and no animation. Japan, New York, Rome, Madrid… these are a but some of the locations you visit, but you wouldn’t know it because they look exactly the same, and you are not allowed to leave the stadium premises in the foreign lands. A few of the sprites are distinctive, but all animate poorly. A randomly occurring rainshower effect is the only thing that separates this from an average 8-bit game’s overworld.

audio

The best thing I can say about the sound is that it gives you the option to adjust audio levels. I do not know if the music was taken from the show, but I can imagine that frequently repeating loops of cheesy guitar like these will annoy after a few plays. Alternately, there are the battle clanks and whirrs of the sound effects, which also grate on the nerves as the scant amount of audio samples quickly becomes tiresome. Luckily, your GBA comes with a handy volume adjuster which you can turn all the way down without having to navigate through the menus.

gameplay

Sometimes a game can be good despite bland to terrible graphics and irritating audio. This sadly is not the case. In battles, where you spend most of your time, the manual and shoddy in-game tutorial teaches you precious little about how to operate your top at peak efficiency. As a result, the first half hour of the game is incredibly frustrating as you are defeated without any clue as to what you could do to improve. There is a hint feature, but it is only about as helpful as the instruction manual, which in this case is very little.

Battles are won by reducing an opponent’s rpm to zero, by knocking them out of the arena, or by damaging the top until it breaks. Late in the game you can control alternate characters in the tournament, but this is feature is more frustrating than it should be since you cannot repair your allies’ Beyblade; this is the two-on-two tag match touted in the features, and is misleading since battles are neither two-on-two nor is any tagging involved.

After getting the hang of the mechanics, the game is actually fractionally enjoyable for a brief span of time. However, enemy A.I. never improves or alters, so you face essentially the same opponent over and over again with increasing rpm’s and slightly different attack/defense/endurance ratings. Given the wide number of opponents, it would have been nice to see some different tactics or at least harder difficulty at some point, but here the game fails as well.

Many different tops and pieces of equipment are able to be bought, found, or won. As you may expect by now, none of these have a big impact on gameplay. It would be nice for those of us newcomers to Beyblading if they would explain why, for example, a 10-Wide disk is better or worse than its fellow pieces, but that is not the case. Of course, since your opponents are identical in strategy your playing will likely be the same even if you choose to favor offense, defense, or endurance.

Your basic moves are attacking, blocking, dodging and jumping. You can charge up an attack or a block, and there is a very rudimentary counter system built in. You can perform a combo with a simple movement, and since it tacks on extra damage to whatever you connected with no penalty, you can and will likely perform a combo every time. These combos are pretty dull to watch, as you just crash into the other top a few more times than normal. Though the dodge command isn’t always a guaranteed avoidance, the jump can be handy if you get the timing down.

Once sufficient damage has been exchanged players are able to either engage the “Engine Gear” and recover rpm’s or use the “Bit Beast” to damage their opponent, but using the Engine Gear is not recommended. The problem here is that there is no reward for playing better, nor handicap for playing worse; both players gain access to the special moves at the same time. So, you’ll have to sit through your boring special move and then your opponent’s boring special move directly after. In short, the game is boring, poorly executed, and rushed.

The overworld part is confusing, since the game gives little indication as to what you should be doing. Judging from the dialogue of some characters a few minor side quests were planned but never implemented.

multiplayer

Though the gameplay in itself isn’t really exciting, playing against someone else can alleviate the problem of the monotonous computer opponents. You can trade Beyblades as well, but since most of them are able to be bought from the store there isn’t much cause to do so.

overall

This game will likely find its audience by means of uninformed parents, but is not recommended except to the die-hard Beyblade fan. The kind that could fill in the gaps of the story, supply personality to the tournament competitors, imagine how the Bit Beasts and gameplay are supposed to be, and be so enamored with the fact that they are playing a Beyblade game that they ignore all of these and other faults.

3.1/10