Digimon All Star Rumble Review

Not as famous as Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon follows a similar vein containing little cute characters who fight to become better at fighting and thus better Digimon. Digimon stands for ‘Digital Monsters’ who funnily enough hatch from Digi-eggs. Just like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh there are lots of tournaments your Digimon can take part in to attempt to become the best Digimon and make you the best tamer of such beasts.

Digimon All Star Rumble is a sort of crossbreed of Super Smash Bros and Skylanders. You choose your Digimon and wander around beating enemies and collecting bits which can be used to buy Digi-cards. It feels like a 3D platformer at times. After reaching the end of a wandering section you meet another Digimon and a battle commences.

When you beat the Digimon you unlock them and you can then control them. The story itself is pretty forgettable but you just move from one battle arena to another. Graphically it looks and feels like a fighting game, the characters are boldly detailed whilst the backgrounds are fairly simplistic. The music is quite involving, loud and energetic and gets you in the mood to beat up the rest of the Digimon roster.

The fighting mechanics are not as fluid as they should be. Your characters are a little sluggish when your fighting, the moves are bright and bold and there are fair few combinations you can utilise. There are various power ups available during the battle phases where your Digimon can digi-volve which is where your Digimon evolves into a much more powerful iteration of itself for a period of time.

You can also utilise Digi-cards (You’ve probably noticed that ‘Digi’ is put in front of a lot of words if it’s Digi related) which improve your Digimons abilities. Up to 2 cards can be added to your Digimon helping them in a variety of ways. The cards ability frequency is random so this means many of your battles can not be predicted, this adds an extra element of fun and frustration to the proceedings. The powers ups are few but they include a rocket that explodes on impact, a whirlwind that engulfs your character and hurts anyone who comes close along with a power up that evolves your Digimon instantly. The difficulty level does ramp up once you start reaching the latter stages, especially when you reach the last boss.

There are various modes to contend with where up to 4 players can get in the mixer. Bomb Battle: there’s a bomb strapped to you, Damage: try to score the most damage, Flag Battle: score points damaging your opponent as you hold onto a flag, Medal Battle: first person to collect 3 medals, Point Battle: you try to beat as many opponents as you can and Survival: where you simply try to survive by beating your opponent. All the modes are reasonably engaging and enjoyable, Digimon All Star Rumble does has some fun modes along with an average yet entertaining story mode. The multiplayer is quite fun as your characters are jumping around trying to beat each other, there’s no apparent slow down when things get heated on-screen.

If you’re a fan of Digimon then Digimon All Star Rumble is a decent title, it’s obviously aimed at the younger audience and the mechanics work well enough to be a reasonably fun game that most Digimon fans would enjoy. Super Smash Bros is better whilst similar titles like Pokémon have a lot more depth to them, but as a standalone title it’s ok.

There’s a lot of the Digi-world included so fans will see lots of characters they know. If you haven’t got Super Smash Bros then Digimon All Star Rumble is worth a few minutes of your time, if you or a family member are a fan of the series you’ll get a couple of hours of fun before the boredom sets in.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 3 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.