nicholaschin's Full Review: Digimon Rumble Arena for PlayStation 1
First of all I would like to say this is actually an English translation of Battle Evolution. Everything is the same except the words, a few names and the opening movie.
I am doing a review of the Japanese version but I can assure you its exactly the same as Digimon Rumble Arena.
First of all when you load the game it plays a short movie (differs from versions) and then Guilmons voice says Digimon Tamers Battle Evolution (or Rumble Arena depending..). Next it brings you to a menu which has a few options such as mission mode, VS computer, VS player, settings and a few more.
If you select mission mode you will battle everyone of the digimon with the final battle being with Gokumon (Reapermon). Once you finish the mission mode with a certain digimon for example Agumon, you will be able to unlock Wargreymon, finshing with Gabumon will unlock Metalgarurumon and so on... Once you have unlocked the characters you will be able to use them in VS mode. This is good because it saves time getting enough digivolve power to digivolve to that stage. I will explain further.
When battling, doesn't matter if its in mission mode ,VS computer or human its still the same. First, you select your character (Rookies only unless you have unlocked megas) then you select your life meter level. For example if you are battling a friend who isn't good at this you can give him an advantage by giving your Digimon less starting life. once both players have selected Digimons they battle. This game unlike games like Street Fighter or Tekken doesn't have any moves you need to do key combinations. Each button: square, triangle etc. corresponds to an attack except 'X' which is jump. there are usualy 2 special attack buttons and one normal attack button like punch or kick depending on digimon. Once you start the goal is obvious: kick the enemys butt before he/she/it does the same to you. When battling, when you get hit or when you hit the enemy your digivolve meter fills up. It also fills up if you are blocking. You don't get much damage but your meter fills up the same. Once its full, pressing R1 will cause your Digimon to Digivolve usually to Mega except Wormmon. When in mega stage you get a different attack set and a special move which does a lot of damage. When digivolved the meter drops pretty quickly and if it runs out you de-volve to rookie. However, while you are still in mega form you can use your special attack by pressing R1 (carefull not to get hit or you will waste it). After using it the meter will go empty.
If you start the battle with a Mega level Digimon, the digivolve meter is used for the special attack. When it is full you can use the special attack but not digivolve (duhh) Megas take a little less damage from attacks and do more damage with their attacks. However, when digivolving from a rookie with 1/2 life the Mega will still have 1/2 life. Megas have their own unique attack from karate, kung foo to missile weapons and fireballs.
Besides the fighting part, there are also power ups and strategy to consider. Power ups include junkfood (digimons favourite) which restores life, power increasing cards, damage done increasing cards to dizzie cards which make the digimon go beserk for a short while.
Another thing to take note off is each battle area. Some have surprises. The forest/waterfall map has boulders which ram you and reduce life. Small boulders can be hit to your enemy to damage them but timing must be right. Unfortunately the enemy can also hit the same boulder back and play 'pass the boulder' where the first guy that gets the timing wrong gets whacked. Another map is the heaven map where the digimon fight in the sky with a big screen behind like in WWF. Players can drop off the screen and get electrocuted by the idol in the center. Another map is the volcano map there once in a while it erupts and a few areas on the bottom level gets fried. One more map is the pinball map where sometimes the whole screen will rotate and explosives will drop. Besides that, there is the North Pole map where its very slippery and attacking or getting hit can sometimes send you flying (or sliding due to the lack of traction) Falling off the edges will land you in cold water and the digimon will freeze into a popsicle. If i'm not mistaken the last map is the void. there are no powerups and there is only a 1 level so you can't jump up to a ledge or anything. you can just run forever one way. The void also distorts light so you will see kinda like a shadow following behing the digimons when moving. In my oppinion this map is unfair because long range attackers have a huge advantage.
I find the graphics to be good none of the multiple poligonal stuff for each character like lousy fighting games where people are made up of what appears to be like many cubes put together. To get what I mean picture people with almost square faces and bodies with pictures stuck to them. The skin, fur or whatever moves along with the character. (you know... stretches and stuff). The backgrounds are just as good.
Sound is ok. Most people think the digimon are mumbling when attacking because only the starting and a few other things were dubbed in English and the Japanese attacks sound nothing like the English so its what people don't expect and sounds like mumbling. For example agumon says pepper breath but in Japanese he says baby flame. Obviously baby flame sounds nothing like pepper breath and people think the sound is so cheap they can't make it out. One thing I like is the ambient noise like chirping birds, wind, computer hums etc.
Overall i think this a fun game that Digimon fans would really love. Especially people who can't do those combo button attacks in most fighting games. You know.. the one that you have to press many direction buttons follower by attack buttons to do fireballs, fast attacks, kung foo, karate etc. In this game 1 button 1 attack.
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