I bought this on a whim, knowing very little about Zoids in general (I think I had some toys when I was a kid) and nothing about the recent anime series. I expected it to be mediocre or even bad, instead...well, I won't say it's good, but it's better than expected. It'll probably be a good tie-in for young fans of the franchise/anime series, but won't last long for others.
Zoids Wild Blast Unleashed is an one-on-one fighting game where you pilot Zoids, mechanical beasts styled after animals and dinosaurs. Unlike older Zoids designs, pilots (or riders, as the game calls them) sit atop their Zoids and said Zoids attack with claws, bites, and other close-ranged attacks. No lasers, cannons, or missiles sadly. Some old Zoids have been redesigned (like the main protagonist's Liger) have received a facelift and look much more like animals than warmachines styled after beasts.
Also, why are the cool-looking Zoids (a.k.a. the dinosaurs) in the hands of the evil guys? At the very least the source material seems to have fun with their bad guys: the commander of the evil force is called Emperor Gigaboss, looks like a mix between King Diamond and Immortan Joe, and he's pretty chill about everything, going "toodles" when going away. We need more stories where bad guys are fun and over the top like this.
Also, Zoids Wild BU is perhaps the only game (or any form of media) since the 1980s where I heard a character saying "far out!".
The source material is clearly aimed at young kids, so the game is no different: two attack buttons and you can string combos by simply hammering the light attack. You can get technical and mix light, heavy, and special attacks, but options are very limited: all characters I have played have two of such combo strings, and all are about adding a heavy or special attack at the end of a light attacks string.
Special attacks are performed with a face button plus R, and have a recharge time. Build up enough meter and you can unleash the wild spirit, which for a limited period of time will power up the Zoid changing normal and special attacks and bestow some bonuses depending on the nature of the selected spirit.
Attacks can have peculiar properties like poison, hitting the enemy from behind gives a very small damage bonus, the game runs rather well with no hiccups, and the available characters are all different enough to make them interesting, at least for the lenght of their single-player story.
The real surprise is that the game is in sorround! Well, the anime intro is, and the use of sorround channels is very rare during the game itself, but I honestly never expected 5.1 from a game that starts with the developer's log showing scaling artifacts in a pre-rendered video.
The story mode is surprisingly long, all characters have at least ten or so missions which might include one-vs-many battles against mob enemies or other named characters. Completing a character's arc usually takes less than an hour. The game saves twice within a ten-fifteen seconds span, after winning a battle and when you get back to the story screen, which is very annoying.
Story mode however gets boring fast, some enemies might be sturdier but once you've discovered your character's full combo, you simply repeat that until all battles are over.
Other game modes include training and local multiplayer. Most of the cast is locked behind story mode progression, but within an hour you can unlock everyone except four characters. Brining someone's story to completion unlocks a second, more powerful version of that character's Zoid.
There's also a vast gallery with illustrations, models, character portraits, and sound test.
Zoids Wild Blast Unleashed is surprisingly rich in content; it might not be the most enticing or long-lasting game, but it's well done.
Zoids Wild Blast Unleashed is an one-on-one fighting game where you pilot Zoids, mechanical beasts styled after animals and dinosaurs. Unlike older Zoids designs, pilots (or riders, as the game calls them) sit atop their Zoids and said Zoids attack with claws, bites, and other close-ranged attacks. No lasers, cannons, or missiles sadly. Some old Zoids have been redesigned (like the main protagonist's Liger) have received a facelift and look much more like animals than warmachines styled after beasts.
Also, why are the cool-looking Zoids (a.k.a. the dinosaurs) in the hands of the evil guys? At the very least the source material seems to have fun with their bad guys: the commander of the evil force is called Emperor Gigaboss, looks like a mix between King Diamond and Immortan Joe, and he's pretty chill about everything, going "toodles" when going away. We need more stories where bad guys are fun and over the top like this.
Also, Zoids Wild BU is perhaps the only game (or any form of media) since the 1980s where I heard a character saying "far out!".
The source material is clearly aimed at young kids, so the game is no different: two attack buttons and you can string combos by simply hammering the light attack. You can get technical and mix light, heavy, and special attacks, but options are very limited: all characters I have played have two of such combo strings, and all are about adding a heavy or special attack at the end of a light attacks string.
Special attacks are performed with a face button plus R, and have a recharge time. Build up enough meter and you can unleash the wild spirit, which for a limited period of time will power up the Zoid changing normal and special attacks and bestow some bonuses depending on the nature of the selected spirit.
Attacks can have peculiar properties like poison, hitting the enemy from behind gives a very small damage bonus, the game runs rather well with no hiccups, and the available characters are all different enough to make them interesting, at least for the lenght of their single-player story.
The real surprise is that the game is in sorround! Well, the anime intro is, and the use of sorround channels is very rare during the game itself, but I honestly never expected 5.1 from a game that starts with the developer's log showing scaling artifacts in a pre-rendered video.
The story mode is surprisingly long, all characters have at least ten or so missions which might include one-vs-many battles against mob enemies or other named characters. Completing a character's arc usually takes less than an hour. The game saves twice within a ten-fifteen seconds span, after winning a battle and when you get back to the story screen, which is very annoying.
Story mode however gets boring fast, some enemies might be sturdier but once you've discovered your character's full combo, you simply repeat that until all battles are over.
Other game modes include training and local multiplayer. Most of the cast is locked behind story mode progression, but within an hour you can unlock everyone except four characters. Brining someone's story to completion unlocks a second, more powerful version of that character's Zoid.
There's also a vast gallery with illustrations, models, character portraits, and sound test.
Zoids Wild Blast Unleashed is surprisingly rich in content; it might not be the most enticing or long-lasting game, but it's well done.