Digimon Tamer: Battle Spirit

So far, we already reviewed Guilty Gear Petit, Guilty Gear Petit 2, Ultraman, One Piece Grand Battle Swan Colosseum and Kinnikuman for the Wonderswan Color on Defunct Games. In all honestly, I'm getting a little bit tired of 1-on-1 fighting games for Bandai's lightweight handheld. Yet, here I am reviewing yet another one. This time it's Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit.


For me, Digimon are just like little Pokemon characters. Most of them look like little dinosaurs or dragons that come in a whole rainbow of colors. There's also a little rabbit with giant ears that goes by the name of Terriermon. Like most WonderSwan Color games, Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit is in the Japanese language, but since it's a fighting game that shouldn't bog things down too much. The game is also available in English for the Game Boy Advance.

The graphics in Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit are really good. It's one of the most colorful WonderSwan Color I played, though the character animation left a little to be desired. On the other hand, the music is surprisingly good, much better than most WonderSwan games.


The gameplay mostly resembles One Piece Grand Battle Swan Colosseum. Just like in that game, fights don't take place on just one screen, but rather in some kind of arena with small platforms in which the screen scrolls from the right to the left (and vice versa) or from top to bottom (and vice versa). I'm not fond of this kind of platform-fighting game, because the fights take a little too long for my taste. Luckily all kind of power-ups show up that will make life easier. But mostly, it just seems like a brainless button mashing fest. Control is decent.

Overall, Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit is a decent effort and a graphically impressive WonderSwan Color game. The gameplay just couldn't hold my attention for very long, but I guess that will be different if you are a huge Digimon fan and haven't played any other WonderSwan fighting game before. I still prefer Kinnikuman who is, despite his sickening appearance, the king of WonderSwan fighting games.