Gamernode: Previews - E3 '07: Bleach: Shattered Blade

E3 '07: Bleach: Shattered Blade

Bleach: Shattered Blade on the Wii is a fun game. It's not entirely groundbreaking or amazing, but it's fun; it must be swinging the Wiimote.

When stopping by the Sega booth, Sega assistant PR manager Jennie Sue was there, so I decided to say hi and see how she was doing. Rather than have a quick word, I got distracted by the Bleach game she was playing, and she handed over the Wiimote (complete with the safety strap!) and let me have at it.

The game follows the American Bleach story line, and according to Jennie, includes all of season one (which just ended on Adult Swim). In the version at E3, there were only a tiny amount of playable characters; obviously, I played Ichigo and fought Renji.

Using the remote, you attack your enemy. You can slash sideways, stab, slash up, and slash down. By holding A you perform stronger attacks, so in total there's about 8 moves you can make with your sword (I didn't see how Chad played, but I assume it's the same).

With the Z button, you can guard against attacks. I tried several times to defend myself, but I don't know if it ever worked, because with all the flashing and fast action I couldn't tell when I got hit or when I didn't. With C you can quickly dash, which I found much more useful to avoid being sliced to death.

As you fight, you gain energy. When your energy is full, you can shake the nunchuck back and forth to activate your Bankai. While using your Bankai, holding A and B and performing any sword attack performs a special attack; I saw Renji use his sword to swipe out a huge area, as well as bite Ichigo with the mouth of it. For Ichigo, all I managed to do was perform a combo, which hit Renji with tons of extremely quick hits (but required I swing the remote around like a fool while Jennie laughed).

The fighting isn't very intricate, and given past American-based anime titles, the story will likely be watered down and not understandable for non-fans. As a quick pick up and play game, though, Bleach: Shattered Blade should do pretty well. The fighting is fast and fun, and I can see it becoming a game people get to play at Wii parties (do they even have those?), but compared to other fights such as Sega's own Virtua Fighter 5, it just doesn't seem like it has enough steam to wow the hardcore fightin

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