PSP World

Bleach Soul Carnival Review

Greetings all Bleach fans and welcome to another installment of "what will the Bleach series do next?" I am your host Shadowkuma, and I am here today to discuss the current import game of choice: Bleach Soul Carnival for the PSP. I have to say that this new version of Bleach is splendid, cute and will have you at "hello" when you first boot up the "Chibi" style game. Everyone, please hold all questions until after the review is over and get your soul charge ready for this import review!

Once again since this is an import title you may get "lost in translation" trying to figure out what is going on. Unless you are like me and have watched the anime and read the mangas. In this title you will start off with Ichigo in bankai form and will have to go through city streets and of course hollow territory to finish off each goal in the game and level up your character. You will have to face off in many boss battles and even take on other characters to add them to your group. This game is more interesting than the previous titles in the series because all the characters are now drawn in "chibi" form (with large, child-like heads) in this side scroller.

Bleach Soul Carnival is an amazing side scroll beat ' em up game because of the RPG elements involved where you add characters that will help you during your fights and level up during each stage depending on how well you fight. In the out world screen area you can make choices of which stage to repeat, go to the store and purchase power ups, even change yoru character depending on the mission. You will have many characters to choose from through out the bleach series even the Vizard and Arrancar group. Soul Society of course is in a panic and it is up to Ichigo with the help of Rukia and Kon...thats right Kon helps battle hollows and other threats to the human world.

The controls are very simple: you have square as your main attack and depending on the direction you can do a special move. The triangle button functions as your assistance where a sub character pops out real quick to give you a helping hand. The X of course is your normal jump button and if you hit it twice you can perform a double jump or a delayed double jump. Your circle button gives you the speed burst to get to an area quicker and with the direction you are pointing they will sped towards that area fast.

They added a grid system that reminds me of Final Fantasy 10 where you position sub characters and or items to certain spots. Depending on where you position the characters it will link and possibility make them or you more powerful. I would suggest playing around with this feature and see what cahracters link best; so far I notice Kon and Rukia link very well together. Once that is done you will be able to kick hollow butt much more fierece then ever before. You will also be treated with many items through out the levels that will give you HP or MP boost during your battles so you can perform many signature combos from all the characters.

There are things that are slightly vexing during the game. For example there are not enough save points during missions and I have yet to see if there is a save option outside of the missions in the pre-mission area. So you will have to play through the level until you run into a save point in the shape of Ichigo's emblem. Also there is no mulitplayer in sight anywhere in the game, which would be nice even though the game is entertaining on its own. Another thing that weirded me out is that they added an alarm mode so the characters can wake you up. I have no idea would would keep their psp on for long that you will be waken up by one of the characters in the game, but that feature seemed geared for kids. In that sense this whole game feels more geared for kids anyway. Check out the alarm video provided by gametrailers.com.

My final thoughts are as follows so please take note! Bleach Soul Carnival gives off a cute look towards the series and brings a nice sice scroll platformer style while keeping in touch with the hardcore fans out there. On that note even if you are not a fan you would still enjoy playing through this title, especially having all the weapons at your disposal. The down side is the save points are limited through each stage and there is no multiplayer to battle in kid form. I don't see a real use of the alarm system other then keeping tabs of your kids playing for too long and that acting as a reminder to get off. All and all the fun factor is definitely there and I will give BSC a 4 out of 5. It is a very "kawaii" game and I did enjoy it. As always stay frosty gamers and be sure to check out other reviews from us here at gameflavor/pspworld.com!