A little over one decade ago, Pokémon ignited the world of monster RPGs. It practically invented the genre, introducing gamers to a world of role-playing we never knew, one that didn’t have to feature compelling characters or a compelling story to consume us for several dozen hours.

Not too long after Pokémon achieved international success, a new card game surfaced: Yu-Gi-Oh! Riding the wave of monster love, Yu-Gi-Oh! opened kids’ eyes to a world of card battling they never knew existed. Soon, their eyes began to look at other card games as well, eventually leading to the creation of Bakugan Battle Brawlers.

Bakugan is not a card game, but it uses cards as items that are both collectible and functional. The real game uses magnetic cards and marbles to produce something kids have never really seen before; the video-game, on the other hand, tries to bring every fictional element – most significantly the monsters – to life using the powers of our game consoles.

The conversion is an unusual mix, to say the least. Instead of the real-world formula, players are now rolling monsters down a large virtual arena. In this phase, the monsters are crunched into balls. You start by aligning the cursor with the area you want to target. Next, you select one of three monsters (essentially marbles) in your deck. To launch it into the arena, study the charge meter as it rises and falls; when it reaches the maximum power you wish to unleash, press the right trigger. The ball will launch and, with some help from the left analog stick (push it left or right to steer, push it up or down to slow the marble down), it will land on top of one of the cards within the arena.

That card is called a Gate Card, the most important item in all of Bakugan. When your monster lands on it, he begins to take possession of it. But he can’t actually take the card until it has been won. There are a couple ways to accomplish this: the first is to battle an opponent.

When two players’ monsters land on the same card, the battle phase begins. During this phase, you might expect to be faced with spells, attack options, and other RPG traits. Given that this is being promoted as a card game, you may also expect stats to come into play – perhaps you’d have to draw a powerful card or two, and hope they’re stronger than your opponent’s cards.

 
Players can customize their characters using a handful of pre-made aesthetics.

That isn’t the case. Bakugan’s battle phase consists of point-based mini-games where your only goal is to score the most points by the time runs out. The points, however, differ from those in other games, as they are based on your monster’s default stat rating – G-Power. Sort of the anti-EXP, achieving the highest G-Power is all you need to do to win. If your monster’s G-Power is exorbitantly high, you might just be able to sit back and do nothing at all simply because there’s no chance your opponent will be able to catch up.

If you want to ensure that you win, however, you’re going to have to increase your G-Power, and that’s where the Power, Timing and Shooting battles come in. Power battles focus on your ability to push the left and right sticks up/down and left/right. It’s not quite a Simon Says experience but you should pay attention to the game’s advice or else you won’t earn any points.

Shooting battles toss a sphere onto the screen with multi-colored orbs that represent your monster’s attributes (which could be fire, ice, wind, etc.). To gain points, push the left stick in the direction of the desired sphere and push the right trigger to capture it.

Timing battles are the usual mini-game inclusion: you must push a button or move the left stick as its respective icon scrolls across the screen.

The monster with the most G-Power wins. There is, however, a way to avoid the mini-games, as long as your opponent – real or AI – makes a bad throw. Bakugan’s battle phase is essentially real-time, but the marble-throwing phase is purely turn-based. Thus, if your opponent throws a monster and misses the target (a Gate Card), you’ll get another turn. Now you’ll have the opportunity to throw a second monster on top of the Gate Card and acquire it by doing absolutely nothing. Win three Gate Cards (or more, depending on game settings) and you’re home free.

 
They may look tough but these monsters can be defeated with a simple mini-game.

If you’re reading this review, it’s likely because you’re (A) a Bakugan fan or (B) wonder what the heck it is. The latter group can stop reading; by now it should be apparent that the game is not for you. Bakugan fans, however, need to consider if these mini-games are a substantial draw. The story might be – as far as kid-targeted RPGs go, Bakugan is one of the more tolerable tales, and seems to stay true to its anime source material. It is wholly possible that an eight-year-old who can’t wait for each new episode of Bakugan, and has all the toys, etc., will go nuts for the game’s story.

But if that same kid loves Mario Party and other mini-game collections, he or she may tire of this game’s lack of variety and severe lack of depth. All kids are likely to be bored the length of each turn, especially during four-player games, despite having the ability to bypass some of the character animations.

Before picking this up for your little one, ask yourself: is the license enough? Does your kid love the characters as much as the real game of Bakugan, so much that he or she would enjoy playing a game, any game, just to see those characters?

Gameplay: 5.5
Throw a monster, play a mini-game, repeat.

Graphics: 5.0
Bare-minimum effects are used to present the 3D monsters and 2D anime humans.

Sound: 5.0
Kids may get into the story, but that doesn't change the fact that the music and voice-overs are frequently childish and annoying.

Difficulty: Easy
When you can win by doing nothing (or at most, flicking a thumb), you know you're playing a game that's very easy.

Concept: 5.0
Bakugan's developers clearly had a difficult task on their hands when trying to design a game using marbles and magnetic cards as source material. Unfortunately, relying on tiring, been there, done that mini-games was not the right solution.

Multiplayer: 5.0
The mini-games are too repetitive and too shallow to enjoy in a multiplayer setting. Waiting for others to take their turns is not fun, especially when the same batch of mini-games appear every time you or anyone else moves.

Overall: 5.5
Looking at it broadly, Bakugan isn’t a bad storybook for kids, assuming that’s what you – or your child – is looking for in a $40 video-game, a storybook. But as an RPG, Bakugan is severely lacking, and as a mini-game collection, the game is very bland. You even can’t rate it as a card game because, despite the in-game hype and frequent card-speak among characters, Bakugan isn’t really a card game.