Reviews

If you're looking for a glossy Japanese beat 'em up with unrealistically proportioned women and swords the size of small oak trees, chances are you'll like Bleach: Shattered Blade very much. The trouble is, if you've never heard of the Bleach comics, which are simply huge in Japan, you'll be scratching your head about the confusing plot in-between the fights (something to do with collecting shattered sword shards so the characters can enter the human realm again).

If, however, you are a fan of Bleach and own all the Manga comics, the three feature films, the animated TV series, the soundtrack CDs, the trading card game, seen all seven rock musicals (?!) and own the eight video games (available mainly in Japan with a few released in Europe on the DS), then you'll know exactly what the Sokyoku shards are and what they mean to the main character, Ichigo Kurosaki.

Don't you know it's dangerous to fight near an icy patch?

The sequel to Shattered Blade, Versus Crusade, was released in Japan on December 18th 2008, but has yet to secure a release date in Europe. So basically Bleach is bigger than Harry Potter or Twilight in Japan, yet us limeys have never heard of it (unless you're a comic hound or watch late night cable TV). As such, random buyers of this game will find the story baffling, but the graphics and fighting moves are above average.

As is required in any animated oriental fighting game, there are lots of whoosh noises, crash zooms, lightning shooting from fingers and plenty of shouting. But we'll get to that in a moment. After a montage of action from the TV show you're taken to the main menu, where you should start with the Training Mode (makes sense). There's an odd test for your Wii remote where you swing it in each direction to find out which angle you can strike a cuddly teddy with. After beating him senseless for no real reason (sicko!), you move on to the meat of the tutorial.

You're supposed to keep lightning in a bottle, not your hands!