Bakugan: Defenders of the Core

Bakugan: Defenders of the Core essentially acts as the big brother to its DS counterpart. Other than keeping the gameplay largely the same, it has obvious advantages in presentation. collecting giant and powerful Bakugan to help in your battle against the evil Vexos. Following on from last year’s Bakugan Battle Brawlers, developers NOW Production have released a new game, featuring real time button mashing combat and a whole new range of Bakugan to capture and control.

While pre-teen fans of the TV series will love seeing all the familiar characters and all the familiar Bakugan, the game is unfortunately disappointing in a number of areas. Visually it’s all pretty bland. While the characters look right, the environments are empty and very dated. Sluggish controls also ensure the combat gets difficult quickly, making it frustrating for even the biggest Bakugan fan.
This is no longer a game involving marbles. Instead it focuses on the monsters inside, and their gargantuan sizes when unleashed to do battle. You are the only Bakugan Brawler unaffected by the evil Vexos Crystals that were implanted all around the world. It becomes your duty to join the resistance, reclaim all the stolen Bakugan, and bring down the Vexos and their dastardly plans.
In Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Defenders of the Core, players will create a new hero and lead the brawlers on an epic adventure to save Earth's cities from Spectra and his Vexos minions.

Players will discover a whole new aspect of Bakugan by being given complete control over their creatures when taking on their opponents as Bakugan transform from small balls into towering creatures. In the midst of intense battles, players will find themselves bravely exploring dangerous and dark areas to stop the evil spirits that are sucking the life force from the world. Players will unlock all-new levels and characters as they unearth hidden clues and defeat opponents in the quest to save the world from ultimate destruction.

Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Defenders of the Core also features split-screen multiplayer action in three different game modes. Coupled with real-time battle gameplay, this game marks the first time that players can duke it out with their Bakugan in head-to-head duels, free for all, and strategic destruction battles.
The game’s structure is equal parts stealth missions and giant monster battles. While traveling all around the world to places like China and Egypt, you will need to sneak past guards standing in the way of your goal. Your trusty Bakugan marble can be thrown to distract them or to pick up unreachable loot. Other gadgets, such as a cloaking device and goggles to view invisible barriers, help you throughout your quest for liberation.

The camera has fixed positions and moves on its own, which gives players a major handicap and results in more than a few missteps. You will find Vexos passes, which act as “get out of jail free” cards if you get caught, that are handed out with suspicious frequency.

There are always two things to worry about when brawling with Vexos villains: other Bakugan enemies and the safety of a landmark that must be protected. To help your cause, you can place down hologram buildings that act as distractions to your enemies. It’s a nice dose of strategy added to the usual mechanics of monster battles. Of course, you can also expect the usual rewards by way of stat bonuses for successfully completing missions since a weak Bakugan simply won’t cut it.

In the original television series, seven children receive magical metallic cards from the mysterious world of Vestroia. These cards allow them to control the powerful Bakugan. Travelling to New Vestroia, the Battle Brawlers join the resistance to battle the Vexos who want to capture all of the Bakugan in the universe. Ultimately, the episodes come down to two battle brawlers calling up their Bakugan to fight and then playing various attacking or defensive power cards to try to tip the balance in their favour.

In Bakugan: Defenders of the Core you join battle brawlers Dan and Marucho in their fight to protect the Perfect Core from the Vexos. The first Bakugan you get is Neo Drago, a giant fire breathing dragon. With the face buttons you can perform strong and weak melee hits, long range attacks, and flight. Shields, speed bursts and targeting are all controlled with the triggers, while your chargeable power attacks are accessed with the d-pad. Essentially, Defenders of the Core is a bit of a button masher. And though the cards are still there, despite being a significant part of the television series and the previous games, they are only used here while preparing for the fights.
At your disposal are light and heavy attacks as well as projectile blasts which can be charged up for higher effectiveness. Ability cards represent your Bakugans’ super moves. Each has four ability cards in total, while only two can be picked during battles. Once charged, they can be activated with a tap of the d-pad to launch a barrage of unstoppable hits or an explosive attack destroying everyone in the area.

You and a friend can go head-to-head in various local multiplayer modes including one-on-one, two-on-two, or a destruction battle that tasks both players to destroy as many Vexos crystals in a given time. The entire roster of 20 Bakugan need to be unlocked through the story mode, making it a necessity for those who want to make the most out of multiplayer.
In the story mode you travel around in Marucho’s airplane to various international locations like the UK and China. While on board you can manage your collection of Bakugan, edit your look and replay earlier battles. Once you reach an area you can explore it, collecting core energy to upgrade you Bakugan’s attributes as well as finding power cards. These areas look and play very poorly. They’re bland (the typical cut-price effort that’s seen in so many games aimed at the younger market), very basic (in a bad way) and terribly out-dated. Jog through an area without being caught by guards or spotlights and you enter a battle area.

Before each battle you have to choose which Bakugan you want to use. Each enemy, as well as your Bakugan, has an elemental strength as well as a corresponding weakness. You choose which of your Bakugan matches up best against your foe. Once selected, the pre-fight screen also gives you the option to place holograms on the map to draw enemy fire away from your landmarks. This is important because the object of the battle is not only to survive the fight, but also to beat the continually re-spawning enemies before they destroy the buildings you have to protect.
Then you choose which battle cards to load for your Bakugan. While you can collect multiple cards for your Bakugan, only two can be active during a fight. You might choose a defensive shield and a range attack card, or just go all out attack.

The fights consist of chasing after the enemies and hitting or shooting at them until you charge up your power attacks. You destroy their crystal re-spawn points when you can, chase them away from your landmarks if the buildings begin to take damage, and hope that you last longer then they do. In the end Bakugan: Defenders of the Core is a basic button masher; the tactics, planning and playing cards make little difference. This is a shame because dealing the cards to counter opponent’s tactics is a big part of the television show.

The combat mechanics also have some problems. Targeting opponents feels very random, especially if there is one you urgently need to kill before it destroys your landmark. Also, moving around the battle area is very hard when you are always locked onto a target. So trying to pick up extra health or getting to a crumbling landmark can be very frustrating. Combine this with ranged shots that never hit their targets, sand and water that makes getting to the enemies difficult and shields that never seem to come up when you need them, and you have not only a poor looking game but a poor playing game as well.

Ultimately, Bakugan: Defenders of the Core is disappointing. But, I know a twelve-year-old fan of the series who absolutely loved it - for a couple of hours, at least, until they hit a big difficulty spike and went back to watching Naruto and Deltora Quest on the Cartoon Network. And that’s probably how it will end for all of us.
The game retains the Bakugan look that fans will instantly recognize, from every member of the battle brawlers to their respective Bakugan. There is quite an extensive amount of dialogue between characters in-between story missions, and unlike it's little brother on the DS, the Xbox 360 version features full voice-acting. The series may have began as a glorified game of marbles. but Defenders of the Core shows that it has the potential to evolve into the next great series of dueling monsters.