Bleach: Shattered Blade Review

I’ve been hearing about Bleach for about a year now. Nothing concrete, just a lot of really good press. Which I must confess tends to bug me after a while. If it’s really that brilliant, then surely it shouldn’t be hard to tell me exactly why it’s great. Well, regardless, when the game was released for the Nintendo Wii I figured I may as well pick it up and see what all the fuss was about. Now, to be honest, I really wish I hadn’t.

Calling Shattered Blade a bad game would be a little too harsh. But that statement would be equally true of calling it a good game as well. It has enough elements in play that it could have been a good game, but they were poorly implemented.

Even on Hard it took me less than an hour to finish each of the story modes, with no real challenge apart from the odd bout where the console seemed to decide ahead of time that I wasn’t going to win regardless of what I did.

This was a real disappointment for me. When I was growing up, SEGA was always the company I looked to for gaming. Nintendo didn’t really come into their prime until the Gamecube in my opinion. Never a bad company, but very much a lot of potential rather than actual results. And now, after man years of both companies refining their methods I expected more. Much more.

Perhaps if I had watched the series before, perhaps then I could appreciate the nuance of the game more. But I very much doubt that. I’ve seen a lot of game tie-ins over the years. Some of them good, some of them great, and some of them just plain travesties (but reviews of Enter the Matrix are for another time, ahem).

Sadly, Bleach seems to fall a lot more closely into that last group. There’s no real plot to speak of, just a bit of a blurb at the beginning, and then again after the final battle. Different, of course, for each character, but tied loosely together because each of them is hunting for the same thing. The Sokyoku shards.

It might have been more enjoyable, perhaps, if there were some diversity between the playable characters. But for the most part the game just revolves around either waving the mote up and down or left to right a lot. And occasionally pressing the A button for a more powerful attack.

Even awakening the Bankai spirit within the character you choose adds little to the game. Though the cinematics of the summoning itself are rather nice. Explosive, but not dragged out so they don’t spoil the flow of the game.

However, it’s not all bad. It never is. There are a large number of unlockable gallerys or both pictures and voice samples, amongst other things. Which, whilst being not particularly difficult to obtain, they do add a certain amount of replay value for those of us who suffer from OCD (like myself).

And when you think about it, the ease with which the game can be played does add a certain juvenile charm. The very fact that it’s so simple gives it a great pick up and play value. Something that you can easily while away some spare time with if you don’t have the patience for something more involved.

In all though, I don’t think the game will really appeal to anyone but the most fanatical of Bleach fans. But even then, it would likely be more of a disappointment. A dirty little secret that you don’t tell anyone else about if they know the secret handshake of a true fan. Perhaps something to keep in your attic, so that you sneak upstairs in the middle of the night for you little fix of pure cheese.

If you really do plan to play the game, or even buy it, I suggest waiting for it to drop in price. It’s not going to be something you will come back to consistently. But it may keep you occupied for a half hour or so from time to time.