Dream Mix TV World Fighters

With a Us release highly unlikely due to the rather Japan-centric character roster, many gamers are wondering just what they may be missing. The supposed Smash Bros play style and inclusion of some fan favorite characters will no doubt have a few gamers looking to import this title. Opinion seems to be split down the middle on this title, so I figured I'd weigh in with my thoughts. Maybe this can help you decide if Dream Mix TV World Fighters is right for you.

So, just how similar is this to Smash Bros? Apart from the premise, not very. For starters, there are no ring outs. There are also no individual life meters. Each character shares the same life meter which is set up similar to the map in racing titles such as Mario Kart. Each character has a marker on the meter indicating how much life they have. The whole concept of a life meter even works out differently in Dream Mix. At the start of each fight, hearts will be scattered about the arena. You and your opponents must make a mad dash to collect as many hearts as you can, for they will fill up your life meter. Thus, the amount of life you have is totally dependent on how many hearts you can grab. Every time an opponent successfully lands a hit on you, you "bleed" hearts. Anyone can then pick up these ejected hearts and gain some life.

When you run out of hearts the match does not end. The next successful hit will knock your soul free. If you can grab it before one of your opponents you will stay in the game. If one of your opponents snags it before you though, you lose. The fun doesn't end there though, taking a page from Bomberman, once you're knocked out you can still run around and annoy the other players by kicking them and generally getting in the way. Well, a mini-version of you anyway, as your character shrinks in size when you lose your soul. This is a nice feature that can allow the losing players some sweet revenge.

Further differentiating itself from Smash Bros, there are no items. OK, I lied, there is one item that appears to be dropped randomly. It is an egg which you can throw and if it hits someone, they will become confused and movement will be reversed. Whoopee! Big disappointment. It is also worth noting that there is a distinct lack of moves in the game. There is one attack button which has a basic three to four hit combo for most characters. You can perform two additional attacks in conjunction with the dpad by pressing either left or right and attack or up and attack. In addition to the attack button you have a special attack button which handles each characters unique special moves, such as Bomberman's bombs. Much like the normal attack, you can modify the special attacks with a combination of dpad and button. Finally, you have a grab button which you use to pick your opponents up and throw them across the screen. With a lack of ring outs, this isn't nearly as satisfying as it should be. Unfortunately, you cannot double jump in the game. This omission is made even worse thanks to the already stiff jumping. One other minor complaint about the control, your character does not turn around instantly. It takes a second for the turn animation to complete allowing your opponent a free hit or two. You'll get used to it though.

Dream Mix TV World Fighters is rather bare bones with only three modes of play. The main single player mode is called World Fighters. World Fighters mode is seven stages long and plays out just like a typical fighter. Each stage pits you against one or more fighters, last one standing wins. The seventh stage has you fighting against a non-playable boss character. This mode is set up like a TV show, complete with a ratings meter in the corner. The better you fight, the more viewers will tune in. Fight like a chump and viewers will lose interest. Allow the ratings to drop to zero and it's game over. Littered between the stages are a few cinemas staring the announcers of the show. These cinemas are the same for every one of the seventeen selectable characters and it is worth noting that there are no endings. After you beat the game, you watch the boss explode and then the credits play. It is at this time that I should mention that the AI is horrendous. Enemies pose no challenge and completing the game is only a matter of spending the ten or fifteen minutes it takes to win all of the battles. Just crank up the difficulty you scream. Well, I'd love to, but there are no difficulty settings! Sad to say, the game is stuck in baby mode. Oh well, it just makes unlocking characters and stages for multiplayer easier.

Which brings me to the second mode, Soul Battle. This is nothing more than a standard Vs mode, be it against human or CPU opponents. The ratings meter is turned off in this mode, so you do not have to worry about impressing the crowd. This will be the mode that you spend the most time with once you finish unlocking the characters and levels in World Fighters Mode. Up to four human and/or CPU opponents can duke it out in a last man standing free for all. Much like World Fighters mode, Soul Battle is quite bare bones. You cannot play with teams. None of the rules can be manipulated. You can't even choose your CPU opponents! They are selected randomly after you pick your character. You do have limited control, in that you can set the number of rounds, how many players and even handicaps. Though the game is still way easy even with the handicap set in the CPU's favor. You can also choose which stage to fight on. Every character has four color schemes so it is possible to have an all Bomberman fight. Some characters alternate color schemes are more than just pallet swaps. For example, one of Solid Snake's alternate schemes is his tux. Or perhaps more exciting is his Plisskin getup from Metal Gear Solid 2.

In addition to the World Fighters and Battle Modes there is the Caravan mode. The Caravan mode is merely a collection of eight mini games for you to complete. Your reward? Other than the satisfaction of completing the challenges, nothing. A missed opportunity to be sure. The real question is, are the challenges fun? For the most part, no, they are nothing more than lame fetch quests. The most common challenge being to grab as many of a certain item as you can before time runs out. Yippee. To it's credit, a couple of the mini games are interesting, most notably one that stars Power Pro-Kun. You have to pick up a beach ball and pitch it across the screen attempting to hit balloons as they float to the sky. You can chain your hits to score more points. The first balloon you hit gives you 100 points and each additional balloon raises that value by 100. However, once the ball falls off screen the chain is reset. It plays similar to a classic arcade game and is easily the best of the bunch. So, while these mini games are a welcome addition, I do not believe that they were used to their fullest potential. Nothing more than time wasters.

A lot of this game's draw lies in it's unique character selection. If you told me there was a game were you could have the original Optimus Prime take on Bomberman, Simon Belmont and Solid Snake, I would've asked "Where can I sign up?" I'm sure I am not alone either. Like Smash Bros before it, Dream Mix TV World Fighters allows us to answer the question of "Could Twin Bee take down Moai from Gradius?" It is like a fanboy's dream come true. The character selection truly is a mix that spans a wide array of sources. Everything from videogame characters to toys and even an anime character. While some of them should be well known to your average gamer, a few may be a bit over their head. The relative obscurity of some of these characters, coupled with the less than perfect gameplay is likely the biggest hurdle this game faces to seeing a domestic release. I'm sure the super deformed nude character doesn't help matters much. Regardless, I feel it is a nice roster overall. Seeing Optimus and Megatron in all their Generation 1 glory is enough for me.

Even still, there are some notable omissions, especially Bonk(PC Genjin). With the recent Bonk remake for Cube and Ps2, you would think he'd be a given. After all, Master Higgins from Adventure Island made the cut, why not Bonk? It's nice to see Simon Belmont in there, but what about Dracula, Alucard or even Kid Dracula? With the combined library of characters from Konami, Takara and Hudson, there was a veritable smorgasbord of prospects.

To enjoy the game, you really have to enjoy the roster. Unless you play with import savvy or in-the-know gamers, many of these characters will be lost on your friends. The lack of unrecognizable characters will allow the average gameplay to shine through. Simply put, this game needs it's characters to succeed. If you aren't interested in them, you won't be interested in this game.

The stages in this game are taken from many of the character's respective games or toylines. One stage has you fighting on and around an inactive Devastator from Transformers. Another stage places you on the Shell from Metal Gear Solid 2 and so on. One that truly surprised me was an arena ripped straight out of Gradius, complete with score display, the weapon selection bar at the bottom of the screen and even the song "Burning Heat!" taken from Gradius 2's first stage. All of the stages are the same size, just large enough to fill one screen. As previously stated, there are no ring outs, so even if it looks like you can continue further, you are blocked by invisible walls. Due to the lack of items, the stages are rather barren. To spice things up, each stage has an environmental hazard that is randomly triggered. This could be anything from a jet firing it's machine guns at you on the Shell to the small Medusa Heads floating by in Dracula's Castle. Or my personal favorite, the large head that forms and shoots energy blasts at you on the Star Soldier themed stage.

Graphically, the game is nothing special. The frame rate stays constant and the graphics in no way hinder the playability. It's just obvious that the Gamecube is capable of much more than this. I will say that the detail on the two Transformers characters is excellent though. They look exactly like the toys, right down to sticker placement and everything. On the flipside, what is up with Power Pro-Kun using a fan instead of a baseball bat? The music in the game, like the stages, was mainly pulled from the character's various series. The original music is dull and uninteresting. All characters feature voice acting, which is obviously in Japanese.

Speaking of which, all menus in the game are in Japanese. Thankfully, they are in katakana so navigation is a snap. Alternatively, you can check the FAQ over at Gamefaqs for a handy translation guide. Besides, the game isn't all that complex so even if you were forced to use trial and error, it shouldn't be too difficult.

As far as extras go, once you unlock the characters and stages, there isn't much. There is a small mode entitled Library. This mode is a database of info on the various characters and stages in the game. It provides data on the character or stage, what the theme song is and a few pictures. Nothing too interesting. It should be noted that like the menus, all character and stage info is in Japanese. All in all, it won't take long to see all that this game has to offer. I hate to further compare this to Smash Bros, but the game would've done well with unlockables similar to the trophies from Super Smash Bros Melee.

To be blunt, if a free for all between Optimus Prime, Bomberman, Solid Snake and Simon Belmont doesn't sound like a blast to you and your friends, then you'd do best to skip over this title. The game relies on it's novelty factor to succeed and if it loses that, it becomes nothing more than a simplistic fighter in the vein of Smash Bros. This isn't a game to pick up for it's great gameplay, so if you want that I do not recommend it. Don't get me wrong, the game is still good fun, it's just that a lot of that fun lies in the Dream Match side of things. It's the premise that succeeds here, not the execution. If you can look past the average, bare bones gameplay I think you'll be able to have a good time. Like all fighters, the game's true fun lies in it's multiplayer mode. You can see everything that Single Player has to offer in a few days of light play. So before picking this up, make sure you've got some friends who can also overlook the shallow gameplay for a chance to have Megatron beat down that little punk from Beyblade.

©2004 Ed Finnegan

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