I heard about this game years ago, and I was crazy psyched for it: I promptly completely forgot about it. Fast forward to a week or so ago, and I remembered this game existed, and bagged one on eBay really quick. When I finally got into the game, I was little lukewarm at first, as I really didn't understand how you unlocked characters, but once I got past that hurdle, I was soooo into this game. Into it like CRAZY (15 hours in 3-ish days) and played it until I unlocked every character, even the support and helper ones (although not every Koma evolution).

This is far and away the best Smash-like fighter I've ever played. Part of that lies in the solid game mechanics, and another lies in the excellent use of licenses. This is definitely the Smash-like I've played that's most like Smash Bros in terms of overall mechanics (punch other dude 'til he fall off level), but the fact that you also have super moves and a health bar (not to mention various other game modes and swappable characters with support moves) really adds a fuck-load to the formula.

The game's main mechanic is the Deck-system, in which you use the panels you get from completing stages to compile little manga-like pages. These pages hold battle Koma (panels), support Koma, and finally helper Koma. Battle Koma are your actual fighters. You can have 3 of them in a deck at once, and you can swap between them any time during a fight. Support are your more MvC-style they-hop-in-and-do-a-thing-type attacks. Of the 48 playable battle characters, there are far more support characters, and even more helper characters (which just provide a small boost to a battle Koma they're compatible with). You can use the R and L buttons as hotkeys to activate specific support calls or battle character swaps, but any more than two and you'll have to touch that panel on the touch screen to actually do it. I'm not sure how the meta would play out on that on a competitive scene, but I never had any problems using it. More than 2 supports on one deck is unwieldy to handle, and I usually stuck to two battlers, two supports, and then whatever helpers I wanted to throw in.

The stages themselves have one main objective, usually split between a score-based time attack (how many point can you earn), a stock match, and a collect all the things. There are weirder events which are more uncommon like trying not to get hit for a long time or destroying all the walls as fast as you can, but they're very uncommon. There are also 4 or 5 sub-objectives in each stages, which don't need to be completed in the same playthrough of that stage (and usually can't be). There are quite a lot of stages to actually play on for a mobile game, and even though they aren't insanely diverse, I'd put the stage selection at least on par if not better than Smash 3DS. You have things like collapsing platforms and destroyable walls of varrying durability to content with as well, so you've got to get a good grip on your surroundings quickly to use them as well as possible to fulfil the stage objectives.

Now, the licenses, are there ever a fuck-load. I'd try and name them all, but it's a lot easier if you just looked up a list online, because frankly if it was a franchise JUMP owned in 2007, it's in this damn game. Of the 48 playable characters, there certainly aren't that many franchises. Big players like Dragon Ball have 7 battlers (more than any other I found), and other heavy hitters like Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach have 4 or 5 a piece as well. However, there are a lot of older favorites and weirder cult classics that also have 2 or 3 playable characters, like Bobobo Bobobobo, Hunter X Hunter, Fist of the North Star, Jojo's Bizzard Adventure, and even fucking Yu-Gi-Oh (yes, really) to name just a few. Support characters do exist from every present franchise though.

The characters have a kind of type devision between them in a rock-paper-scissors style formula (laughter, power, and wisdom) where the stronger type get 1.5x damage on the weaker, which is a bit strange and not really necessary, but it's there. I imagine if you wanted to get REALLY competitive in this, that would be a serious annoyance, but for me, it mostly just prompted me to learn a few more characters of each type and encourages different, more diverse teams for different situations. My 3 main teams were two dudes of each type, with team Strength being Ken (Fist of the North Star) and Luffy (One Piece) (whom you start with, and whom I really liked), team Wisdom being Sasuke (Naruto) and Piccolo (Dragon Ball Z), and team Laughter being Don Patch (Bobobo) and Frankie (One Piece). I didn't get close to trying every character though. There're just SO damn many, and considering that you have to put together a new deck to try a new set of characters, it's not the fastest thing in the world to just breeze through all the ones you have.

Even if you have just a passing interest in Anime, you'll probably love the theme of this game. I'm very far from an Anime-freak, despite being a Japanese Language & Culture Major, but even I got such a thrill when I saw characters I knew, especially if it's one of my favorites (like Bobobo!). Even if you understand NO Japanese, this is still a fun, fairly idiot-proof game if you just wanna play every stage and beat up mans as Animus. Just remember that you've gotta up the J-Power of your Koma to actually unlock new battle Koma! This stumped me for far longer than it should've Xp. The objectives aren't that complex to figure out. Then again, if you're someone like me who wants to unlock ALL the dudes, you might wanna look into that English patch that Exhumy Senpai linked a little while ago in the "What are you Playing?" thread. Alternatively, there are some very good guides on Gamefaqs in English that explain exactly what to do, and they were more than adequate for when I got confused on stuff.

Things where the game falls a bit flat usually come down to smaller quality of life things. There are way too many menus which need to be backed in and out of when it comes to assembling decks. It really doesn't utilize the touch screen or double screens for assembling decks and viewing Koma information as well as it could (the number of times I wished there were a faster way to go through the dozens and dozens of helper Koma to do upgrading were many). Also, unless you're a MASSIVE Anime fan and can just name the themes as soon as they come up, you'll probably think most of the music is fairly background and forgettable, even though it's never bad or annoying, just nothing I'd never put on my MP3 player.

Verdict: Very highly recommended. It's been a good while since I had a game I was so feverishly addicted to keep playing. The fact that this is a fantastic Smash-like that is both portable and has a super strong license star power makes this an absolutely must own for any fan of Smash Bros or Anime, or even if you just like fighters or action games, I'd say this is still worth at least a try for the 10 bucks it'll cost you to import a complete copy.