Battle Stadium D.O.N

Probably when you think about anime-based video games, Naruto is one of the first names to immediately jump to mind. And if it isn't Naruto it could be Dragon Ball, we've seen amazing Dragon Ball games even in the recent years. And of course, we couldn't leave out One Piece, not only one of the best and longest-running anime of all time but also one that has some of the coolest games too. And Battle Stadium D.O.N brought them all together into one crazy and fun experience. So, is a game that combines three of the best and most popular animes of all times nearly as great as it should be? Well, let's talk about that.

About the game

Battle Stadium D.O.N is a game made entirely to please the fans, It doesn't overly complicate itself with dimensions and crossing timelines, or any of that. It just presents a simple idea and makes it come true. This is great if you are just looking forward to having some fun and seeing who would win in a fight of Naruto vs Goku vs Luffy.

It presents different scenarios based on the three different animes, and it features many cameos and references to the series. You start the game with 12 different characters, 4 from each anime to choose from. But as you progress you’ll find a total of 20 characters in the game.

Fun for everybody

The game shares a lot in common with the fighting mechanics in games like Super Smash bros. With big scenarios and fun multiplayer. It's not a serious game that fuses all these series together, but it is instead about having fun, and it certainly succeeds at doing so. That's why it's pretty hard to really compare it to any of the other games based on these series. It is still similar to some Naruto games of that time, but it maintains a very unique look and feels. It's hard to find a game like this one these days.

Review

Battle Stadium D.O.N is a great game to have fun and play around. But if you’re looking for a great fighting game, this one’s not for you. There are basic fighting mechanics, but it’s more of a fun multiplayer game. And even if you play it by yourself you can have a great time.

• Graphics and visuals: The game looks fine, very anime-like, and it has nice models. The animations are a bit chunky but it's not really an annoying thing. Overall the characters look colorful and nice, and they all have the exact art-style from their respective animes. This combination can seem a bit strange at first but you'll find it's excellent in the end.

• Gameplay: The game mechanics are simple yet fun. There are various power-ups you can use to get all kinds of crazy abilities. It would be nice to get more fluid combat and maybe more direct, as sometimes it can get to feel pretty slow. But it is still pretty enjoyable.

• Sound: The sound is what you’d expect from most anime games, with the basic themes and music. WHat’s really nice though is that many of them are inspired in the different music styles of the three anime combined, and it works out pretty well.

The giants of the anime industry and neighbors in Jump magazine - Naruto, Dragon Ball and One Piece send their heroes to a crossover fighting game that will stop fans arguing about who is stronger after all - Battle Stadium D.O.N. Can't argue with a friend and prove that Goku is stronger than Naruto? Prove it with your fists, but in a virtual space where multiple universes come together.

Fight through universes

A massive three-dimensional fighting game that includes three anime universes at once. Yes, it is not comparable to the scale of Jump Force, but also impressive for fans of three anime at once. In an impossible by the laws of anime battle can be seen:

• One Piece: Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Vinsmoke Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper;
• Naruto: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kakashi Hatake, Rock Lee, Gaara;
• Dragon Ball: Goku, Teen Gohan, Piccolo, Future Trunks, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu;

Each character has six basic attacks and one ultimatum attack. However, some characters can use a special ultimatum. For example, Luffy activates the second gyr and Goku goes into super saiyan mode.

Who's dead is not dead

The gameplay is much different from standard fighting games like Street Fighter or Mortal Combat. In Battle Stadium D.O.N., there are no separate health bars for the enemy and for the player character. There is one common life bar for all players. The maximum number of players per field is four. However, there will still be one health bar. The player who gains the maximum amount of health and literally takes the health of the enemies out of the scale wins. You can score health points with red balls that fall from your enemies.

Your screen is another wall

An interesting feature of Battle Stadium D.O.N. remains character interaction with the environment. In battle, the enemy can send your characters flying in any direction. Characters can fly off the screen, even flying toward the player and bouncing off the screen, showing you their soles. The locations from each anime also carry plenty of possibilities, both for dodging and for dropping enemies into the sea or the abyss.

Throughout the history of gaming there have been genres of games that have been subject to drastic changes within their life span with some being for the better and some for the worse. Racing games have moved from frantic arcade styles to realistic simulation, shooters have moved from single-player campaign heavy experiences to battle royale influenced multiplayer extravaganzas and narrative-driven games have become much more cinematic in nature. However, within one genre of gaming, it seems that if you hit the money once, you can do it again and again.

This genre is, of course, fighting games. Titles such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter or Super Smash Bros have all stayed true to their roots and continued to cash in on their infinitely successful formats. With this in mind, we take a look at Battle Stadium D.O.N, a game that uses Super Smash Bros as a blueprint for which to build their own success.

This game plays very similar in nature to the Super Smash Bros series as well as titles like Brawlhalla, Gang Beasts, Niddhogg or Brawlout. Essentially, this title takes the four-way battle format of these titles and then aims to deliver its own unique brand of fighting using these titles as an inspiration.

Familiar Fights

The game may provide a star-studded anime cast including Naruto, Dragonball-z and One Piece characters to set itself apart from the other titles listed, it’s clear that the controls haven’t been too heavily adapted. You’ll still have the ability to perform a varied list of attacks that are all mapped in a conventional way, you’ll still have the ability to perform super moves, you’ll still have access to projectile-based moves for ranged attacks and you also grab opponents. All in all, it doesn’t really depart from the Smash Bros blueprint at all in this respect.

However, instead of the game using a damage percentage as this Smash series does to represent your health, this game uses a very interesting and well-implemented new system. Each player will have one health bar and will lose health when they are hit. However, when hit items representing health will drop to the floor, allowing you to frantically scramble to get it back or see an opponent steal it to heal themselves. It’s a wonderful addition that really encourages risk-taking in battle.

Light on Content

Despite the huge licences to work with and the commendable combat mechanics, the player may be disappointed to hear that there is a serious lack of bulk to this game. The roster for this game only has twenty characters in total and in addition, the environments which you battle in, while stunning and represent their franchises well, are also limited in supply. In defence of this, it seems that the developers have taken a quality over quantity approach with each character being very diverse, animated beautifully and being rendered expertly to look instantly recognisable. Plus the locations you battle are all very interesting, especially the dynamic maps that really up the intensity.

In contrast to the low character and arena count, there is a wide variety of game modes to play. You’ll have access to a full campaign, a single-player vs AI mode, a multiplayer mode, a time attack mode, a survival mode and ‘hot ticket’ mode which gives the player random buffs and debuffs to play with such as increased speed, smaller characters, raining bombs or disabled blocking just to name a few. These all help to make up for the light roster and give the player hours of gameplay.

Anime Smash Madness

While this game does borrow a lot of assets from one of Nintendo's most beloved fighting games, it’s clear that this game is more than just a cheap clone. The number of cool modes, diverse characters to play as and dynamic stages to work with all help to set this one apart from the rest in the genre. Plus with the unique health mechanic it really does give this game it’s own personality and will take some adapting for any smash players to master.

Pros

• Unique health system
• The art style and animations are very well done
• A variety of interesting game modes

Cons

• Not a wide selection of characters or arenas to choose from
• Campaign is very bare bones
• Doesn’t utilise the licences to their full potential