NYCC 2014: Digimon All-Star Rumble Preview

At New York Comic Con, I got to go hands on with Digimon All-Star Rumble, which is set to be released this fall on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

On the surface, one would be excused for believing this is a game trying to cash-in on the success of Super Smash Bros. It is a 4-player free for all fighter/brawler with an all-star cast (Though in this case all from the same franchise), but after going through some rounds the game reminds me more of Capcom’s early 2000s fighter/brawler, Power Stone, mostly for it being in 3D, and also how the power-up system work.

Digimon-All-Star-Rumble

As noted, the game is played in 3 dimensions, and there was really only one stage on display on the show floor. This was a grassy area which has three descending levels, which really didn’t come into play a ton. It simply meant that characters wouldn’t be hit with most projectiles if they were on a level above or beneath the player. Also, it is interesting that every Digimon has a projectile attack, which is also assigned its own button, while it makes sense with the branding, it isn’t often that is an uniformed attack in brawlers.

Digimon_All-Star_Rumble_LogoIn addition to their projectiles, each Digimon has a weak and heavy attack button, which can be used to craft combos. And special abilities which can be triggered with a combination of two buttons. The combo system I found to be extremely broken in this demo, and turned me off from the entire experience. While the game features a block button, it only really works when the person starts their combo. And since a combo is literally just spamming a button over and over again, characters spend most of their time either locked in a combo being beaten to death or locked in a combo beating someone to death. A counter or dodge mechanic would have gone a long way into making the game more enjoyable.

When you’re done beating on various opponents, a little meter fills up on the bottom of the screen, when it is filled, it allows you to digivole. This allows the Digimon to enter another state, makes them a larger target, but also makes them stronger and do more damage. There doesn’t seem to be a ton of negatives to it since it can sometimes knock an opponent out of an attack with their moves. There is also a special move/card system that I wasn’t quite sure how it worked. I just knew it would activate from time to time.

Perhaps, I could have gone a few more rounds, but I didn’t come away too impressed with what was on display.

Earl Rufus

The owner of this little chunk of the internet. Enjoys having a good time and being rather snarky!

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