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GC
Battle Stadium D.O.N
- Recent Import (Shipped Saturday) |
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Order 10 copies and receive a nifty bonus cardboard box decorated with
the Battle Stadium D.O.N logo. |
Crack open the case and view the contents. |
Back cover. |
NCS Game Synopsis
All
preorders for the Gamecube version of Battle Stadium
D.O.N have shipped this past Saturday. As long as
you placed your order before 1:30PM EST on Saturday,
your order has been dispatched for delivery today or
tomorrow by USPS Priority Mail, Express Mail, or
Fedex (if you chose UPS o/n).
Bandai's Battle Stadium D.O.N is a battle
royale which pits fighters from
Dragon
Ball Z, One
Piece, and Naruto
against each other. Who wins when Luffy's elastic
abilities challenge Naruto's Rasengan? Goku vs
Sasuke, Namie vs Vegeta, and so on and so forth.
D.O.N. features action packed game play and bears
some comparison to Nintendo's Smash Brothers and
perhaps Jump Superstars. At the outset of the game,
the following characters are available:
DBZ | Gohan, Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta
NARUTO | Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke
ONE PIECE | Chopper, Luffy, Sanji, Zoro
Battles are fought on 2D playfields that are static, scroll
sideways, or rise up and down. One of the levels is
called "Giant Jack" where the fighters duke it on a
beanstalk with the eventual destination being a gold
tower atop the clouds.
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NCS Game Notes & Spoilers
» Battle Stadium features levels that may be
1-on-1, 1-vs-2, or 1-vs-3. There are also mission
based levels with various objectives which appear
randomly during the course of a game. For example,
in one battle, you may face off against Vegeta only.
In the next battle, Sakura, Luffy, and Goku are all
in the fray. Following that, a mission based battle
may be presented with the winning condition listed
before the start of the fight. Up to four
players may play as long as you have four GC joypads
in the room.
» In the intro to the game, the camera pans in
on the backs of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke who are
sitting at a food stand and about to eat steaming bowls of
noodles. Each ninja expresses pleasure at the food
as the camera moves across their faces with Sakura
clasping both hands together in abject pleasure.
Just when they're about to dig in and enjoy the
noodles, a prehensile arm reaches across the screen
and snatches all three bowls away. Naruto's face
expresses red-eyed rage at the loss of his meal. The
bandit is the dastardly Luffy who empties the
contents into his gaping maw. The food flies
downwards and goes down as a big bulge in his
throat. In the next scene, the members of One Piece
stand and make a cheering move as if they were
victorious at stealing food. Naruto crew also raise
their arms in a Bronx cheer - there's a rumbling
sound and the noodle stand explodes. When the smoke
clears, Goku is seen looking satisfied as dozens of
empty bowls are stacked up around him. That's DBZ
crew's cue to do their Bronx cheer move. The intro
continues with assorted scenes of the main
characters clowning around, fighting, and posing.
Some examples: The One Piece Jolly Roger ship is
shown sailing with Nami at the top looking through a
spyglass and multiple Narutos face off against a
steeled Goku who seems ready for the challenge. The
intro ends with a dust-filled battle as fighters
from all three anime franchises clash.
» On the title screen, a Japanese fellow
states quite emphatically, "Bad-o Stad-e-yum Dee Oh
Enn." The logo is pictured 3/4 height above a
walkway that's illuminated by roving spotlights that
pan up and down. On either side of the walkway is a
seated crowd who are not cheering or anything. They
look very sedate as yellow and blue lights flash
over the crowd intermittently.
» There's a beanstalk level called Giant Jack
where broad leaves serve as standing platforms as
well as clouds which may be stepped upon. In the
background, an airship with oars may be seen flying
around. This level is tricky because there are only
small areas to step upon when you're fighting three
motley fighters who have inordinate powers. The
camera will pan up and down and your job is to keep
up with the camera. For example, when it starts
panning up, jump upwards to stay level with the
camera. When it starts going down, jump down. If
you're not quick or agile enough, you'll get knocked
out of the stage for a few seconds. You'll then
reappear in the foreground, aching to get back into
the brawl. A targeting cursor may be moved around
the screen to position where you want to land. Press
the A button to jump back into the fray.
» Another stage is at Capsule headquarters.
Every once in a while, a big exclamation sign and a
siren sounds off which warns of impending danger - a
vehicle flies through the highway that's located in
the middle of the screen. Woe to anyone who's
standing on the road at that inopportune time.
» An enjoyable level for multiple
players is the forest platform level where one of
Orochimaru's
snakes appear from the left side of the
screen. The screen scrolls slowly to the right and
the snake will attack every once in a while. If
you're in the direction of its strike, you will take
damage. Later in the level, a log suspended on ropes
will swing through the level and knock anyone who's
slow enough to be caught in the way.
» A funny attack that Kakashi has is one
where he sics dogs at an opponent. If there are two
opponents in the path of Kakashi's wrath, a pair of
dogs will rush onto each fighter. You'll see two
hungry mongrels latched onto the hapless targets
legs as barking sounds are heard in the background.
When the dogs are on a fighter, he's momentarily
immobilized which opens him up to additional damage
from your fighter or other fighters. Press DOWN + Y
to sic the dogs on opponents.
» The first boss character is Cell who is
blazing fast and attacks with pink laser fire from
his fingers.
» When Cell is defeated, an entertaining
end-game intro plays where the One Piece characters
clang beer mugs together and everyone's having a
good time. There's one scene where a bunch of dishes
are in the background as the result of the major
feasting. In the end, everyone raises their arms and
creates a massive ball of energy in the sky and the
words "WE ARE NO.1!!" appear. The credits soon
follow.
» After the credits are finished, there's a
slot machine game where you win Shonen Jump prizes
which unlock various characters, modes, or levels in
the game. Pull down on the joypad to start the
spinning and press the A button to stop the three
spinners in sequence. Matches may be made
horizontally or diagonally. Each pull of the slot
machine's arm requires 3 coins to play. Since most
players will have 15 coins after beating Cell, you
have 5 attempts to pull the lever and hope for the
best. In our attempts, we unlocked the following:
** Gallery Mode - View 3D cel-shaded characters such as
Luffy and Kakashi along with a little profile of the
fighter. Rotate them by swishing the C-stick left
and right. To make them big or smaller, push up and
down on the C-stick. Pressing the Z-button centers
the character back to its original orientation.
** Hard Gameplay Mode - The HARD difficulty option is added to the
game in addition to EASY and NORMAL.
» CONTROLS
D-pad or analog stick / Movement
A-BUTTON / Jump. Press again for a double jump.
B-BUTTON / Attack. Press thrice for a sequential
attack.
X-BUTTON / Activate special attack which is
accompanied by a short cinema.
Y-BUTTON / Fire projectile or special attack; for
example, Kakashi throws knives and Piccolo blasts
out a pink laser that streams across the screen.
Z-BUTTON / Grab and throw an opponent
R-BUTTON / Guard
L-BUTTON / Guard
» Pressing the controller in a direction +
the B or Y button will result in different moves and
special attacks. To view all of the attacks that are
available to a fighter, press the START button
during a match and then highlight and click on the
second option. Follow the arrows and button
combinations to see what everything does. There are
18 moves and special attacks for each fighter in
addition to combination attacks. For example, by
pressing a direction + the Y button, Kakashi can
dart around the screen and perform lightning quick
strikes in straight lines.
» When Usopp is swinging or hanging from a
ledge, he makes the Tarzan yell.
» When you grab a weapon and want to get rid
of it, press the Z button to throw it away.
» When throwing someone with the Z button,
the body can't be used as a projectile to harm other
players. It sort of bounces around like a
marshmallow. A harmless marshmallow.
» When someone's ringed out, there's an
explosion that sounds off to mark his departure.
After that, he is shown in the foreground and ready
to fly back into the battle.
» In the options menu, players may
select mono/stereo, adjust BGM and SE volumes, etc.
» On one stage, there's a little witch who
floats around on a bubble in the background. She'll
shoot out bolts of lightning to attack whomever's
closest to her wickedness.
» Burst Mode powers up the character.
» Sanji can do a constant handstand +
helicopter kick move if you push down on the d-pad
and continually press the Y button. This move has
the ability to clears the entire level of bruisers.
If you go underneath someone who's been popped up,
Sanzi's helicopter kicks will juggle them
constantly.
» In the 2-on-2 team game mode, you can
change the color of the characters by pressing the L
and R buttons. There are four different colors for
each character.
» As fighters battle on a stage, various
power-ups and bonuses may be picked up. Some
examples of the bonuses:
Speed up - The speed of the action is ramped
higher
Slow down - Character moves slower
Big character - Fighter becomes twice as big
Small character - Fighter scales down in size
Ball & Chain - Attached to the ankle of a
fighter, lowers mobility
Green slingshot - shoot rapid fire buckshot
at opponents.
and many, many more. All of the
bonuses are described and explained in the manual.
» All in all, a fun party game for multiple
players. The controls are solid and there's enough
variety in the moves to keep gamers playing and
experimenting with attacks. The use of the slot
machine to unlock variables, modes, and characters
is entirely random which has the potential of
extending the time and play investment needed to
discover everything. That is, until someone unlocks
everything and uploads a save data file for use with
the GC Memory Adapter.
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This document and photos are ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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