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Digimon: World Championship Review for the Nintendo DS (NDS)

Digimon: World Championship Review for the Nintendo DS (NDS)

Digimon: Digital Non-Game

Digimon is a franchise that began in the late 90s as a digital pet toy that was made to rival the then-dominant Tamagotchi. The toy consisted of a little keychain with an LCD screen, where you could interact with your little Digimon pet.

Digimon: World Championship screenshot

You had to feed, train, and clean up after your pet, and eventually it would evolve into a full-fledged Digimon monster. If you had a friend with a Digimon virtual pet, you could link the two together and they would be able to do battle. Fast forward a decade or so and you have Digimon World Championship for the Nintendo DS, which essentially the same idea, just with color.

You begin the game with a single Digimon egg. You’ll quickly learn that once the egg hatches, you’ll be responsible for feeding, training, and cleaning up after it. The interface is very simple and consists of several modules where you will be able to let your Digimon rest, exercise, and heal after a hard day of training. After you get comfortable with the interface (which takes all of about ten seconds) you’ll learn about getting new Digimon. The Digimon capture system is very similar to the Pokémon capture system. You go to a place where Digimon roam free in the wild and then capture them. From there, you can incorporate them into your training facility and continue to can feed, train, and clean up after it.

If all this sounds terribly repetitive, it is. Tending to these Digimons’ basic needs (all three of them) is the real center of the gameplay, and it feels like a chore. But, Digimon veterans will know there is always a battle component to any Digimon-affiliated game and this holds true here. However, there is a major problem with the battle gameplay. You can’t control it.

Digimon: World Championship screenshot

Once you train your Digimon to the point where he is ready to battle, you will be able to enter him in the World Championship Tournament. Then, once you do, it’s time to put down the DS and watch. You literally have no control over what happens during the Digimon battles. The idea here is that if you were training your Digimon properly, they’ll have all the right moves to defeat their opponents. Though taking the control away from the player in a game just feels wrong. I really wished they would have taken a more RPG-like approach like they had in past Digimon games. Taking the gameplay out of the battle system really takes the life out of this game and makes it little more than a reinterpretation of the virtual pet toy that inspired it more than ten years ago.

Digimon: World Championship screenshot

In addition to your little creatures fighting opponents in the game, you can also go online to find opponents. However, since you don’t control any facet of the battle system, the online component is really boring and quite forgettable. There’s also the issue that there is almost never anyone on, and finding a match (if you can actually call it that) is close to impossible.

Digimon: World Championship screenshot

The only real value I got from the gameplay came in the form of collecting the different Digimon. Although catching them isn’t exactly difficult, it’s always nice to catch new and interesting Digimon. However, if you catch too many, your training modules will fill up, and you won’t be able to take care of them all. But, as long as you can catch Digimon responsibly, there actually is the possibility of fun here, which is something that is seen too little in this title.

As far as technicalities go, Digimon World Championship actually gets a lot of things right. Visuals feature 2D-based sprites that are both colorful and cute. The sound in this game is cute delightful as well. While it is nothing you would want to listen to over and over, it’s not bad as far as handheld gaming scores go, and I was really surprised at the overall quality.

It is really easy to criticize poor games for things like poor visuals and controls, but it becomes something else entirely to criticize a game for being something else. Digimon: World Championship feels a lot like the little handheld virtual pets that inspired it. While this is great for a trip down memory lane, it just doesn’t work as a standalone game. Digimon World Championship just isn’t fun, because after you’re done cleaning up all the poo and watching your little Digimon fight, you start wondering why you ever picked this game up in the first place. So, do yourself a favor and leave it on the shelf. If you really need a Digimon fix, I would stick to your old virtual pet from the 90s.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.5 Graphics
Graphics are good and have very colorful sprite-based characters and environments. 3.5 Control
Controls are easy to learn and use and are almost exclusively stylus-based. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music is quite standard yet enjoyable. Digimon attacks are often accompanied by digital roars, which can be cute. 2.1

Play Value
Digimon: World Championship is less like a game and more like an expanded virtual pet pocket game from the 90s. As such, there’s a lot of content, but it’s all rather boring.

2.4 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • A New Kind of Digimon Game: Digimon World Championship features hunting, tactical training, and intense title matches in a first for the popular Digimon World series!
  • Hunt Wild Digimon: Experience the thrill of the hunt and pursue wild Digimon in the vast Digital World. Capture the wild Digimon with weapons, ingenious traps, and more.
  • Remember Your Training: The way a Tamer trains and treats a Digimon will change the way the Digimon fights and acts.
  • Buy and utilize different training aids. Teach your Digimon to be strong, or teach your Digimon to be defensive – it is up to you how to train them! The training combinations are endless.
  • Over 200 Digimon: Digimon World Championship features over 200 Digimon, including returning favorites like Agumon and Gaomon, as well as some new Digimon.
  • A Massive Digital World : Some wild Digimon can be found only in certain environments. Snowy mountains, sandy deserts, and lush jungles abound. As the day changes to night, different Digimon appear. Check back throughout the day to hunt the most elusive Digimon!

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