Blazer Drive

From best seller Japanese manga. Beautiful graphics, but still in Japanese language. We hope Sega will release international version soon.

What's the game about? Based on the manga of the same name, Blazer Drive explores a world in which humans have learned to harness the elements. But rather than using this ability to control the weather or something else useful, people calling themselves Blazers have apparently decided to horde this power in decals called Mystickers. And what do they do with that power? Why, they fight of course. What else would you expect from a manga published in a magazine called Monthly Shonen Rival?

What's new for TGS? This is the first we've seen of this role-playing game, which was announced relatively recently. In fact, the manga itself's only been running since April of this year. Sega sure can crank out those licensed anime games.

What's our take? Sega's old hand at this kind of game, and it really shows in Blazer Drive's impressive presentation. The game features large, colorful art, and the overworld sprites have a cel-shaded quality that's simply more appealing than the pixelated look typically inherent to DS games. Square Enix should be taking notes here.

The story hews roughly to the manga, which means that it isn't too long before you take a Blazer, Daichi, into battle. Combat takes place on both screens, with Daichi using the lower screen while his opponent takes the top. When the Final Fantasy-like turn gauge hits maximum, it's time to slap a sticker or two onto your character's arms using the stylus and unleash, say, a fiery attack. It's a bit like Yu-Gi-Oh, sans monsters. In their place, you get a variety of elemental attacks with which to dispatch your foe.

Aside from the decal bit, though, Blazer Drive's fairly straightforward, but Sega gets high marks for presentation. The game pushes the DS' limited hardware, from the colorful anime cut-ins to the voiceovers and cut-scenes. It's always nice to see a company go the extra mile with licensed content, which should please fans of the manga. Shame that this one probably won't be getting a North American localization anytime soon. But hey, that's why we have region-free Nintendo DSes, right? Look for this one if you happen to be in Japan in 2009.

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