Digimon Battle Spirit is a fighting game originally developed and published by Bandai for the Japanese-only WonderSwan Color handheld system under the name Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit. It was later ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance for international releases in North America and Europe two years later.
The game features characters and Digimon that were included in the first three seasons of the animated series of the same name in a somewhat simplistic fighting scenario, and also has slightly arranged samples of the show's soundtrack.
Story
The Digital World, a computer-generated subspace that exists between all forms of digital devices, and home of the creatures known as "Digimon" is under attack by a malevolent and powerful force known as Millenniummon, who seeks to corrupt all the data present in the world and modify it to his own designs. In response, several Digimon and their human companions have set out to stop Millenniummon and his minions before any irreporable harm can be done. This is accomplished in a very round-about and a-typical way to the fighting videogame genre, by finding and defeating as many opponents as possible on the way.
Gameplay
While structured very similarly to a conventional fighting game, Digimon Battle Spirit is much more like a barebones representation of the genre, mostly due to the limitations of the handhelds it was released on. Each character only has a handful of special attacks they can perform, with the two action buttons, A and B, allowing them to jump or attack respectively.
Each match is won by collecting small blue spheres called "D-Spirits". These are obtained by hitting your opponent, which causes a few of them to fly from their body and scatter across the battlefield. Different attacks can produce more spheres to fly out, and the player who has collected the most by the time the round ends wins. Each character can also evolve into their most powerful or "Ultimate" (Mega) form by touching a flying Digimon named Calumon that appears every so often in each stage. This form grants them different, more powerful attacks for a limited time.
As the player advances through each stage, they will occasionally have to battle a character named Impmon. Winning or losing this encounter has no bearing on the actual game progression itself, and only serves to award more points. In the final stage, the Digimon must face off against Millenniummon himself.
Characters
The game features characters from the first three seasons of the anime (or Digimon Adventure 01/02 and Digimon Tamers in Japan). Each one has their own special moves and evolutions, as well as slightly varying normal attacks and taunts.
Playable characters
Guilmon: Somewhat weak physically, but is very quick on his feet. His special attack, Fireball, travels straight forward and has a bit of a recoil. His evolution is Gallantmon.
Terriermon: His special move, Blazing Fire, has limited ranged, but his rushing attack is quite effective. The smallest fighter, but actually fairly strong. He evolves into MegaGargomon.
Renamon: A very well-rounded character with effective normal attacks. Her special attack is Fox Leaf Arrowhead, and she evolves into Sakuyamon.
Veemon: Limited range on nearly all attacks, yet powerful. His V-mon Head and Boom Boom Punch moves can cause a lot of damage. Imperialdramon Paladin Mode is his evolution.
Wormmon: One of the slowest characters, yet his moves come out very quickly. His evolution is Imperialdramon Fighter Mode.
Agumon: Has a mixture of weak and strong attacks, but good range on his Baby Flame attack. He evolves to WarGreymon.
Sukamon: A weak and unorthodox character, yet his evolution, Etemon, is quite powerful.
Hidden characters
These are characters that are not available at first, but have to be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions.
BlackAgumon: A virus version of Agumon, with a slower, more powerful normal attack. His evolution is BlackWarGreymon, and can be unlocked when beating the game with 2 different characters.
Lopmon: A variation of Terriermon who is obtained by beating the game with three separate characters (although not the same ones used to unlock Dark Agumon). His evolution is the viral Cherubimon.
Gabumon: A slow, yet very offensively oriented Digimon. He is obtained by beating the game with all the normal characters, as well as Dark Agumon and Lopmon. His evolution is Omnimon.
Extra Agumon: A special version of Agumon with a floating ability and can evolve into Omnimon. He's unlocked by completing the game using Gabumon.
Impmon: Powerful and quick, but with limited attacks. Unlike the one that attacks between stages, he does not have a sphere attracting move. He is the only character without an evolution, and is unlocked by beating the game and collecting at least 300 D-Spirits.
Item Digimon
Mushroomon: Guilmon's fighting arena Digimon.
Penguinmon: Sukamon's fighting arena Digimon.
Betamon: Terriermon's fighting arena Digimon.
DemiDevimon- Renamon's fightind arena Digimon.
Numemon- Veemon's fighting arena Digimon.
Bakemon- Wormmon's fighting arena Digimon.
Packaging artwork
Japan, 2001
North America, 2003
Europe, 2003