Digimon All-Star Rumble Hands-On Preview

By Kevin Mitchell Posted on September 10, 2014

Bandai Namco is changing the formula for Digimon, as it has announced an all-new party-arena multiplayer game based on the Digimon franchise, developed by the Japanese studio Prope. The game closely resembles the classic and popular Power Stone series on the Sega Dreamcast more than anything else out on the market. Going hands-on with an early playable build, I only had the chance to test out a couple of the characters.

Digimon All-Star Rumble features 12 of the most popular Digimon characters, and a total of 32 different forms. The characters chosen are from each of the Digimon television series’ including Digimon Adventure and Digimon Fusion. Battles support up to four players at a time, allowing you to face human controlled characters or play against the AI. Using my favorite Digimon, Agumon, I played my hand against a single AI opponent. I held my own figuring out just how far I could push the controls, but once I Digi-volved, it was clear the AI would be in for a world of hurt. Not only does your characters appearance change, but your entire moveset will be upgraded, in this case, allowing me to have much further reach than before.

In order to win, you must balance your strategies of attacking, defending and trying to Digi-volve. In the couple of matches that I played, the first person to Digi-volve usually ended up winning, but it didn’t seem impossible to avoid your opponents until they revert back to original form.

The Bandai Namco representative at the event let me know there would be a handful of multiplayer game modes to choose from and a story mode to play through. It is through the story mode where you can expect to unlock new Digimon. I wasn’t able to catch the finer narrative details, but it will involve the creation of the very first Digimon Evolution Tournament.

Digimon All-Star Rumble is currently scheduled for release on November 11, 2014 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.