Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles

Battle to become the mighty Mamodo King.

JP release: 24th March 2005
NA release: 19th October 2005
EU release: N/A
Developer: Eighting
Publisher: Bandai
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Zatch Bell is about a tournament that happens every 100 years. Demons descend on Earth, pick a human to help them then compete in a tournament to be king of the underworld. The humans cast commands from a book, and even join in the fighting themselves. Many of the demons just look like kids, so it often looks a bit strange seeing adults beat up children.

Despite a new developer, this feels a lot like the first game, a one-on-one fighter (with the human player sometimes assisting). Instead of using different directions or button combinations, different abilities seem to be triggered by holding down the buttons for different lengths of time.

The campaign lets you pick different locations to fight enemies in a different order. Adds a basic amount of choice, but doesn’t really change anything about the game. This one did get an English localisation, though, unlike the first.

Fine

It’s understandable that the audience for something like Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles might not be bothered by the game’s rather low ambitions–save for the anomalous Dragon Ball Z: Budokai games, the standard for anime-inspired fighters isn’t high, and the typically young fan base is primarily concerned with the representation of their favorite characters. But if fans don’t expect better, these games aren’t going to get any better.
Ryan Davis, GameSpot

Remake or remaster?

In a Zatch Bell collection, perhaps.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles