Digimon All Star Rumble is exclusive to the West, but buy an imported version anyway (VIDEO)

At a pre-Tokyo Game Show conference in the Bandai Namco Japan office today, we were treated to a playtest of Digimon All Star Rumble, a console-based brawler featuring Digimon that’s sadly exclusive to the West.

While many of us will no doubt procure Region 1 or 2 versions of the game when it launches later this year, it’s a pity that the game won’t officially be published in the Asia region. Millennial Asian gamers have grown up with the digimon craze, and many of us recall with fond nostalgia the awesome game that was Bandai’s Digimon World.

(See: Discussion: what games from before the year 2000 should everyone still play?)

Nonetheless, Digimon All Star Rumble will be a nice throwback to the digimon we used to raise with loving care. In Digimon All Star Rumble, up to four players can thrash it out a la Super Smash Bros. on the same screen, each with a different digimon. Unlike Super Smash Bros. however, battles take place on a full 3D arena, not unlike Dreamcast and Playstation Portable classic Power Stone.

A digimon going into battle can equip up to two power cards that award it different abilities. One simple map was showcased in the demo, and this had three spots that would randomly generate power-ups. Sometimes these power-ups would grant special abilities (like your attacks briefly turning enemies into near-useless poop-slinging Numemon), but they could also fill your digivolution bar instantly. Filling this bar allowed the digimon to digivolve, letting them deal out massive damage for a time. The game was won by the player with the highest score (kill/death ratio, basically) when the timer ran out.

Check out our demo of the game!

[fve]http://youtu.be/QJ7SUuA7qeM[/fve]

What do you think? Will you be importing a copy?

This story is part of our Tokyo Game Show 2014 coverage.

More on brawlin’:

(Image source)