Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia

 Switch
Metascore
53

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 22
  3. Negative: 6 out of 22
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  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    May 17, 2021
    90
    If you've got a young gamer in your life, show them the Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia trailer video, then sit back and watch their reaction. [Issue #51 – March/April 2021, p. 72]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. XGN
    Nov 6, 2020
    80
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestoria is a more than decent brawler that brings some interesting new ideas and mechanics to the brawls. Having your Brawler run around the battlefield chasing energy pads is a clever way to activate the player during battles. While the Story Mode tells a decent story, it isn't challenging enough to force you to use every possibility and variation available.
  3. Digital Chumps
    Nov 20, 2020
    75
    Overall, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is well put together and does what it sets out to do which is provide low-stress, family-friendly entertainment for as long as you want it to. The added depth in the world and its characters as well as the thoroughness of the brawling system and the checks and balances between abilities and Bakugan allow players to dive in and optimize their team and curb their competitive appetite. As long as you look at it for what it is, Champions of Vestroia is worth the look for anyone that’s a fan of the game, the toys, or is looking for a game to enjoy while killing time.
  5. Hobby Consolas
    Nov 20, 2020
    70
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is not the best "Pokémon-type" game. Indeed, it feels a little bit limited, simple and repetitive, with combats that tends to be long than in other games... But its "bite sized" orientation, with gameplay elements more condensed, make it ideal for the little ones in the house that dream of becoming a trainer.
  6. Shacknews
    Nov 3, 2020
    70
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is certainly the best of the recent Bakugan video game adaptations, though it’s far from a masterpiece. The world is neat, and WayForward does an excellent job with the Bakugan creatures themselves. Battling is solid, as it does a great job at mixing real-time and turn-based elements. It could have greatly benefited from some new Bakugan types for diversity’s sake, or a more unique story. Regardless, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia will surely satisfy most fans of the franchise.
  7. God is a Geek
    Nov 4, 2020
    65
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia features lots of awesome monsters to collect, but the combat is just too slow paced to recommend to anyone but Bakugan mega fans.
  8. Multiplayer.it
    Nov 3, 2020
    62
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is fun, especially for the little ones: but the flaws are too many.
  9. 3DJuegos
    Nov 11, 2020
    60
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a good comeback of Bakugan but maybe only suitable for kids. Its battles are too slow and his campaign it’s not too deep. His magic is within his online mode against close friends.
  10. Everyeye.it
    Nov 3, 2020
    60
    If you loved the Bakugan franchise at the time and you are a fan of the animated series, Champions of Vestroia will be a nice dive into the past, but it is good to know what its playful, narrative and structural limits are.
  11. Nintendo Enthusiast
    Nov 3, 2020
    60
    Despite being largely well-made, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia gets stale and repetitive after the first few hours. Everything outside of the main story is incredibly tedious and feels like it was added solely to pad the game's length. Younger Bakugan fans will likely enjoy the game, but for older fans or those not already interested in Bakugan, it's a much tougher sell.
  12. Noisy Pixel
    Nov 3, 2020
    60
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a tedious and almost mindless adventure that will leave you staring at the screen, wondering if it will ever get better. Sadly, it doesn’t. However, its systems are easy enough for a younger fan of the series to enjoy and receive a starter course in RPG systems. The biggest compliment I can give the game is that it works, but other than that, this Bakugan Brawl isn’t as epic as it could have been.
  13. Destructoid
    Nov 3, 2020
    60
    For all its shortcomings, I wouldn't mind seeing WayForward get another crack at this series with a more concerted effort to bring in non-fans, with more depth.
  14. TheGamer
    Nov 4, 2020
    50
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia is a good enough first step if the end goal is to revitalize and reintroduce the Bakugan franchise to a new generation. Would the exact same game still work if the Bakugan name weren’t attached to it? I’d lean towards no. There are a lot of great ideas in Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, but ultimately, none of them really hit the mark - at least in terms of what I was expecting from my first-look at the game.
  15. IGN Italia
    Nov 3, 2020
    50
    Similar in terms of structure to your typical Pokémon game, yet with less-than-interesting plot and a not very clever combat system.
  16. Siliconera
    Nov 3, 2020
    50
    After spending time with Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, I can see where WayForward tried. It attempted to create a world for players to inhabit, one alive with both Bakugan brawls and more common activities. It tries to offer customization options, both for our avatar and the characters in the party. It even attempts a competitive scene with online matches. I’d imagine fans of the anime adaptation or toys in general might be really pleased with this direction, especially if they’re on the younger side. Like Pokemon, but Bakugan could be a thing fans would eat up. But it isn’t for people who are older or aren’t involved in the scene.
  17. GameSpew
    Nov 3, 2020
    50
    If you’re a fan of Bakugan, there’s no doubt you’ll get a kick out of Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia. It’s a great-looking game, and seeing those huge beasties in battle for the first time is quite a thrill. But the game’s dull and repetitive combat quickly loses its excitement, and the fact you’ll be looking forward to completing a mindless side quest simply to get a reprieve surely tells you all you need to know.
  18. Nintenderos
    Nov 8, 2020
    49
    What could have been a rival of Pokémon, has been a disappointing game. We cannot recommend Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia in its current state unless the developers change, improve and add a lot of content to evolve the experience.
  19. SpazioGames
    Nov 10, 2020
    47
    Champions of Vestroia is a dull and uninspired title that doesn't make justice to neither the talent of Wayforward nor the original franchise. It's best to avoid it, for now at least.
  20. Power Unlimited
    Nov 22, 2020
    45
    In addition to its beautiful appearance, this game is repetitive in all areas.
  21. Nintendo Life
    Nov 3, 2020
    30
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia attempts to shoehorn the long-running franchise into a Pokémon Let's Go-style affair aimed at younger players but does so with absolutely zero care or charm. This is a lazy, repetitive, basic game that slowly erodes your patience and goodwill with sloppy mechanics, a tiny roster of samey monsters and a world that reveals itself to be entirely devoid of character or life. Avoid.
  22. Screen Rant
    Nov 3, 2020
    20
    It's hard to recommend buying Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia to anyone, even if they are a fan of the series. There are simply many better options in a similar vein already present on Nintendo Switch, a console that doesn't lack for engaging anime adaptations or monster battling scenarios.
  23. NintendoWorldReport
    Nov 3, 2020
    10
    Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia shows a distinct lack of passion not just from its poorly thought out gameplay and shoddily thrown together story, but also through its astounding lack of polish. Gameplay would frequently freeze before animations could play, key NPCs could be hidden behind level geometry, and you can even move around the map some 10 seconds before a loading screen finishes; I guess any speedrunners out there should take note of that. It all culminates in a game that feels like it was made as an excuse to put a box with the Bakugan name on a shelf in Wal-Mart. Champions of Vestroia is a total failure. If you’re not already a Bakugan fan, there is absolutely nothing for you here. If you are a Bakugan fan, then you deserve a game that respects your time and passion more than this.

User Reviews

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User Score
4.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 23
  3. Negative: 12 out of 23
  1. Nelia
    Nov 5, 2020
    0
    Utterly atrocious. More expensive than Hades and looks and plays like a mobile game. The core gameplay is just running around collecting tilesUtterly atrocious. More expensive than Hades and looks and plays like a mobile game. The core gameplay is just running around collecting tiles and throwing them with a single button press, the colliders being so bad they have difficulty registering the player. The graphics are decent on the models of the bakugan, but everything about the players and the animations of the bakugan are horrendous and have barely anything to do with their attacks. The movement of the player is so floaty that he just glides across the count while kicking his legs. The particles are a ps2 era line of colour where you can clearly see the origin point floating in front of the bakugan. Not only do they look terrible, but they also cause slowdown. I'm glad I got a physical copy of this, so I can pawn it off to some poor unsuspecting person expecting a good game. And I'll price it exactly 1 cent less than Hades.

    I'll also mention that the teambuilding is just shoving predefined moves into slots of bakugan of the corresponding attribute. Truly thriilling. and the most progression you'll get is buying mechanics that make the game less tedious. I suppose one can be at least glad that this game wasn't made by ubisoft or they'd be paid dlc.

    Also they use anime screenshots for dan kuso and others and you can see the jpg compression on the images I cried of laughter the first time I saw it.    … Full Review »
  2. Kakadu
    Nov 6, 2020
    0
    Tedious, bland, basic, uninspired, repetitive and totally lazy. Terrible character models and animations, bad dialogue and grindy, boring andTedious, bland, basic, uninspired, repetitive and totally lazy. Terrible character models and animations, bad dialogue and grindy, boring and annoying battles with absolutely horrendous voice acting for the monsters. The entire concept of the game with the giant monster battles is illogical and dumb.

    This game looks like nobody ever during development had any interest whatsoever in creating an original, compelling and in any way interesting or enjoyable game. It's Bad and even 5$ would be to much asked, since it a waste of time and a literal pain to have to grind through these obnoxious and overly long battles. Don't waste your time and hard earned cash on this, it's not worth it.    … Full Review »
  3. studentGamer
    Nov 13, 2020
    0
    That the one person who blamed all the hate on a nintendo treehouse everyone already forgot about had to update their score from 8 to 10 toThat the one person who blamed all the hate on a nintendo treehouse everyone already forgot about had to update their score from 8 to 10 to prevent the game from sliding down further says a lot about the quality of this cashgrab..

    They have the audacity to charge 50 euros in Germany for a game that looks and plays like a mobile game. I had 3d games that looked and played better on my samsung s2 more than half a decade ago. This is a 2020 switch game and it can't even use a single stream of particles without chocking.

    The gameplay itself is questionable. Moves are just copy pasted between elements. The elements themselves don't really stand out from each other with a few exceptions. In older games the gate cards etc. actually gave different boosts to different elements, but since this is dumbed down to the level of a kindgarden nothing like that matters anymore.

    Its essentially just a kaiju battle simulator with bad graphics, bad performance, bad effects, and the core gameplay loop walking around a barren world, looking at visibly compressed jpegs and freeze frames of dated models and running around attempting to colide with the flimsy colliders of disks lying on the ground.

    Does the game have redeeming qualities? you get access to plenty of bakugan but that's not really groundbreaking. Otherwise I truly cannot think of any.

    I also find it rather amusing that the ingame cutscenes are figurative slideshows due to the fps drop, but the out of combat cutscenes are mostly literal slideshows.    … Full Review »
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