Hoo-boy, this is a damn solid game.
Beware; the explanation may go into a fair amount of detail.
Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay in this game is very fluid and responsive, but also very simple. Your basic fighting mechanics are; the Y, X and A buttons act as your light, medium and heavy attacks respectively, left and right on the d-pad control your movement in the respective direction, up jumps, down crouches, and by hitting any direction whilst you're in the air will send you moving in that direction.
In its most basic form, that's how you play the game, but there's more to it. There are three gauges that you should try to keep your eye on. The health gauge is pretty self explanatory, under your health however is the second meter - your "Spirit pressure" gauge, when the bar fills, you will create a reserve of power which you use to perform your most powerful techniques. The third is in the bottom left of your screen and is named the "S-Power" gauge it is split into three sections, and has a few uses which I will go into more detail as they come up.
The bottom screen of the DS contains some "shortcut" buttons which you can use to perform special attacks without the button presses, this may seem slightly cheap as you or your opponent can do specials at the drop of a hat, but continued use of these specials make them easier to dodge, and it's difficult to abuse the system. The "S-Power" I mentioned is linked to special attacks, you can perform them without any power in the bar, but they'll be weaker if you do so.
The other use of the bottom screen is for your "S-Cards", which serve a variety of purposes from boosting your attack strength for a brief period, weakening your opponent's defences, or giving your spirit gauges a little boost. They are a nice feature, and your deck of cards can be reconstructed to suit your personal fighting style, so a degree of depth is added with this system.
As for the battle mechanics, it's a simple 2D fighting game with a small twist – most of the arenas you battle in contain two playing fields, a top one and a bottom one. This gives the illusion of 3 dimensions and the boundaries between the two can be traversed (or more simply, jumped over) by sacrificing a little of your "S-Power".
The modes that you can play are of common fighting game tradition; Story, Arcade, Time Attack, Training and Survival, but by beating these modes, you earn money, which you can spend at the shop on better S-Cards, the sound test, more costumes, and other bonus content.
Graphics: 7/10
This game doesn't exactly push the boundaries of what the DS can do. The sprites are 2D, their movements are fairly simplistic, and a few of the arenas lack imagination. But on the flip side, the sprites are well detailed, and while the moves are simplistic, some very bright and mesmerizing effects are created when special moves are performed. Some of the environments are very slightly destructible, mostly when you line jump in a particular place, but it's nothing really special.
The main criticisms I have with the games visuals and engine, is when playing with three or four players, lag starts to build, and the fast paced gameplay that I adore in this game slows down dramatically. I have no idea what causes this, because the graphics aren't busy all of the time, and this slowdown happens even when the action isn't even intense.
What am I saying, the lag isn't TOO bad, it's still a very enjoyable multiplayer experience, and up to -four- players can play on a single cartridge. That's a feature that should become a staple in DS games from now on (at least the ones that support four players), the only problem with this however, is that the load times are agonising when three people are leeching off of one cartridge, but hey, more of a reason to buy the game!
Audio: 8/10
There are very little criticisms to be made about the sound quality, the English voice actors from the show are present and do a bang-up job in my opinion, there is no option to change the audio cues from English to Japanese like I've seen in a few anime style games, but that doesn't ruin the experience for me, the English voices are great and everyone should agree, damnit!
The music ranges from sad little piano ditties when the story gets heavy, some rockin' metal riffs when it isn't, and energetic, and sometimes silly sounding tunes when you enter a match. The music, however, never sounds out of place and really sets the mood at times. When you buy the privilege, make sure you check out the sound test.
Story: 8/10
What can I say here? The story in this videogame is basically ripped from one of the earlier arcs of the show, and is almost completely canon, there's no really cheesy dialogue (or should I say text, no audio cues in the storyline sequences) but at any rate, if you want to skip the story or already know how it goes, you can just hit the start button and go straight to the action, as simple as that.
Use of the stylus: 5/10
Stylus seems a bit inadequate here. Sure, you can use the actual stylus to choose your character (a feat more instinctively done through the d-pad), but when you're in battle you'll be hitting the special, super and S-cards with your thumb – there's too much action to be clutching a stylus at the same time, trust me. All in all, you'll be using the touch screen liberally in battles unless you've memorized the button combos, and even then you'll be using your S-Cards, so the amount of usage is fairly predictable of a game of this genre.
Summary: Me/10
Again, the score I've given is not an average, more of a score that justifies my opinion. And my opinion is this – if you're a serious fighting enthusiast, pick this game up. It's simple enough for casual gamers to become competent at, and deep enough for pros to get their fill, this is a massive recommendation from me.
Oh, one more thing. As great as this game is, it has a brother called Bleach: Shattered Blade on the Nintendo Wii. It comes nowhere NEAR to the greatness of this game. You want a review? Watch this space, it may be coming soon.