Although story sucks, it's addictive with the feature to make your own tunes and beat the crap outta people with 'em.
Okay, girly examples, but you'll be the one crying when you are wiped away by the combo beat to the tune of the Barney song.
Story: -Iffy-
Each of the four main characters have their own storyline and background, but they are all either too bland or expected. You've got your wanting-to-be-the-best Fire Hero, the I'm-gonna-plunder-yer-riches Water Hero, the PETA Earth Hero, and the Sasuke Uchiha Lightning Hero. Nothing majorly different happens in each story, just the character's outlook on the situation, and that's about it.
Gameplay: -YAHOO!-
The controls are simple and easy to learn, X and Y are light and heavy attacks, B jumps, A uses your magic juice called "bullets," and R blocks. However, the L button is what makes this game tick.
Once you press this button, you have initiated your "Beat Combo". All you have to do is go up to your enemy and press the Y button repeatedly to initiate your beat combo. It's set up so it judges the timing of your hits, like DDR. They rate it on a "Cool!", "Good!", and "Bad!" rating (and "Bad" isn't a good thing in this case). It's impossible to get a "Cool!" rating all the way, let alone during the THRILL OF COMBAT, so just deal with button mashing at this point.
Multiplayer: -Time-fufilling-
Yes, there is a multiplayer mode! No, there's no 4-player tag team, however this game manages to hold up on it's own in this area somehow. What's more interesting than making your own beat combos is seeing what other people have come up with! Either based off of a cartoon or something completely original, no two beats should sound the same, unless you traded them with someone already. Other than that, nothing special in this area. Find a person, kick their butts, move up in the rankings. That simple.
Looks: -Kinda bland-
The colors are very vibrant and outright as the characters duke it out, however the same can't be said for the backgrounds. More often than not, the crowd in the background looks like a painting of the superbowl made in a 4th grade kindergarden class. But who cares about background when the costume variants of the main characters covers all the colors of the rainbow?
Difficulty: -Insanely easy at parts-
Not including the side quests, this game is easily beatable. It'll only take you two hours to beat one character's story if you skip the cutscenes (maybe two characters). The animals you defeat, called "Variants", are one reason why you eat through this for breakfast. They're not really adversaries so much as living punchingbags. However, the "grappers" (opponents) you face make up for the lack of challenge.
Overall: -Good if you give it time-
This game is like a rainstorm, it may look bad, but just give it time to pass and you'll see some good things from this title. If they do make a sequel and improve on what has been done already, then we may be seeing a really cool franchise for Guitar Hero fans and Mortal Kombat groupies alike!
-SV