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Digimon World Championship First Look

By Chris Watters, GameSpotPosted Apr 16, 2008 5:06 pm PT

We get a look at how to capture, train, and battle Digimon in Namco's upcoming DS title, Digimon World Championship

Digimon is back on the Nintendo DS with a new game that heralds a bit of a departure from earlier Digimon outings. Unlike previous games that were structured around some sort of quest or storyline, Digimon World Championship distills the franchise down to its basic components: hunting, training, and battling. At a recent Namco Bandai press event, we watched a tutorial demo on how exactly these elements come together to make Digimon World Championship a fresh entry in the Digimon series.

A strict training regimen builds not only character, but HP as well.

Aside from the initial Digimon egg that you receive as a starter, the only way to get your hands on a Digimon to train is to hunt one down and capture it in the wild. To do this, you must venture out into one of many different hunting grounds. What type of Digimon you can expect to find depends on the area, the season, the time of day, and the weather. With more than 200 types of Digimon in the game, tracking them all down will prove to be quite an undertaking. Once you've found one, you'll have to catch it. This can be as easy as selecting your rope and drawing a circle around the Digimon with the stylus to lasso it, but it usually isn't that easy. Most Digimon will scurry away, forcing you to bait them with food or try another day. There are more than 40 different kinds of hunting gear, including trip wires and stun guns, which you can use to catch even the most elusive Digimon. Once you've snared one, it's time to head back to your base of operations to begin the training operation.

Training encompasses a wide variety of activities, all of which will affect the type of creature into which your Digimon will evolve. Feeding your Digimon is essential to keeping it alive, as is cleaning up after it and keeping its living space tidy. If you neglect it, it will become sick and require treatment. Without treatment, it might run away, not evolve properly, or die. You can choose to be kind or cruel to your Digimon, which will affect its evolution as well. Actual training and leveling up occurs when you put your Digimon into one of many different cages where it will increase one or more of its attributes. We saw a Digimon get placed in a recreation cage, complete with a track, a soccer field, and a baseball backstop. After leveling up its hit points, the Digimon had to be placed in a recovery cage to chill out for a while. With all these training variables, it's clear that Digimon fans will be able to spend a lot of time tweaking their training technique to raise their creatures into battle-ready beasts.

When you head into battle, you'll assemble a team of three Digimon. Once the contest begins, the action plays out automatically, and you are left crossing your fingers, hoping all your training pays off. Title Matches are set battles that will earn you medals and help you progress toward the championship, which happens roughly every four in-game years. You can practice for the Title Matches in Free Battle, a mode that allows you to set the parameters for the match. Local wireless and Wi-Fi modes will allow you to battle against another trainer to see whose Digimon are the toughest.

Given the hands-off nature of battling, it's clear that the bulk of the strategy and gameplay of Digimon World Championship will focus on capturing and training your Digimon. There looks to be plenty of depth in these areas to keep Digimon fans happy for a good long while, but we'll know for sure when the game is released later this year.

30 Comments

  • bowser02

    Posted Jan 6, 2009 2:39 pm PT

    seems like an ok game im going to buy it soon also can somone tell me if this game is as good as dusk was or is it crappy

  • zenoDARK

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 5:15 pm PT

    this game is stupid its just another virtual pet game you cant even control their fights all you do is raise the digimon

  • saix5

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 12:54 pm PT

    WiFi is really slow and unreliable plus the majority of opponents you find online are AR hackers with unlimited HP and crap. If there was more solid online play then I might be more convinced to buy it.. I own all the other RPGs since back on PS1 and without that competitive edge I think all the training you do is just a waste of time unless you play competitively against others. But it's not easy finding local people you can trust or something.

  • ShineGreymonX

    Posted Aug 2, 2008 4:04 pm PT

    Am i talking about digimon world 4. I don't think that game is decent, I think it sux! I'm talking about digimon world for playstation. Digimon world 4 doesn't compare to this game.

  • hawkfrost282

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 5:56 am PT

    ShineGreymonX I've played Digimon World 4 but i thought it was only decent, i hated that they use swords and guns instead of claws, teeth, and "pepper breath" I do realize that the digimon can do their special move but it's not that great unless you use it allllllll the time. I would rate Digimon World 4 like a 6.5

  • ShineGreymonX

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 5:52 pm PT

    hawkfrost have you ever played digimon world. The digimon is being controlled by the computer however you are commanding it. Even though that happens in digimon world everybody still loves the game so you should stop dissing the game and start dissing that thing you call a face.

  • inderrocks

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 12:02 pm PT

    i might get this game looks good just to be sure when i get a game im going to check its reults on gamespot

  • hawkfrost282

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 1:21 pm PT

    What they need to make is a new Digimon Rumble Arena type game. With All the digimon that all the Digidestined used and alllll the legendary warriors along with their beast forms. (they need to where they can slide evolution) and they need every villan their ever was to be on it as well. They need to try to make as good as Super Smash bros. Brawl except just digimon. They also need it to have it where you can become the beast/human fusion of all the frontier characters. (now that is a digimon game)

  • hawkfrost282

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 1:13 pm PT

    horror_spooky your wrong, i admit the shows aren't very similar but the games for this digimon game is like two pokemon games combined. Combine Pokemon Diamond or Pearl with Pokemon Ranger and change it to a digimon tournament and there you go! they got the lasso idea from Pokemon Ranger, the training is probly from the pet games and Pokemon, then the Digimon are from surprize Digimon!!!! Now i'm not saying i don't like Digimon or Pokemon or yu-gi-oh but i just think this game is going to suck, partly because the fighting is done by the computer.

  • ice_ninja19

    Posted Jul 15, 2008 7:28 pm PT

    Sounds like a Tamagotchi, but sounds fun.

  • enl100

    Posted May 27, 2008 8:36 am PT

    ok odd but ok

  • horror_spooky

    Posted May 3, 2008 11:40 pm PT

    People who compare Pokemon and Digimon are people who are comparing an apple to an orange. If you look at the animes, Pokemon is much more episodic and rarely focuses on story arcs. In Pokemon, there is about zero character development and the show tries to teach kids some moral values. In the Digimon anime, the show is much more like a traditional anime in that there are multiple story arcs throughout the seasons. The story arcs are done Dragon Ball Z-style in that there is a new enemy much more powerful than the previous and the protagonists must get to the next level of power to defeat them. In Pokemon, not much is at stake in the battles, but in Digimon the entire world is at stake and Digimon also adds another element by creating an alternate universe created accidentally by technological advances.

    Further, Pokemon insinuates that humans co-incide with the Pokemon and capture/train/battle them for sport. Digimon, on the otherhand, can talk and are very emotional creatures that live their own lives without being bossed aroud by humans (except for the DigiDestined, maybe, but even still the Digimon do their own thing for the most part).

    Comparing the games, they couldn't be more different. The Pokemon games follow a familiar RPG style and involves level-grinding and creating your own party while the original Digimon games were more about training your ONE Digimon in specific areas to make it become a more powerful Digimon based on its stats. Also, the Digimon games are for the most part, action RPGs while the Pokemon games are turn-based.

    And for the people who brought up "Yu-Gi-Oh!"...what the hell? Yu-Gi-Oh! is an entirely different concept from both shows as it centers around ancient artifacts that bestow special powers and a freaking card game. The only reason people think these three shows are alike are just because they are all anime. Learn about things before you make judgments on them, people.

  • Corrupt_Serpent

    Posted May 3, 2008 5:36 pm PT

    Cool, i love the old-school conscept they're using i will definately pick this up if the training is deep enough. For the people that say this game has no strategy it is because the strategy lies in training your digimon in the same way profesional dog fighters train and condition there dogs 24/7 with plenty of love and care. Basically whoever is more dedicated to thier monsters wins, its not like pokemon where training centers around level-grinding but more like nintendogs where you have to care for your beasts day-by-day, and if you've taken good enough care of em they get stronger. To the person below me i'de also say that dragonquest monsters is also in direct competition with pokemon and digimon, but not yu-gi-oh. I don't know where you got that from but yu-gi-oh is a card game not a monster training/batteling game, a yu-gi-oh monster battling/training game does sounds like a bright idea though especially if they incorporate elements from the card game into it. P.S: I don't support pitting 2 real life animal against each other, i was merely using the dog fighters as an example.

  • ChibiStewie

    Posted May 2, 2008 9:56 pm PT

    so awesome until u cant control it when its in battle i mean my god they could be complete idiots and not even help each other and if i remeber correctly pokemon came out first and is the original 1 then digimon then yugi oh? w/e i still like pokemon better but digimon does give pokemon a decent fight. this game could turn the tables on pokemon or end in complete failure. as for digimon yu-gi-oh is nowhere 2 be seen...... except for 7 & 8 year olds who are 2 stupid 2 realize that no1 collects the cards anymore except ppl who are gona sell them on later in time. i mean seriously last time i played with those cards i was like 7 or 8

  • GatCloudX

    Posted May 2, 2008 7:57 pm PT

    dude digimon is much more refreshing than pokemon

  • Yomigaeru

    Posted May 2, 2008 6:36 pm PT

    If I recall correctly, Digimon preceded Pokemon here in the US. I remember getting one of those Gigapets when I was around 13 or 14, sneaking it off to school to battle with my friends. As a matter of fact, I
    STILL have my original one, in its box along with the instructions and the battery slip.

    Indeed, it sounds like it's back to basics, which is good for me. Reminds one of the original Digimon World somewhat, as well as the Wonderswan games. I'm a little disappointed to see that the number of Digimon has dropped significantly from that of Dawn/Dusk, but hey....can you say Slayerdramon?! Didn't really care for the pseudo story or the first person perspective in battle. I like to see my Vritramon at all times!

  • kineas454

    Posted Apr 30, 2008 4:05 pm PT

    Digimon was basically just a better version of Pokemon, but sounds like they're making it more like Pokemon.

  • jamin218

    Posted Apr 29, 2008 11:39 am PT

    I think it would be better if the battles weren't automatic. I mean, how can I trust my Digimon in the hands of the AI.

  • Gameboy082017

    Posted Apr 25, 2008 3:37 pm PT

    This doesn't even sound like it's enjoyable or interactive. I don't like it.

  • LotsOfGrenades

    Posted Apr 25, 2008 4:23 am PT

    Can we say, back to the classic? It's so wierd, I was just telling my students how I played Giga-Pets as a child and I owned countless Digimon, and less than an hour later I find this. This sounds amazing. I bet alot of kids won't like the idea, but just remember, those of us my age - we played the green and black game and we loved it.

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