It's what you'd expect and nothing more, which isn't a bad thing in itself.
It's not free any more, now it costs money again. It's fighting game where you take a few pictures of yourself, record a few sounds, and then control your pictures to have them beat each other up. Huh? You'll see.
Story:
You and your friends are roughhousing again, and your Mom comes in and says to cut it out before you kill each other. Unable to play fight normally, you just play this game.
Wait, you wanted the game's story? Okay. There's none. All you have is your character fighting 100 guys trying to kill him, which happen to be your other characters.
Gameplay:
At the start all you can do is make a fighter. You take pictures of yourself in various poses, like standing, punching, kicking, jumping, tossing a projectile, etc. making sure to stand in the right shape so the camera catches it right. Yes, it's a cut-out picture, meaning any leftover space (They make sure to give you plenty) is the color of your background. A little awkward to be certain, but not tragic. After that you record sounds, like happy, sad, pain, I lost, taunt, and others, and those actually sound pretty good, for personal recordings that is. Then you choose one of four fighting styles, Loose Cannon, Judo, Shanghai, and Kung Fu, which affect your special attack and desperation move. Finally, you name your character by writing out a name on the touch screen. After you make at least one character, you can make a background. The background is just any picture you take at the moment; you can't take any out of your DSi camera. After that you can start your first fight, and it takes longer to get there then reading this does.
There are two fighting modes, Vs. Mode and 1 vs. 100. Vs. Mode is a multiplayer mode, both players choose a fighter, then you choose a fighting background, choose one of the three available music tracks, and start fighting. The first to knock the other out wins. The player on the left (As of the start) uses the D-Pad to move around, left moves left, right moves right, up jumps, and down ducks. Using L alone kicks, L with different buttons allows you to punch, jump-kick, throw a projectile, or use a special attack, depending on whether you press forward, up, backward, or down, respectively. The player on the right (At the start) uses the A, B, X and Y buttons to move around, jump, and duck, while attacking with R, using the combos listed above. You can also press a button on the touch screen to taunt your opponent, but the action is useless since it always leaves you open to attack. Once you take enough damage you can use your desperation move using the touch screen, which (If it connects, which it usually does) it will drain a ton of your opponent's health. If both players are low enough to use their move, the first to get theirs off will kill the other thanks to the damage it deals.
The different special attacks and desperation moves vary in effectiveness. Loose Cannon has a weak special, it launches you forward quickly but then takes a second to recover, leaving you vulnerable, but he has a powerful desperation, where he rolls into a ball, then launches forward and pummels his opponent. On the other hand, the Shanghai has a powerful special attack where he tosses three projectiles forward, they deal double normal projectile damage and can deal massive damage if they all hit at different times (If they hit at the same time it acts like only one connected), though the projectiles are smaller then normal and can be ducked under. His desperation move on the other hand is rather weak; he stands still and launches a huge, powerful fireball that homes in on the opponent, if you don't take damage while you're frozen for 1.5 seconds waiting for it to land. In Vs. Mode it's well balanced, since the more powerful moves are being used against smarter, human opponents (No options for computer fighters available, and it's two players only).
In 1 vs. 100 it's another story. You're fighting an army of 100 soldiers, based on your creations, through one of your chosen battlefields and listening to one of the music tracks. The controls are identical to player one's in Vs. Mode, except you can now attack with the A, B, X and Y buttons, and even R. If you've made only one fighter you'll be fighting your own character, make a second character and fight whoever you're not using, make more and you'll fight all but the one you're using. They look like normal characters, but act in a variety of fighting styles: Zombies (Rush forward and try to hit you head on), Midgets (Half the size and health of zombies, harder to hit but easier to KO), Mages (Stand still and throw a projectile at you), Street Fighters (Use the Loose Cannon jump attack on you, which is more effective against you since they don't mind dying if you take a bunch of damage), Giants (Four times the size and health of normal, and about twice the power, but exceedingly slow and oh such big targets), and the hated Ninjas (Leap down at you from the sky when you least expect them, the only way to dodge them is to back up, then hit them once they land, hitting them in mid-air kills them and knocks you backward). Your character type matters here a lot more, since desperation moves, while available, won't be nearly as used as special attacks, making the Shanghai own all the others here. If you lose you're given a score based on how many enemies you've beaten, your best is displayed in the menu. If you win you're rated based on your time and HP left, and given a rank between A and F, then are shown the credits, including getting to see your character's signatures, as they made character models and did the voice acting.
Characters: Made by you, see above.
Battlefields: Made by you, see above.
Unlockables: Surprisingly there actually are some. Beating 1 Vs. 100 gets you a fourth music track, making four custom characters unlocks fast play (Hold select while selecting Vs. Mode). The new music track is pretty lame, but it's a nice thought. Fast play is far more hectic then normal play, and is great for throwing off a tough but inexperienced opponent.
Difficulty: Not very hard at all. The 1 Vs. 100 can be a bit tough, but you should be able to pass it in after several attempts. Vs. Mode is only as hard as your friend is good.
Technical Details: Graphics in the game are based on pictures you take; the characters are okay, though you do have the issue of leftover space outside of anyone who didn't fill out the entire cut-out (Which is everyone). The backgrounds are as good as your photography skills. The menus are well done, though somewhat simplistic, and the pre and post battle screens look really cool. The sounds are better done, though you're only given the choice of the in-game music tracks, likely because while everyone with the game has to have a camera, not everyone has access to music, and music recorded with the microphone gets old quickly. However, you always have the option of turning off the music and listening to your own. The controls work well, no complaints there.
Multiplayer: Two players on one DSi. See above. It's not terribly awkward, but the option to play with multiple DSi's or a DSi(s) and a DS(s) would have been nice, if for nothing else then more players.
Replay Value: You'll play for as long as you keep making new characters to play as, there are only eight spaces for characters but you can replace them over and over once you initially fill them up, and it's not hard to remake someone if they're removed. But if you don't have a lot of friends to show off to or action figures to play with, you'll wear this out quickly.
Final score breakdown:
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sounds and Music: 7/10
Fun: 9/10
Replay Value: 7/10
Pros
You can put yourself in a game and beat up whoever you want, without real violence
You get more then what you pay for, it's only $2
It actually has unlockables
Can play with two players on one DSi
Half of the four in-game music tracks actually fun to listen to
Cons
Graphics are less then perfect, even somewhat blocky
Abilities are unbalanced, some are average and some are below average
Ninja enemies are terribly cheap enemies
Pretty much requires having friends to play with
No multiple DSi multiplayer (Which could have allowed more then two players)
Final Note: No Wi-Fi is neither a positive nor a negative, playing against strangers might have been fun, but Nintendo very likely (And logically) wanted to avoid the possibility of junior playing Wi-Fi and finding an opponent who brawls sans clothing, which would certainly be the case if this game went online.
Overall: 7.2/10
It's bigger then you'd expect for a $2 game, and anyone with friends can expect to spend lots of time with this one, you get a ton of value for two bucks. Everyone else is left pitting themselves against action figures, or armies of themselves, and 1 Vs. 100 Mode really is only good until you've beaten it twice and learned there really isn't anything more. And playing Vs. Mode against yourself gets old faster then anything. So make sure you have friends willing to play before you buy.