Activision announced that they will be releasing videogames based on the popular Bakugan toys and animated series in 2009. Bakugan will be getting the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 treatment this fall.
So you're asking, what the hell is a Bakugan, right? I don't blame you. If I didn't have an 11-year-old son, I wouldn't know what the hell they were either. Unfortunately, I step on the toys regularly -- they're little balls with magnets on them that open up into monster creatures. And there's apparently thousands of them, each one more rare than the last. And they're all over my house.
I'm surprised it's taken this long for a publisher to tap into the exciting Bakugan market. I was taking my son to school yesterday when Activision sent over the press release, so I decided to tell him about it so he could impress his friends at school with "insider" and "breaking" knowledge. Not surprisingly, he's excited.
"Oh, sweet," he said. "Does it look cool?"
I don't know, I'm 30 years old. There's the trailer. Does it look cool?
When I worked the Target Toys department for 6 months, I sure as hell found out what Bakugan are real fast. Oh god.....every day...."DO YOU GUYS HAVE MORE BAKUGAN!?!"
Yeay, they remind me of those villains from the Speed Racer cartoons.
Last Christmas I gave my 10-year-old nephew a Bakugan starter set. When this announcement was made a Kotaku poster said the following:
"Funny story. Tristan was playing Bakugan with his friend over the weekend and I asked both of them if they knew how to play the game because I couldn't figure it out even with the instructions. They said no, and then continued to play."
I'm 24 years old an I have a bunch of Bakugan myself. I'm not afraid to admit it. The actual game is 37 different degrees of awful, but the toys themselves are just so darn neat.
If you're a fan of transforming robot toys, or minifigs of any kind, it's hard to resist a marble with a magnet in it that springs into a little dragon once it rolls across a metal surface. Very cool.
Hmm, so thats what kids are into these days... I'll have to remember that when I go driving around in my big van. On a more serious note it looks like they mated Yugioh with pokemon and came up with this god awful mess.
I played this game with my brother once and it was stupid as hell. Basically, you throw these little plastic balls with magnets in them at a trading card and hope that it hits the metal plate in the card, which makes the ball turn into a robot.
It makes me sad that they're putting crap like this out now, because I used to love these silly collectible toy games. At least Beyblade worked decently as a game (and was fun, especially when my friend modded his with razorblades) and B-Daman worked somewhat well, too.
That's almost exactly what I was going to say. I remember going into the action figure aisle to change prices, and Bakugan was the first real set of toys that I did not recognize at all. That's when I realized I wasn't "hip" to what all the young'ns are into these days.
My 5-year old suddenly wanted these things a few months ago, after another kid in his class brought one in.
After buying one of the larger variety toys, I was about ready to smash the damn thing into pieces. No instructions included with or on the package. I was trying to pry that thing open every which way. I even threw it on the ground, which opened it, but I knew that couldn't be the way to actually open it. While I was doing this, my son just kept telling me to roll it...that didn't work either.
Then I saw "metal card" and "magnet" on the back, brought the ball towards the card, and presto...it opened. Son of a bitch. He now has three of the smaller ones, which I find in the middle of the night by stepping on them and nearly breaking my neck.
Moral of the story: if the toys suck, I'm sure the game is going to be awful.
Sweet, this is great. My 8 year old was asking me just yesterday if there was a Bakugan game. Much like zombiekiller13, the other kids at school proclaimed Bakugan to be better than smoking crack. The show looks insipid, but hey, more than half the stuff I watched as a kid is horrible now.
I've been reluctant to buy the toys, solely based on his ability to keep any toy of his non-broken for more than a month - this game means I can keep him happy, and not step on the damn things at night. :D
I wish kids could go back to drawing or playing Lego's instead, as it stimulates creativity. I remember back in the day's when I would look for a long and thick branch, pick off the leaves, then pretend that it was a sword or a rifle.
@Projectexodus: Thankfully, my son prefers just that...Legos and drawing. The Bakugan things are more of a curiosity for him. He'll play with them, but mostly plays with his Lego men (and women).
@Captain Quincy: Some of the crap out there makes me say "what the fuck..." Probably what my parents did when I was little. But at least back then, Transformers were easy to transform and didn't have cheap-ass plastic ball joints that allow to snap off limbs with a light breeze. I transform them to robot-form, and then tell my kid "well, looks like he's staying a robot forever. His vehicle form is f'd."
At 1:19, it almost sounds like someone got confused and wanted to boobs and douche at the same time, yielding the phrase "Ultimate BOUCHE". I don't know wtf was going on in that video, but I bet parents everywhere are gonna be slinging dollars around for this.
As someone who's watched the bakugan TV show (, yeah, I know, I'm such a loser...
My god. Thats like the wort 3d rendering of a anime character ever. Its obviously SUPPOSED to be Dan the main character of the show but its WAAAAAY too gaunt. Its like he was starved of food for a month.
Plus why on earth is Drago saying Ultimate Bouche when he's obviously firing his trademark Ultimate Dragon. >>
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Contest:
10:20 AM on 02.25.2009
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Yeay, they remind me of those villains from the Speed Racer cartoons.
Last Christmas I gave my 10-year-old nephew a Bakugan starter set. When this announcement was made a Kotaku poster said the following:
"Funny story. Tristan was playing Bakugan with his friend over the weekend and I asked both of them if they knew how to play the game because I couldn't figure it out even with the instructions. They said no, and then continued to play."
If you're a fan of transforming robot toys, or minifigs of any kind, it's hard to resist a marble with a magnet in it that springs into a little dragon once it rolls across a metal surface. Very cool.
Also cocks
It makes me sad that they're putting crap like this out now, because I used to love these silly collectible toy games. At least Beyblade worked decently as a game (and was fun, especially when my friend modded his with razorblades) and B-Daman worked somewhat well, too.
Bakugan is just insulting to play.
That's almost exactly what I was going to say. I remember going into the action figure aisle to change prices, and Bakugan was the first real set of toys that I did not recognize at all. That's when I realized I wasn't "hip" to what all the young'ns are into these days.
After buying one of the larger variety toys, I was about ready to smash the damn thing into pieces. No instructions included with or on the package. I was trying to pry that thing open every which way. I even threw it on the ground, which opened it, but I knew that couldn't be the way to actually open it. While I was doing this, my son just kept telling me to roll it...that didn't work either.
Then I saw "metal card" and "magnet" on the back, brought the ball towards the card, and presto...it opened. Son of a bitch. He now has three of the smaller ones, which I find in the middle of the night by stepping on them and nearly breaking my neck.
Moral of the story: if the toys suck, I'm sure the game is going to be awful.
Seeing this sort of stuff makes me glad I don't have kids yet.
I've been reluctant to buy the toys, solely based on his ability to keep any toy of his non-broken for more than a month - this game means I can keep him happy, and not step on the damn things at night. :D
Also, somewhere, a realy great One Piece game is sitting there, crying in Japanese cuz no one will give it the time and day.
@Captain Quincy: Some of the crap out there makes me say "what the fuck..." Probably what my parents did when I was little. But at least back then, Transformers were easy to transform and didn't have cheap-ass plastic ball joints that allow to snap off limbs with a light breeze. I transform them to robot-form, and then tell my kid "well, looks like he's staying a robot forever. His vehicle form is f'd."
I want any future generation I bring forth to the table to have something resembleing a decent taste in being a show and being a game.
It was pretty fun, for a toy. We had a good time playing it. It's like a mixture of marbles, transformers and pokemon.
But I wouldn't play it outside of an excuse to spend quality time with him.
The video game looks dumb, and kinda defeats the whole purpose of the toy.
I don't think this even exists.
My god. Thats like the wort 3d rendering of a anime character ever. Its obviously SUPPOSED to be Dan the main character of the show but its WAAAAAY too gaunt. Its like he was starved of food for a month.
Plus why on earth is Drago saying Ultimate Bouche when he's obviously firing his trademark Ultimate Dragon. >>
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