The fighting in Bleach: DS (hey, it's another one of those clever "DS" subtitles) remains mostly unchanged from the original game. The gameplay is entirely 2D with a wide selection of sprite-based characters taken straight from the anime series. Of course, there are some new characters to play as this time around, including the evil hollows, spirit creatures that feast on souls.
During the fights, you can call upon the power of Spirit Cards, special items that activate new powers when you tap on them during a match. These powers can range from increasing your power or health to limiting your opponent's moves to making you invincible. Building up a good collection of Spirit Cards and using them at the proper moments during a match can make the difference between victory and defeat. There are about 30 new Spirit Cards this time around, so you'll have to adjust your old strategies accordingly.
A new feature this time around is the addition of Spirit Crystals. Normally, the effects of a Spirit Card are temporary, but by applying these crystals to your cards, you can make the card's effects last for the duration of the fight. The tradeoff is that the strength of the effect is weakened. Do you go for a strong but short-lived boost or a lesser boost that lasts the whole time? Once again, you'll need to do a bit of planning in order to survive.
In addition to the standard Arcade and Training modes there are Time Attack and Survival modes. These two modes must be unlocked, though. There's also an elaborate Story mode. The story this time is a side story to the anime that takes place between the first and second seasons. Despite being a new adventure, there are quite a few callbacks that make reference to what has happened before in the Bleach storyline. The Story mode is broken up into three parts, with an unlockable fourth part.
Of course, you can't have a fighting game without a multiplayer mode, and thankfully this game once again supports not only Wireless and Download Play, but also Wi-Fi. Being able to take on challengers from around the world was one of the best features of the previous game, so it's good to see it return here. You can now create your own custom name and emblem for use during multiplayer, but unfortunately your custom emblem doesn't show up when playing via Wi-Fi (apparently Sega was nervous about people sending... inappropriate drawings to strangers online).
The Blade of Fate was a quality fighting game that could be easily enjoyed even by someone who was unfamiliar with the Bleach series. Dark Souls looks to follow that tradition with what appears to be another fantastic fighting game, a genre that has been all but ignored on the DS.
