ZatchBell! caught our eye because at first glance it appeared to feature little kids fighting each other. There's something hilarious about watching a little girl in a typical Japanese school uniform uppercut a little boy with such force that it sends him flying across the screen.
Supposedly the little kids are actually "mamodo" (some kind of powerful creature from the demon world) but come on: they look like kids, they're animated like kids, and they quack like kids. While that whole mamodo schtick might be interesting in the animated series of the same name that runs on the Cartoon Network, this is a fighting game we're talking about. Backstory quickly takes a backseat to frenzied fisticuffs.
The game is a delight precisely because you're dueling little kids, something that's generally never ever done in video games because it's taboo. Take away the kid-like creatures and this is just another typical fighting game with magical and physical attacks, though some of the special attacks are very fun (one attack unleashed by a little girl features a big, flying heart).
We're now one step closer to the battle royale with five-year olds game that some creative types have envisioned.
The game is due this fall for the PS2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance platforms.
