Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files - Spirit Detective (TimeMage)
Format: Advance
Genre: RPG
Developer: Sensory Sweep Studios
Publisher: Atari

Review
Unless you're a rabid fan of yu*yu*hakusho, you should skip this game. This is a prime example of what NOT to do when making a spinoff of an anime game on the gba. The game itself is kind of like a beat-em-up but it has no real solid grasp of how to do it. Actually, it reminded me A LOT of 'legacy of goku', which from memory, is another game that I had extreme dislike for in my past. The game takes you through the story of the anime from the very start all the way up to saving yukino. Sorry, no dark tournament in this one. As far as being truthful to the story, it does a fairly decent job at it. It's a pity the gameplay is so lackluster by comparison. The music in this game couldn't be more off if it tried. Some scenes required intense music, and in it's place, lobby music was playing... The devs had absolutely no idea what they were doing with this. You get to control several characters throughout the game, 4 heroes that you can somewhat free-switch between. Each of them attacks the same way, and have unique "specials" which are activated with 'B' 'R+B' or 'R+A'. aside from how each looks, there's no real difference in damage, except for 1 specific boss which you need to use spirit shotgun to take out. Like I said, faithful to the source material at least. The enemies are predictably dumb, the sound and music is horrible/bland, and the suzaku fight arena... dear lord the suzaku fight arena! I could harp on the graphics being horrible, but holy crud the suzaku fight arena alone could bring this game down 3 addition points. Whoever thought Gray mixed with Bright Yellow was a good idea should never, ever, EVER work anywhere, ever again, for anything. This game was one of the games I was dreading because I had "started" it once before, saw how bad it was, and never picked it up again. Now I can say I beat it, and it was indeed, a bad game. By the by, as far as the action goes... this game punishes you for button spam, and it also requires you to button spam. Always keep yourself at an advantageous hitbox and you'll beat it no problem. Some enemies respawn, most healing spheres respawn.

This game is bad, I mean real bad. The graphics were subpar to bad, many story events were impromptu, and once you get hiei, you can teleport past buildings and get stuck in walls. Music was horrible.

TimeMage's verdict: