I’m always on the hunt for rare and obscure releases. That’s what turned me on to Black Belt Challenge. The Game Boy Advance had a huge library but fighting games were kind of its weakness. Yes there were some ports from the previous generation, and some developers even created 2D versions of their popular brawlers. While many were good none were amazing. Then I heard about Black Belt Challenge. This little known fighter was released in Europe only and is pretty rare. Maybe it was the fighting game I’ve been waiting for. I was able to track down a copy a few years back and today we’re giving it a go. Is Black Belt Challenge the premier fighting game on the Game Boy Advance? Let’s dive right in.
There’s very little story in this game so bear with me here. I was able to piece together from the endings that it involves some magical book that grants the wish for whomever collects its pages. Who gets it is determined by a tournament, and in this outing we have ten different participants from around the globe and each has their own goals. Yawn. Yeah it’s pretty basic but I won’t knock the game too much. It’s a fighter after all. I will say that I did enjoy the character designs and art style. The developers went for kind of a faux anime look crossed with Saturday morning cartoons. It’s obviously more geared toward a younger audience in this sense but it’s pleasant enough. There’s also no blood or guts here. The action is strictly over the top and fun.
Initially I was worried about the character roster. After all fighting games aimed at younger audiences often fall flat on their face here. Thankfully the artists drew up some pretty decent designs here. You have the traditional Ryu clone with Drake. He looks just like him and his moveset is vaguely similar. Then there’s a pirate girl named Yuhko who fights with a hook hand and chain, a pilot named Dakota, a cloaked monster guy called Owl, and more. One is even an unwieldly robot that shoots flames. The cast may fit into stereotypes but they’re all super over-the-top. The cast almost reminds me of Darkstalkers combined with World Heroes, and that’s not a bad thing in my opinion.
The fighting engine is surprisingly solid. It’s easy to write Black Belt Challenge off as simple shovelware but the developers were at least fairly competent. This is a traditional 2D one-on-one fighting game where you punch, kick, and perform special moves. Each character has both high and low strikes which have differing range and strength. There are even super moves and a pretty decent combo system for those willing to spend the time with this one.The ultimate goal here is to drain your opponent’s life bar down. Once they’re defeated enough times you simply move on to the next match. Pretty basic right? I mean what could go wrong when they’ve got this much right? Unfortunately some pretty major issues hold Black Belt Challenge just out of reach from greatness.
First of all let’s talk about the special moves. These require multiple button inputs to perform. Generally fighting games follow the standard directional pad sweeps and holding of directions for these. It’s the tried and true system. Black Belt Challenge does not. Instead most special moves require you to press multiple face buttons at the same time. This, along with pressing a direction is no easy task. I’m no beginner when it comes to fighting games but I was absolutely struggling to perform a lot of these even with a movelist right in front of me. Why did they make special moves so difficult to use? It makes zero sense. This game is supposed to be for kids after all.
With that out of the way you actually don’t even need special moves. Black Belt Challenge is ridiculously easy. When starting out in a fighting game I generally go for normal mode. I was able to defeat almost every foe without even taking a hit. This, with only being able to occasionally perform special moves, is ridiculous. Even with the difficulty turned up to maximum I never found a moment where the game offered a decent challenge. It feels like the CPU opponents spend a lot of time simply standing around. Challengers also don’t get more difficult as you progress. The first one is just as easy as the last. It’s frustrating because the lack of any real challenge makes arcade mode really boring to play.
At least the game has several different options and modes. There’s a training mode that I expected to be helpful as far as learning the special moves goes but unfortunately that’s not the case. For one thing it doesn’t actually show you the movelist for your chosen character. Secondly the opponent just stands still. You may as well play arcade mode on very easy instead because it’s essentially the same result. There’s also a survival option but I was never able to figure out how to unlock it. The fact that it’s not available from the start is bogus. Finally there’s a vs mode where you can connect two GBA units together and compete against one another. I haven’t personally been able to test this one out but it’s probably more entertaining than anything the single player options have to offer.
Black Belt Challenge is fairly stacked with game modes. It doesn’t help anyone when they’re not fun to play though. Despite the variety in play options it feels like the game is pretty barebones in terms of longevity. You can play through the arcade mode as each character in around an hour. As I already mentioned training is worthless. Options include the ability to change the difficulty, controls, and there’s even a sound test here. The latter is good as a diversion but it’s novelty is really short lived. There’s not nearly enough stuff crammed into this cartridge. It’s a shame that the developers put so much work into the art and gameplay engine but messed up in so many important areas. Black Belt Challenge could have been a good game but the potential is squandered. It’s like it was made by people who had never played a fighter before.
Fortunately the game is pretty good looking. I expected to hate the faux anime designs of the characters but I enjoyed them. The motifs explored are also pretty neat. The fighters are a bit pixelated but on the small screen it’s barely noticeable. They also animate smoothly and there’s pretty much no slowdown no matter how chaotic the action gets. The real high point however is the backgrounds. These are highly detailed with a lot of charm. It also helps that the colors in them really pop. Generally I’m a fan of the graphics and think the game looks a step above what you would see on the Super Nintendo. The soundtrack isn’t quite as enjoyable. It’s decent, but the GBA has a habit of making everything sound too much like bleeps and blips. There are a few voice samples in the game and they sound really clear. It’s impressive.
