Comedic battle game uses music to 'beat' opponents

— -- Zubo, a new Nintendo DS game from Electronic Arts, is a hilarious battle game that uses music, rhythm tapping and comedic animations to wow its audience.

The game cleverly blends turn-based role-playing mechanics typically found in the popular Pokemon games with the quick-reflex action mechanics pioneered in rhythm action games like Elite Beat Agents. The result is a highly entertaining adventure that both kids and adults will enjoy.

You enter the 3-D world of Zubalon as either a hero or heroine. Your avatar will follow the DS stylus wherever you move it. As you explore the 10 different lands that make up Zubalon, you will encounter over 50 Zubos, rounded Lego-like inhabitants with expressive faces. The Zubos seek your help in ridding their world of the evil Big Head and his army of mischief-causing Zombos. Each Zubo that you befriend wants to help you scare away the Zombos, which sets up the game's battle system.

To rid the world of Zombos, you must defeat them in a comedic battle. This is the heart of the game and where it shines for originality. Battling in this game does not mean using traditional guns and swords to inflict wounds, rather, Zubos use funny gags to knock out their opponents or send them running. That is why you will see a Zubo place a bouquet of flowers under the nose of its opponent to make him sneeze his way out of the battlefield, or bounce on top of an opponent and spin him so hard that he rolls off-screen like a twirling top. Each Zubo has four battle gags, and the game showcases these funny battle moves in more than 100 short animations.

Also unique to this combat system is the introduction of rhythm games while battling. As your Zubo goes through his funny animated battle moves, a red outline appears around its body. Periodically, a larger orange glowing outline will appear and contracts until it meets the red outline. Your goal is to tap the screen when the two lines meet to increase your battle score.

You take three Zubos into a battle. Sometimes they will face one Zombo, but there may be as many as three. The battle is turn-based where you choose which of your three Zubos you are going to use, and then select from its available moves. Different moves inflict different amounts of damage, depending on how you do in the rhythm aspect of the battle.