The premise behind Battle Stadium D.O.N. is familiar: take a slew of characters from different franchises and mix it up in frantic four player battles. The game looks and feels a lot like Smash Bros., but there are some key differences that set it apart.

One area in which D.O.N. stays very close to Smash Bros. is the controls. The button assignments are customizable, but you have buttons for regular attacks, specials, jumping, guard/dodge, throws, and super moves. You can perform a wide range of moves with the two attack buttons by pressing various directions on the control stick. There are also a number of weapons like bombs, slingshots, swords, and a crazy red stick that stretches when you swing it. Special and super attacks are restricted by a meter under the life bar that regenerates throughout the battle. Supers can be performed when that meter reaches a mark on the bar, and you can hold the button to charge most supers and dish out even more damage.

Where the gameplay departs dramatically is in how winners are determined. On the top of the screen there is a single life bar, and each player has a section of that life bar. Anytime you attack another player, you actually knock red health icons out of him which anyone can pick up to extend his own section of the life bar. So your goal is basically to take over the entire life bar by stealing the life from your opponents. The tables can turn very quickly because even if another player is completely out of health, he continues playing. If you get knocked out of the ring and half of your health lands across the level, that player can grab it and take the lead.

Once your character takes over a majority of the life bar, they enter a state called Burst mode. Burst mode amps up all of your character's attacks to make finishing off your opponents a bit easier and more satisfying. Super attacks executed during burst are at maximum power and size and are nearly unavoidable. However, if you're the underdog, you still have a chance. If you can counter a fatal blow from a rival in burst mode, you'll perform a reversal attack, knock that person out of burst mode, and take a large portion of the health.

While you'd think that a game pooling resources from three huge anime franchises would have a multitude of characters, there are only twenty characters in Battle Stadium D.O.N. and eight of them have to be unlocked. You can see the full roster in the game profile. The good part is that the characters are all pretty different from each other. The Naruto characters and DBZ characters do share similar fighting styles within their respective camps, but each of the One Piece characters is completely distinctive. Luffy with his stretching, Zoro's sword moves, Sanji's kicks, Usopp throwing tacks on the ground and then attacking when the person grabs their foot; these guys all have completely different sets of moves. Also, Naruto fans should rejoice because Sakura isn't useless in this game. You can use her super to set inner Sakura loose on one guy, and while she's still hitting him, you can turn around and fight someone on the other side of you.

There aren't many levels, but they're all inspired by locations from the series like the Konoha ramen shop and the One Piece pirate ship. There are a couple of scrolling stages that keep you on the move while you're fighting, just like SSBM's Rainbow Ride. One of them is a cool side-scrolling stage filled with swinging logs, spike pits, and giant snakes, but the other level is just horrible. It's a beanstalk that you have to climb, but the stage frequently changes the direction, scrolling up, then scrolling down, then up, then down, up, up faster, down, up, and so on, unpredictably. If at any point you get too far off the stage you'll suffer a ring out.

In addition to the main single player and multiplayer modes, there are a couple of alternate ways to play. Survival is more like a traditional fighting game with separate life bars for each character. Your goal is to get through as many battles as possible without getting killed. Unfortunately, it's just too easy to kill yourself by falling off some of the stages, which can be frustrating after you've defeated several opponents without taking damage. Time attack is a fun diversion, although there's not much to it. It's a simple test to knock as many Buus off the stage as you can within three minutes.

For multiplayer, there's a mode called Hacha! Chike!! (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that stands for Hot Ticket.) In this mode, you can set a number of conditions for battles. You can cuff weights to everyone's legs, give them extra speed, make everyone large or tiny, disable guarding, use only swords, set short fused bombs to rain down upon the stage, etc. Since the options are all in Japanese, you'll need to either experiment or find a translation guide to get the most out of it. On top of that, you have to have a specific ticket for an option every time you want to use it. How do you get tickets, you ask? Enter the slot machine.

In order to win tickets for Hacha! Chike!! or unlock new levels or characters, you have to try your luck at a slot machine that appears after the credits in the main single player game. First, you'll need to earn coins. Before certain matches, a mission description will briefly appear, and if you complete that mission during the battle, you'll earn coins. Missions include simple requirements like "don't guard" or "finish with a full super bar," but there are some wackier ones like having to make yourself ring out three times or jump 100 times. Again, since these instructions are in Japanese, most players will need a translation guide just to tell what the missions are.

Once you start playing the slots, you'll win tons of tickets, but getting new characters and stages is a bit more difficult. First you'll have to line up three red Jump logos in order to access the bonus slot machine. At the bonus slot machine, you can win either a stage, a character, or a group of rare tickets, depending on which of the three icons appears as the big prize. Sometimes only tickets become available, leaving you to go back through the entire single player mode to try your luck again if you want a new character. This whole process would be incredibly evil if it were completely random, but sometimes the slot machines go dark and the music changes and it basically gives you entry to the bonus slot machine or the big prize automatically. In any case, you'll be playing through the single player game a lot if you want all of the characters.

Overall, Battle Stadium D.O.N. is a decent fighting game for four player matches. Fans of the three franchises will be the most interested, of course. However, the game is a bit thin on content and it's hard to recommend picking up at full price. If you're willing to pay though, our partners at Lik Sang do have copies available.