Reviewed by 12-year-old John Rubenking (son of Lead Analyst Neil J. Rubenking)

Bleach: Shattered Blade is awesome. The game format is hack and slash, and it makes very good use of the Wiimote with nunchuk. The nunchuk is used to build up special energies, while the Wiimote is used for pretty much all of the hacking and slashing. As you navigate using the nunchuk's control stick, the Wiimote can be used in many different ways, from creating diversions to actually attacking head-on to launching yourself into an insane combo that only ends when your character can't attack any more. There ends up being a lot of in-there, action-packed, fast-paced fighting.

If possible, I'd give the graphics a rating of six or seven out of five because they're just incredible. It trumps all competition. In fact, the PS3's trump card—its graphics—are taken down by this game. The controls are good, but I'd take off a point because they could better utilize button combinations: they only utilize combinations of one button and swing.

The game is great. There's everything from the clashing to the bankai mode (powering up) to just generally utilizing strategies that you develop over time. The only real flaws are the controls and the fact that some of the characters are unfair in certain ways. By this last criticism, we mean that their attacks are really fast and they do a lot of damage. In other words, you can get stuck in a whirlwind of attacks with no way to escape.

For more on this game, see 1Up.com's review of Bleach: Shattered Blade.