When researching Blood Bowl prior to reviewing the game (as I usually do with titles I'm unfamiliar with) I discovered the lengthy history that has preceded the game. Blood Bowl began life as an altered version of Warhammer, set on a board that resembled an American football field. This turn based version of the sport proved very popular with Warhammer fans, and eventually moved into videogame form in 1995. Now 14 years later, Blood Bowl is back, on DS PSP and PC. But does the DS version feel intuitive enough to be the must have version.

Sadly though, DS players have been stuck with a badly constructed, poorly executed version of the much loved board game, with terrible controls and some painful presentation. It may seem harsh to lay all of that on a game in the opening of a paragraph, but sadly Blood Bowl on DS deserves this kind of intolerance. If you have never played Blood Bowl before, then the lack of a serviceable tutorial should be the first sign this game isn't for you; the lengthy text boxes that explain the mechanics of the game being so convoluted that you will never be able to understand how to play the game. That said there are plenty of people who have played the board game, the kind of people who won't miss in game hints and tips, which Blood Bowl distinctly lacks. Are there any redeemable qualities for Blood Bowl on DS for players with knowledge of the game?

It's surely a faithful adaptation of the board game, with the same tactical version of football, and a set of familiar races from the Warhammer universe playing each role in the team. Ranging from Orcs to Lizardmen, Warhammer vets will recognise the characters, even in their low fidelity forms. You can participate in Tournaments, Leagues and Quick Play matches, though the career mode seen in the Pc version is distinctly lacking. Whichever mode you choose to play in, gameplay is near identical; you move your players across the field to fend off your opposing team, while recovering the ball and scoring a touchdown is always a secondary goal. This emphasis on attacking enemies puts the focus on the Warhammer element of the game instead of the football, which makes scoring points always seem like the least important thing to do. Blood Bowl does a good job of bringing everything gameplay wise that the board game achieved, so it really is a shame that the game is plain broken.

Set on a squared grid, you move your players to various spots in an attempt to have the tactical edge over the opposition. You would expect this to be a breeze with the accuracy of the DS touch screen, but unfortunately the opposite is the case in Blood Bowl. You tap a square, and the game will fail to recognise which square you chose. This becomes especially troublesome when double tapping-required for nearly all actions involving players-as the game will choose a different square on the second tap. This small annoyance happens far too often, and has got so frustrating that I've had to stop playing multiple times. These problems shouldn't be the case with DS games this late on in the system's life cycle, and only shows just how frustrating Blood Bowl can be.

But surely the gameplay of Blood Bowl is perfect for a handheld? You'd be wrong thinking that too, as the length of matches and loading time makes the handheld experience feel antiquated. Matches are made up of 16 turns each; with each turn lasting anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes. This is far too long for a handheld game, where 30 minutes is much longer than the average play session for a DS player. If you could save match progress, this wouldn't be a problem, but sadly the developers have made a game that doesn't suit the platform it resides on. It needn't be like this either, as half of each match is simply watching the action with no direct input from you. Watching the computer 'think' about its next move gets old very fast, and makes the game feel less streamlined than it should. Blood Bowl may work on PC, but the platform just doesn't fit here.

Another reason why Blood Bowl on DS is the weakest version is in the visuals. Unlike the 3D character models found in the PC and PSP versions, DS players are stuck with poorly animated sprites, these animations being made up of what seems like less than 10 frames. The sprites are well designed, with each race being represented faithfully in their accompanying full size picture, but everything about the graphic design feels dated. The sound is even more noticeably mediocre, with bleeps and bloops that wouldn't have gone amiss in the 80s, not what is expected in 2009, even on DS.

Not even the presentation of Blood Bowl, which is fairly good in the other versions of the game, can save the DS version from certain doom. To be frank, the game is broken, thanks to poor controls and weak design decisions. Those that enjoy American Football will dislike the emphasis on stat based fighting, and RPG purists will miss the satisfaction of levelling up players. Those that are fans of the original Blood Bowl should consider playing the PC or PSP version, but make sure to steer clear from this dreadful DS game.

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).