2.5/5 ★ – Mason_D's review of Digimon Rumble Arena.

A perfectly serviceable fighting game from pretty late in the PS1’s lifespan. I had this one as a kid and as someone who was never a massive fan of fighting games, I felt this one was good at the time and in retrospect it could better described as functional. The controls work, the layout is simple to figure out, it’s pretty easy to pick up and nothing about it is overtly offensively bad. Unfortunately though pretty much everything this game has going on is just meh. The graphics are pretty bland for a late era PS1 title even a little rough at times, the music is generic and unmemorable and the audio quality in the voice acting is notably bad for the era. It’s a quick playthrough, not much to unlock and not much to really master. The game has some visual similarities to Super Smash Bro’s but the gameplay is bog standard. This feels like a budget game and as I recall, it was. Nothing feels inspired or cared much about from a presentation perspective. It’s notable that, despite having this game as a kid, even though I don’t remember hating it, I don’t remember much about it at all, probably because it’s so mediocre that literally nothing about Digimon Rumble Arena stuck in my mind. It’s a totally playable, thoroughly functional fighting game that isn’t glitchy or broken, but nearly 20 years later there’s basically no reason to play it. There are dozens of better fighting games worth your time and money, this one would only make sense as a last resort.