Unless you’re 10 years old and watch Nicktoons, the recent Nintendo Direct announcement that LBX: Little Battlers eXperience is coming to the 3DS in August probably came from out of nowhere for you. I guess that’s why my interest was piqued by this game and I had to learn more. I actually got somewhat obsessive in my research, possibly because finding info on this series is somewhat difficult, unless you know where to look. Luckily for you, I think I found out just enough to give you a broader look at LBX’s origins and pedigree.
We’ll start with what was said and shown in the Nintendo Direct Micro that hit the interwebs on June 1st. In Satoru Iwata’s oft-repeated words, “Please take a look”:
“You’ve watched LBX”
Uh, no I haven’t.
“You’ve built LBX”
Have I?
“Now experience LBX on Nintendo 3DS!”
Oooookay?
And the rest of the trailer passes in a blur of animated sequences from the TV show and gameplay, all with zero context. Fortunately, Bill Trinen is on hand to explain a few things. LBX: Little Battlers eXperience is a new game for Nintendo 3DS based in the same world as an anime and toy line that launched last Fall. The whole series revolves around building and customizing tiny robots (known as LBX), and then having them duke it out in elaborate arenas made out of fortified cardboard. Yes, you read that right. Fortified cardboard.
Trinen explains a little about the anime storyline, in which Van Yamano needs to use a mysterious prototype LBX to essentially save the world. So the anime was one of my first stops in a quest to learn more about the LBX series. After watching the first four English-dubbed episodes, I can honestly say the storyline comes off as cheesy as it sounds.
The anime began airing in Japan back in 2011. If you have that age-old question on your mind (what came first, the anime or the game?), well, I don’t blame you, first of all. Second of all, the answer is not exactly what you might be expecting. According to the series’ Wikipedia page, Level-5 began developing of the first game in the series and shortly thereafter announced that an anime would accompany it. I can’t be sure why, but that wasn’t technically the case: the anime began in Japan during March 2011, while the first game in the series wasn’t released until June of that year.
You might be wondering what platform that game released on. It was on the PSP, and it was never released outside of Japan. More games would follow, and you can find them all on Level-5’s product page. The second game, Little Battlers eXperience BOOST, was also developed for PSP, though it doesn’t seem to add much to the series. The first title that came to 3DS, Little Battlers eXperience Baku BOOST, “ups the stakes with up to six player battle royales.” The next few games released seem to, once again, make only incremental changes to the formula, simply adding more parts and customization options for LBX fighters. There may also be slight changes to the storyline from game to game.
The latest game in the LBX series is Little Battlers eXperience Wars for 3DS. The game was released in Japan in 2013 and seems to have a few differences that set it apart from its brethren. The most obvious is that you can “choose your appearance from over 20 male and female characters.” Seeing Van Yamano’s face plastered right inside the footage from the Nintendo Direct leads me to believe that the game we’re getting here in the West is not a localized version of LBX Wars. So the big question is, what is it we are getting? I am also inclined to doubt that what we’re getting is a port of the original LBX game, as that one didn’t include multiplayer battling.
That’s the question that has haunted me since I began this endeavor, and I still haven’t found a satisfactory answer online. The key may be in the storyline. Since we got the English-dubbed version of what is essentially season 1 of the anime, I imagine the game we’re getting this August will follow that same, initial storyline involving Van Yamano’s first forays into LBX battling. That would mean the game actually is a port or, possibly more accurately, a remake of the first. Additionally, Trinen called this game “new”. He may have meant new for us. Or, who knows, maybe it is a brand new game, possibly even with a different developer than Level-5. We don’t know that little tidbit either.
So it may be for 10-year-olds, but this whole LBX thing has me somewhat perplexed. I’m sure each game in the series stands up pretty well on its own, so maybe all you need to know is that there’s this new cartoon on Nicktoons and a toy line to match, and there’s gonna be a game released too. But for those who were strangely curious, like myself, I hope you learned something here! And if you know more than me (or if I totally got things mixed up), leave a comment below and say so!
