As for the game itself, Bleach: Dark Souls is a 2D fighting game made by the same people behind Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Sunset Fighters for the Sega Megadrive, and it shows not just in the level of polish but also in the game design. For instance, the 4-way free for all fights through the use of foreground and background stages (granted, this mechanic has been around before Sunset Fighters, and has been around in many fighters since then).
Bleach: Dark Souls is a little bit hard to objectively review due to the timing of its release. On its own merits, the game is well-designed and will give you hours of fun. It features a ton of fighters based on Tite Kubo’s hit shonen franchise, and the graphics do a good enough job of letting you know which character is which, as well as showing off some of the trademark attacks and moves you’ll see on the anime/manga. It uses 2D spritework, so the Nintendo DS’s limited 3D capabilities is not a factor. The 2D graphics are as good as you’re going to get on the handheld.
However, as mentioned above – the game starts to lose its luster when you consider other factors like other Bleach games and its predecessors. When it comes to the latter, you’ll see that Bleach: Dark Souls isn’t as noteworthy as Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Sunset Fighters.
For starters, even though Sunset Fighters aged well and is still fun to play today, it originally got so much praise because it was really groundbreaking during its release. The quality and many of the features it had were virtually unheard of at the time. If it was released around the time of the Playstation 1, you can bet that it’s not going to be as noteworthy.
Bleach: Dark Souls was released when there are already much better representations of the Bleach franchise around – even on other portable gaming devices. Another thing is that Dark Souls isn’t as fun as Sunset Fighters due to the lack of variety. Sure, it has 3 times the number of available characters, but you’ll find that most of them control a lot like each other. The changes are superficial at best. Sunset Fighters, on the other hand, had different characters that require different play styles.
At the end of the day, Bleach: Dark Souls is a case of the right thing, at the wrong time. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not a bad game. It’s a really good game. But it's kind of good that has already been surpassed by the time it was released. It’s all about context when recommending this game: if you are Bleach completist – get it. You won’t regret the purchase.
If you only have a Nintendo DS, you should still get it because Bleach: Dark Souls is a quality fighting game on a system where the genre is underrepresented. Finally, if you have other systems on hand and you want a really good Bleach fighting game, I would recommend taking a pass on Dark Souls and just go for the later installments of the Heat the Soul franchise.
