Nintendo ran a Treehouse Live stream on July 10, 2020, which mostly focused on an extended gameplay demonstration for next week’s Paper Mario: The Origami King. As an aside, Nintendo also noted a new game announcement would follow, featuring developer WayForward working on a new, third-party property. WayForward has a history of licensed games and other cool brand partnerships, so folks were pretty intrigued. When time for the announcement rolled around, nobody could have guessed the answer was Bakugan. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and WayForward will release Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on November 3, 2020.
Bakugan has been trucking along over the years, not making as much of an impact today as it did during its mid-2000s peak, but it is still a notable source of revenue for Spin Master and Cartoon Network. This new game follows a recent anime reboot and seems to be an original story, rather than straight adaptation of the show.
A big chunk of gameplay footage was shown during the stream, showing off the game’s bizarre combat system that sees players scrambling for spots in the arena to give their creatures energy to use special attacks. Online multiplayer will be available as well.
Much like other properties with big merchandise ties, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia will have a Deluxe Edition, which will come with a toy/card combo for use in the Bakugan collectible card/toy hybrid game.
Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia will launch for the Nintendo Switch on November 3, 2020.
