It is not enough for today's kids to play with simple toys such as marbles and tops and create their own imaginary universe around them. Today, marketers have to be the imagination for the kids and create an elaborate backstory for a fairly simple idea. Beyblade is such a story, taking the concept of spinning tops to a whole different level by layering on an anime-driven story of a team of world-class top spinners battling evil by beating them in top duels.

Story-wise, Beyblade: Ultimate Blader Jam borrows from the Yu! Gi! Oh! and Pokemon franchises, but the gameplay is significantly different. While the concept of steering a spinning top around various obstacles seems straightforward, in practice the game can be a complex exercise in dexterity and problem solving. Your goal in each level is to navigate a course past opponents, knocking them off the field if possible, jumping gaps through various innovative leaps and ramps, as well as finding hidden areas with power up objects. The game uses the limited field of vision as a tool in making the gameplay challenging, because you often have to commit to a direction before knowing where you will end up.

Since you are guiding a spinning top, your rate of spin affects everything that you do. You start the level by trying to maximize your spinning power on the launcher bar, and then as you move, the higher the rate of your spin, the more maneuverable your top will be. You will need that momentum to absorb impacts from enemy Beyblades as they try to knock you off, as well as the occasional collision with walls or other obstacles that will steal your spin. Strategically placed powerup tiles give you a chance to increase your spin back to maximum, which is critical, because if your top stops spinning, you are out.

There are quite a few different levels to step through, but the gameplay does get very repetitive after a short time. Due to the difficulty in remaining on the playing surface and the inherent instability of guiding a spinning top, you will replay each level quite a few times before completing it, particularly if you try to knock off every opponent and gather every object along the way.

This title will be an oft-played favorite by Beyblade fans, but may ultimately prove to be frustrating to younger gamers who are unable to control the top long enough to progress to the later levels.