I personally think that Beyblade has not only been losing it lately (with Zero-G system, along with things that are unrelated to Beyblade like Beywheelz and Beyraiderz), but I think that overall Beyblade isn't as good as it was during plastic gen. People may differ with me on this, but when Beyblade came out with MFB I feel like it lost something that I loved about it, I don't totally dislike MFB, and I go to tournaments whenever I can, but from what I can see plastic gen blades had a far more balanced metagame and that's not even including the more subjective stuff.
I think what you're feeling is shared among a much wider cross-section of the WBO membership than would admit it publically. At its core, MFB is keeping the world of Beyblade alive. It is a vital component of its continued popularity. Without MFB, the franchise would have died long ago and been largely forgotten. At least, new recruits would have been a rare sight.
The fact is, MFB is just another evolution of the franchise. It needs to be "different" in order to sell. The tops need to perform better, spin harder, longer, faster, etc. In the early days of the reboot, the Beyblade designers adhered to a more balanced system than we see in 4D and Zero-G. They deliberately built weaknesses into their designs to keep them balanced. This method is obviously popular - as these are the designs we see in the Limited Format today.
The "balance" issue all changed when
Kenji Horikoshi joined the design team. This was the pivotal moment which essentially broke the game. I'll be talking more about Horikoshi and his impact on Beyblade in my next article on
Formula Bei. So I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot by posting all my thoughts here prematurely, except to say that your feelings are not unfounded and you are not alone - but MFB nonetheless plays a hugely important role in the evolution of the game and the WBO does a great job of catering for people like you who prefer the "balanced" form of MFB or even Plastics.
From an "aesthetic" perspective, I agree there's a lot of cool stuff happening in the visual design of Plastics and HMS. That's one of the greatest attractions I have to
Lowen93's work. You ought to
check him out. He's done multiple commissions for me now and is well worth the toil.
--- By the way, you're obviously a good writer but a few paragraphs wouldn't go astray. Perhaps an edit?
Zero-G is actually an incredible idea for Beyblades that some people are really not giving enough chance to. It brings a whole additional dimension to it than the more basic, 'linear' play involved in the rest of Beyblade.
BeyWheelz and everything is Hasbro's inventions and are definitely not Beyblade-related : I always said they should not even have "bey" in their names since they are not beigoma ...
I agree with Kai-V, here. Zero-G is definitely underrated, in my opinion.
The moving stadium isn't as much of a gimmick as a challenge and more complex (?) play. Rather than just standard Attack types, Sway Attackers utilize sway and KO in their own way.
As far as Beywheelz go, they obviously didn't sell well to begin with- as they're still on clearance at many retail stores. Yet, regular MFB Beyblades still sell relatively well- considering many of my local stores are sold out of everything but 3 Packs, Stadiums, and Warriors.
By the way, if the Zero-G concept is not used in the future new Beyblade series, it will honestly be a loss for Beyblade in terms of ingeniosity. They really need to reuse that; it would be sad if Zero-G was the only run swaying stadiums had, ever.
The zero-g stadium is something that really changed beyblade, even though IMO it is long overdue with the crazy stadium ideas in the go shoot series?, but also IMO the should scrap the whole mfb system and go back to some of the HMS designs to innovate them. This might be just me but i think the mfb beys are flimsy at least compared to my hms beys, i had about 15 faces but now i have like four working ones yet i used my hms beys against my mfb just as much as i used mfb blades and theyre still in decent shape. The design of the stadium has really changed for the better but mfb beys are lacking IMO
I feel that things change with time for better or for worst you may not likea it but i you gotta keep going i feel that they are doing a great job with beyblade and it has come a long way and we shod be happy that they are keeping beyblade alive instead of criticizing the generations that come by. In my opinion every generation has there overpowered bey and if there was a problem in the meta game most of them were dealt with. I have liked every design and feel like a lot of heart was put into them. Thought I don't like zero-g a whole lot in my opinion the zero g stadiums irritate me and I feel it is way to easy to fall out of the stadium. Thought with zero g something and interesting came out a moving stadium which flowed with the beys and basicly putting two beys together which is a cool idea and I feel the designs are similar to plastics but with something new like how mfb are a cross between plastics and hms. I'm not even going to mentions hasbros side products since they aren't beyblades. I don't want to see beyblade go away like it did before mfb came out as long as beyblade keeps going and they look and work nice it will support them
Well I liked the whole zeroG gimmick in the swaying stadiums, but they just wasted storyline details. the storyline stunk. honestly I still like beyblade but if they don't start fixing the story in the show then I wont EVER buy another bey. the show got me into this game, and now its gonna take me out. also Hasbro needs to stop selling those carp stadiums. then people who check the stores for beyblades will see the stadiums that they always wanted but would never be able to get back from japan. IT WOULD REVIVE BEYBLADE
(Apr. 18, 2014 1:56 AM)Kai-V Wrote: [ -> ]By the way, if the Zero-G concept is not used in the future new Beyblade series, it will honestly be a loss for Beyblade in terms of ingeniosity. They really need to reuse that; it would be sad if Zero-G was the only run swaying stadiums had, ever.
I have to agree with this. Even though its not used as much, I think it added a lot f potential things to the franchise that can be used to great measure in the future. I'd love to see what TT and Hasbro do in the years to come with Beyblade.
Also, I wouldn't say Beyblade has lost its luster, but it's definitely lost its popularity due to the hiatus. The TRU I work at doesn't even sell regular Beys anymore, just the Beywarriors. But the future's always bright, because this wouldn't be the first time the series went on hold for years only to return as strong as ever.
Whilst I think Zero G is a good idea, the metagame is very unbalanced as Six said up to the point of being broken to dust. I am really glad there is limited format (although I don't go to tournaments). Zero G for me just seemed broken, it was a good nugget of an idea but I think that Synchromes are too powerful (most of them anyways). You can only beat Synchromes SOMETIMES if you use Duo or what not. However, they are mostly always going to win...especially Genbull Dragooon F230CF (A combo you all know I REALLY hate with all my heart).
If you want my opinion, here it is:
Positives
- (Personal Preference)It has some really nice Beyblades, including one of my favourites Shinobi Saramanda SW145SD, MOST of the new track and tips are awesome, I'll refer back to this in the negatives
- The concept of Synchrome is innovative, it's very unique and deserves a second chance.
- They are powerful and versatile though it's power can be negative, and I'll get to that in a bit.
Negatives
- (Personal Opinion)The show... IT SUCKS it absolutely sucks, the only decent thing are the characters even though I hate the DNA Bladers and Ren is just another weak blader, Gen is a copy of Tetsuya, and they rehash character ideas in the most obvious way, the plastic series was a lot more enjoyable, that also reminds me, the show uses a rehashed plot, a badly rehashed plot of Metal Fight Beyblade, "Neo" Battle Bladers really? The show is rather boring and the dub is even worse in the auditory department, I'd rather watch V-Force than this!
- People overuse Genbull and especially Dragooon! Oh my goodness, Genbull and Dragooon are rather overrated chrome wheels in my opinion, but F230 is the worst, it's broken and everyone relies on it too much! It is easily the most horrendous thing about synchromes and I despised this.
- The chrome wheels do have good designs in it's own rights, but I've said countless times that they do not feel as if they are Beyblades, more like non symmetrical badges, seriously, they lost their identities in my opinion when they don't look like, well blades... The weird shape puts me off and it's generally unbalanced unless synchromes.
However, it's worth giving it another go as a series, but I hope the negatives, especially the story improves, which is important as it generally gets customers to buy it, and this anime didn't for me, though I bought them for a different reason, they were a good system.
I feel like Beyblade's definitely lost something since Zero-G came out. It wasn't a brilliant series to begin with, I admit (kudos to Kira for being the ONE interesting character in the series), and so the show never really took off. So they wouldn't pay attention to the toy line, either. We are definitely hoping something good comes out of this hiatus, so... But, I'd like to see what we get next for the main toyline in the next few years.
Actually, Japan started losing interest at least during 4D, officially.
To me, 4D has some of the best toyline of MFB, but the anime seemed uninteresting and bland and I think people disliked it's complexity rather than Explosions simpleness, which brought new gimmicks but retained what Metal Fight did. It was a big step at the time, plus not all people like 4D bottoms I suppose.
If I double posted this, I sincerely apologise.