♬ r y u k i ~ b l o g =^^=: INAZUMA ELEVEN

Inazuma Eleven (イナズマイレブン Inazuma Irebun^?, "Lightning Eleven") is a role-playing sports video game for the Nintendo DS developed and published by Level-5. It was released on August 22, 2008 in Japan. A European release was confirmed by Nintendo and was released on January 29, 2011, three years after the Japanese release. The UK release was held back to 26 August 2011 for marketing reasons.
Since the game's launch, it has received two sequels for the Nintendo DS; Inazuma Eleven: Firestorm / Blizzard and Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen, as well as two spin-offs for the Wii; Inazuma Eleven Strikers and Inazuma Eleven Strikers 2012 XTreme. The third sequel to the main series, which takes place 10 years after the events of the third game, Inazuma Eleven GO, is available on the Nintendo 3DS. An Inazuma Eleven manga based on the games began serialization in CoroCoro Comic on May 15, 2008, while an anime based on the games, produced by OLM, started airing on October 5, 2008. Mitsui has also created a collectible card game tie-in.^[1]^[2] The game served as the debut of a pop idol group, Twe'lv.

Gameplay

Plot

The main character, Mark Evans (円堂守 Endō Mamoru^?), is a very talented goalkeeper and the grandson of one of the strongest goalkeepers in Japan, who supposedly died before Mark was born. Even though his skills and enthusiasm are incredible, his school lacks a real soccer club, as the six other members don't appear very interested even in training. One day, when a mysterious forward named Axel Blaze (豪炎寺修也 Gōenji Shūya^?) moves to Mark's town, the young goalkeeper sets out to find and recruit members for his soccer team. There are nearly 1000 playable characters with varying skills that will determine the success of the team. As you play through the story, Mark can recruit various characters on the team and help achieve his ultimate goal of competing!

Gameplay

The game is split into two parts: one resembles an RPG, featuring various locations that Mark and his team have to explore in order to get new items, face several other players in short casual battles or to advance further in the story. The second part is the actual match: using the stylus, the player moves the soccer team around against the opposing team. The player can dodge opponent's attacks, slide-tackle to take the ball away, or use a special ability available to the characters they recruited to kick, steal and catch the ball. The result of any of his players actions are determined by seven skills, the player's affinity, and the total number of players participating in an action. Special abilities can not only be stopped with other abilities, meaning that they will most of the time win against basic tactics but not always. Super shots and Super keeps play simultaneously, which means that unlike defending the ball they always consume the Ability bar and at the beginning are determined by the player's affinity only.

Characters

Main article: List of Inazuma Eleven characters

Reception

[hide] Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	73 out of 100 (based on 10 reviews)^[3]
GameStats	8.0 out of 10 (based on 9 reviews)^[4]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Eurogamer	7 out of 10^[5]
Famitsu	36 out of 40^[6]
GameSpot	6.0 out of 10^[5]
IGN	7.5 out of 10^[7]
3D Juegos	8.0 out of 10^[4]
Cubed³	8 out of 10^[8]
Fragland	84%^[9]
Gamer.nl	8 out of 10^[4]
Nintendo Life	^[10]
Vandal Online	8.2 out of 10^[4]

The game has received mixed to positive reviews, with an average aggregate score of 8.0 out of 10 at GameStats^[4] and 73 out of 100 at Metacritic.^[3] The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game a total score of 36 out of 40, with two reviewers giving it a 9 out of 10, one giving it a full 10, and another giving it an 8.^[6] The Dutch reviewer Gamer.nl gave the game a score of 8 out of 10, while the Spanish reviewers 3D Juegos, Vandal Online and VicioJuegos gave it scores of 8.0 out of 10, 8.2 out of 10, and 83 out of 100, respectively.^[4]
Fragland gave the game a score of 84%, praising its "original combat system, beautiful and cute graphics, good sound and a very tight and deep gameplay and finishing."^[9] Nintendo Life gave it 8 stars out of 10, concluding that it is a "refreshing take on" the RPG genre and that "the compelling storyline, overall charm and well-structured fantasy style football system" will create "an experience that RPG lovers will come to cherish."^[10]
It was the first best-selling game in Japan the week of its release at 41,000 copies.^[11] The game sold 29,000 copies its second week and 14,000 copies its third week.^[12]^[13]