Yu Yu Hakusho: Spirit Detective

Yu Yu Hakusho: Spirit Detective is a video game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld console. It was developed by Sensory Sweep Studios and published by Atari. Based on the manga and anime series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi, the plot follows the central character Yusuke Urameshi, a street-brawling, often truant teenager who dies trying to save a young boy's life. After meeting an incarnation of the Grim Reaper, Yusuke is given a second chance at life as a "Spirit Detective", a protector of the living world.

Plot
Yusuke Urameshi is 14 years old, and he is the toughest student at Sarayashiki Junior High School. He brawls with his friend/rival Kuwabara on a frequent basis. He is a stereotypical bad egg, with a bad attendance record and picks fights with other kids at school. In the manga, he is even revealed to be drinking, smoking and gambling.

While skipping school and being neglected by his mother, Yusuke wonders around the town. Yusuke comes across a toddler playing in the streets and scolds him for it. This upsets the child, so Yusuke entertains the toddler by making silly faces. The toddler disregards his advice and walks into the street again chasing his ball and, you guessed it, a car comes speeding down the street and Yusuke shoves him out of the way. Yusuke is struck by the car, and killed.

As a ghost, Yusuke is greeted by an atypical version of the Grim Reaper; a bubbly, cheerful young woman named Botan. She informs Yusuke that no one in Spirit World had expected him to die, risking his life to save the toddler. The boy would've survived the hit, Thus, Yusuke's interference was unnecessary and only resulted in the kid having a minor scratch. They have no place for him in the afterlife because of his abrupt death. The Spirit World is also amazed how Yusuke, known for his bad attitude, could save a boy, and for these reasons, he was given the chance to live again. Botan remarks that Yusuke can return to life, but he initially declines.

Yusuke's mind changes after he attends his wake, where people he knows pay their condolences to his mother. Atsuko (Yusuke's mother), is extremely distraught & borderline catatonic about losing her son. Keiko Yukimura (his classmate) sobs uncontrollably, yelling Yusuke's name. Kuwabara appears, angry and upset that Yusuke died before they could finish their battles. When two of Yusuke's teachers belittle him at the wake, Mr. Takenaka, the principal of the school, berates them for insulting him. He pays his respects to Atsuko and sobs at Yusuke's passing; only then, Atsuko reacts, collapsing in tears at the mention of Yusuke. Lastly, the toddler whom Yusuke saved and his mother show up, and when he asks if he can play again with Yusuke, his mother cries and hugs him. Understanding that he meant more to others than they let on, he decides to come back.

Yusuke is given an egg by Koenma, acting lord of Spirit World (in place of his father, who often left to work in other places), and is told that it will hatch a Spirit Beast, which will help him get back to life. However, he must be a genuinely good person. If he is evil, the beast will devour him. While Yusuke only accomplishes two good deeds in the anime, he does a lot more in the manga due to the timeline of events being more stretched out. This includes helping a boy named Shouta get over his dog's death, helping a girl who had died get over her obsession with a boy, (who didn't really care for her) so she can move on, and also being temporarily revived to keep his body fresh so it won't die out. The last deed involves not allowing Keiko to know about this, though Kuwabara encounters him and Yusuke explains to him what is happening before he returns to being a ghost.

Keiko, who had received dreams and messages from Yusuke's ghost telling her he would be returning to life, needed to take care of his body so that he would be able to return to it. However, a fire starts in Yusuke's home and his body runs the risk of being incinerated. Keiko runs into the fire to protect it, and is trapped in the fire. Yusuke gave up all the power gained from his good deeds after his death to have Koenma save her. Koenma used this to put out some of the flames and opened up a path for her to escape from the fire.

Due to this incident, with Koenma directly in contact with Yusuke's soul, Keiko kissing Yusuke to resurrect him he figured that the wave cycle of Yusuke's power is extremely long and has to meet the right time to be resurrected or he would have to wait for another fifty-two years (fifty years in the Japanese version and English manga) before the next chance and decided to let Yusuke return to life earlier even though the fire incident should have delayed the process since his power gained from good deeds were used up (In the manga, Yusuke had to go through one more good deed to be eligible for this by possessing an old acquaintance named Matsuo Suekichi to help him gain the confidence to achieve his dream of becoming a boxer).

The only way for Yusuke to be resurrected is by a kiss from someone who is very close to him until midnight. Yusuke could tell, by dream, to three people he knew in order to do this, but he only told Keiko and Kuwabara since his mother started drinking and would not go to bed. Kuwabara did not believe the dream, due to its homosexuality, and Keiko got delayed by her mother's illness. Botan possessed Keiko's mother to leave a message saying Yusuke was in a more dire state than she was. Keiko manages to kiss Yusuke in time, and Yusuke is returned to life.

After returning, Yusuke noticed that a group of kids from a rival school had kidnapped Kuwabara's pet cat, and that they were trying to make him do things that he would never do to save it, like stealing. Yusuke then found out that there was a demon inhabiting the body of the leader of the group and defeats him and saves the cat. Botan shows up and tells Yusuke that his experience with death allowed him to do these things. He is to become Earth's Spirit Detective, and protect the human race from demons by solving cases involved with the apparitions.

Yusuke engages in many difficult trials in his first assignments as Spirit Detective. The first is to recover three stolen artefacts from Spirit World. Koenma trains him by teaching him how to fire his spirit energy, energy possessed by humans and spirits, as a weapon. This technique is called the Spirit Gun, and becomes the signature attack of Yusuke. Yusuke attempts to combat these three thieves: Goki, who stole a soul-stealing article called the Orb of Baast; Kurama, who stole a mirror called the Forlorn Hope; and Hiei, who stole the Shadow Sword.

Yusuke was able to defeat Gouki the aid of Botan (anime only) and his Spirit Gun. Kurama willingly turns over the Forlorn Hope, as he only wanted to use its power to save his mother's life. Kurama intended to sacrifice his life for the mirror to save hers, but Yusuke selflessly asked the mirror to take his so Kurama can enjoy his mother's life. The mirror granted Kurama's wish, taking half of each of their life force, but killing neither, and Yusuke took the mirror. Yusuke and Botan then went to fight Hiei, who kidnapped Keiko and tried to turn her into a demon by slashing her with the stolen sword. While Botan staved off the transformation, Yusuke fought the extremely-fast demon, and managed to defeat him by reflecting his Spirit Gun off of the Forlorn Hope, intentionally missing Hiei to strike it and causing the arrogant demon to believe Yusuke missed. They found the antidote in the hilt of the sword to stop Keiko's transformation. After the ordeal, Yusuke turned over the three artefacts to Koenma.

Yusuke then was sent to the compound of Master Genkai, an aged, experienced fighter who was looking for a successor to her powerful Spirit Wave technique (Reikō Hadō Ken or Spirit Light Wave Fist in the original Japanese version). To decide her successor she decided to hold a tournament which Yusuke and Kuwabara enter. Botan warned Yusuke that a demon named Rando would probably try to inherit her technique and it was his job to stop him. Yusuke fought through her tournament and defeated Rando in the end, becoming her successor. For the next two weeks, Yusuke undergoes tough training with Genkai. As a result, his strength radically heightens, push him from a D-class to a C-class.

Yusuke was then sent to Maze Castle in Demon City to defeat the Four Saint Beasts and stop them from taking over the human race with demon parasites. Kuwabara decided to go with Yusuke, and Koenma sent Kurama and Hiei, who were on probation in the human world, to assist. Yusuke and the others fought their way to Suzaku, the leader of the group, and Yusuke managed to defeat him, but at the cost of his own life energy. Kuwabara saved him by transferring part of his own life energy.

Yusuke teams up with Kuwabara (and Botan in the anime) to rescue a beautiful ice apparition named Yukina, to whom Kuwabara becomes smitten. However, Yukina is actually Hiei's twin sister, a fact that Kuwabara and even Yukina herself is unaware of. Yusuke fights all the way to the Toguro brothers. Yusuke and Kuwabara defeat them with awesome teamwork and rescue the maiden, but it turns out that the Toguros threw the fight on purpose. The Younger Toguro brother coerces Yusuke to join the Dark Tournament (Ankoku Būtsukai or Black Martial Arts Tournament in the original Japanese) and defeat him in a real fight.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Very awful graphics for the system. The graphics look like they were made by a kindergarten or a toddler and it makes that game look like it was made for the Super Nintendo or mh:awesomegames:Sega Genesis.
 * 2) Terrible sprites. All of the characters look more like Barbie dolls or action figures than the actual characters from the show.
 * 3) Very little replay value, due to being very short and also being to quick to beat.
 * 4) The game feels way to short for an adventure game. The game can even be beaten in a day very quickly.
 * 5) The controls are very clunky and Awful and they can get very confusing at times while playing the game.
 * 6) It is unfaithful to the source material it's based on, resulting in a confusing story despite it being based off the anime and manga. One example is you can play as Hiei and Kurama during the entirety of the Rescue Yukina mission when in the anime, they didn't even take part in the mission until the very end. Rando and Suzaku clones also appear, even though the clones didn't appear in the anime and manga. Another example are the character stats, where for some reason, Kuwabara is the strongest character even though he is constantly shown to be the weakest out of the four main characters in thr anime and manga.
 * 7) Awful sound effects. All of the male characters have the same "Ugh" voice when they die or get hit. Same thing goes for the female characters but with a higher pitched "Ugh" voice. The voices also don't fit most of the characters as well. Most notable examples are Kurama, Kuwabara and Genkai. The enemies and bosses are not even voiced as well. Some enemies are excusable like the bugs and zombies, but bosses like Hiei, Suzaku and Toguro are not.
 * 8) Despite the bonus round having Genkai enter the Dark Tournament, some characters don't show up like Jin, Touya, Chu, Bakken, Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, Ichigaki, Suzuki and Karasu. However, this can be excusable as this game takes place before the Dark Tournament and they probably wanted to make the Dark Tournament into a boss battle mode.
 * 9) The game is very easy with the exception of the Younger Toguro boss battle.
 * 10) The menu screens look very bland and unoriginal to look at.
 * 11) The music for this game is awful and horrendous. Not to mention, all the songs loop and get annoying real fast. None of the songs from the anime, like Smile Bomb aren't even featured. Even the first Game Boy Yu Yu Hakusho game had Smile Bomb, and that game came out 10 years before this game.
 * 12) Unsatisfying ending. All you get is a screen showing team Urameshi and the words "Mission Complete"
 * 13) Only 7 playable characters, not to mention, 2 of them (Keiko and Botan) are playable for a short period of time in the story and one of them (Genkai) is only playable in the extra Dark Tournament.
 * 14) Awful difficulty spikes. One notable example is the Younger Toguro boss fight being very hard while the next boss, Rando and Suzaku is fairly easy. To make things worse, you even fight Toguro twice, the only difference is that you now play as Kuwabara instead of Yusuke and that Toguro moves much faster and deals more damage.
 * 15) You have to do tons of grinding in the game in order to defeat most of the bosses.
 * 16) Very awful level design. Most notable level is the main city, which is huge and very maze-like.
 * 17) The game has no continues. If you die, you go all the way back to the beginning of the level.
 * 18) Saving your stats makes you quit the game and lose all your progress in the level except your stats.
 * 19) In 2006, the game was bundled with Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu, which is known for being one of the worst Dragon Ball Z games of all time.
 * 20) This game was so bad that even people in Japan hated it, and they even called the side mode from the 4th Yu Yu Hakusho Gameboy game better than this.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Some of the music is alright like the main menu song.
 * 2) There are some fun moments, like the Byakko boss fight. Also during the Genkai Tournament, there is a boss (Kazemaru) where you have to manipulate his throwing stars to defeat him, as you can't punch or use special attacks during the fight.
 * 3) The boss fights are pretty fun.
 * 4) The game can be fun at times, especially during the later levels.
 * 5) The poor character animations can be pretty funny to watch. Especially Hiei and Yusuke's flailing punches.
 * 6) This was the first YuYu Hakusho game released in North America, as all the other games were only released in Japan.
 * 7) The dialogue is alright. The dialogue can also be pretty funny at times, as it is copied from the anime.
 * 8) The character stat pictures look cool.
 * 9) While the is rather unfaithful to the series, there are some moments in the game that are faithful to the anime, like the minigames during the Genkai Training arc, Using Hiei to find a switch to free Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara from the Gate of Betrayal and using Kuwabara to talk to Keiko to help her save Yusuke's body.
 * 10) The game does control better when using a thumbstick attachment for the original Game Boy Advance.
 * 11) The graphics, while ugly and awful looking now, were pretty impressive at the time for a GBA game.
 * 12) In the story, during the Genkai training arc, there are 3 mini-games based off the ones seen in the Genkai Training arc from the show. The mini-games are recreated faithfully and are pretty fun. You can even replay them in the extras option in the main menu.
 * 13) There is a extra mode that you unlock where Genkai enters the Dark Tournament and fights every boss you have already faced in the main game.
 * 14) The sequel, Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics was a huge improvement, having better gameplay, sound, presentation, graphics and a longer story.
 * 15) At least in the bundle pack, this game is better than Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu.
 * 16) Some Yu Yu Hakusho fans may enjoy the game, and it can be nostalgic to some people.

Reception
The game received "unfavorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. One universal complaint about the game was the very repetitive and thus unenjoyable nature of the gameplay. Adam Tierney of IGN lambasting the combat with enemy AI, the required use of the compass in the maze-like levels, and the discouragement of exploration. Eduardo Zacarias of GameZone found that the battles become “more of a nuisance rather than an entertaining challenge”; he did credit the developer's attempt at variety with the unique objectives in each stage. Nintendo World Report writer Michael Cole chose Spirit Detective among the worst games he has played, noting poor collision detection, significant lag when using special attacks, and virtually no challenge in its battles or collection missions. Cole was satisfied with the integration of episode plot devices into the levels and the inclusion of minigames.

Most critics disapproved of the graphics in Spirit Detective, while opinions about other aspects of the presentation have been largely mixed. Tierney called the backgrounds “dull” and “bland”, the looping music “weak”, and static menus “bland”. However, he did take pleasure in the pre-rendered models and the clever text used in the storyline adaptation. Contrarily, Cole thought the plot “flows like a low-budget clip show”, requiring the player to be familiar with the anime and allegedly neither introducing characters and situations in a proper fashion nor including all portions of the story arc. Like Tierney, Zacarias was unmoved by the graphics and accompanying music, but was impressed by the fighting animation and sound effects. Cole described the use of official in-game artwork as a plus, but remarked the audio as “horrible”.

Despite the game's poor critical reception, Atari's North American division reported satisfying financial results for its third quarter of 2003, naming Spirit Detective as one of the contributing titles. Sensory Sweep Studios and Screaming Games collaborated once more for the release of Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics for the GBA in 2004.

Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttcH8Fe4iw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph-uj1kYOao