Code Age Brawls

The gameplay of Code Age Brawls is focused on collecting and using colored badges in a contest similar to rock-paper-scissors. Battles consist of five rounds, in each of which the player and their opponent each select a badge to play. Once both players have made a selection, the badges are revealed, and the winner does damage to the opposing player based on the difference between their levels. The badge colors are ranked in power from highest to lowest as yellow, red, blue, purple, and gray. If players play the same color they both attack, and if one player's color is higher only they attack. Players may choose to not play a badge in order to save it for later rounds; if both players do not play a badge then neither attacks.[2]

Code Age Brawls is a subscription-based game, where players must pay a monthly fee in order to continue to be able to access the game.[3] In April 2006, four months after the game was released, Square Enix added the ability to battle other players in addition to the AI. The Battle Arena, an area of the game that allowed three versus three matches between the player and a computer-controlled opponent, was modified to allow matches between two real players.[3] Players can also use their location as a base and team up with others in their location to attack other people's bases.[4]

The game is set in the same world as Code Age Commanders. The two games were released within months of each other as part of Square Enix's system of "polymorphic" content, which they defined as "multiple game releases from a single franchise on different platforms at the same time".[2] Like Code Age Commanders, Brawl is set in an "intraglobular world" (球内世界, kyuunai sekai?), a fictional hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere, with people living on its internal surface. The center of the sphere is occupied by the Central Code, a spherical structure which goes through a transformation called Reborn about every ten thousand years, destroying all life on the globe and allowing for the birth of a new one.[5]

The game begins near the end of a Central Code cycle, with the humans under attack by Otellos; a new, warped species which possesses humans to turn them into mindless puppets named Coded, although for some people the possession instead turns them into powerful, free-willed creatures called Warheads.[5][6] The game follows a human who has attempted to become a Coded in order to survive the Reborn, but is instead turned into a Warhead, although an incomplete one. As such, she must battle Coded in order to steal their bodies, as hers continually falls apart.[7]

A team called "Warhead" was assembled to make both Code Age video games and manga comic from staff at Square Enix.[8] Footage of the game was shown before E3 2005 at a Square Enix press conference.[9] It was also shown at the Tokyo Game Show in August 2005.[10] A player versus player battle arena was announced for the title starting in late April 2006, along with support for NTT DoCoMo's i-area service that allowed players to find each other using their mobile devices.[3] The previous title Code Age Commanders was interconnected with Brawls and the manga comic Code Age Archives to help players understand the full tale and how all the different stories fit together.[8]

Western reviewers were impressed by the games trailer reveal before E3 in 2005 with IGN describing it as "stunning", especially noting the games very detailed character models, and GameSpot called it "incredible" for the smooth use of textures.[9][11] The game demo was felt to be "rich in terms of plot and strategy".[2] Hardcoregamer later cited the game for having "impressive graphics" for the PlayStation 2 in 2005.[12]