Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade

Jisedai Bēgoma Battle Beyblade (次世代ベーゴマバトル ベイブレード) was the very first video game released, it also acted a proto-type for many of the concepts of the Beyblade franchise.

Gameplay
Compared to the rest of the Beyblade franchise, this game represents some unique ideas and concepts that were never carried on into the main Beyblade series itself. It bears more of a resemblance to Pokémon in style and is the only game within the Beyblade franchise which is a true "J-RPG" style. The player goes around the storyline collecting bits and beyblade parts while fighting enemies and progressing throught the game. Each bit-beast has its own unique attack (though some do nothing until their bits upgrade themselves) and like Pokémon certain ones also evolve when the bits reach a certain experience. Before each match, the player selects the order they wish to use each bit in, the match is done as a best 2 out of 3.

During battle, a player controlled a spining top, which they viewed from head downwards on the arena. Each top had a slowly decaying spin cycle. This particular game gave much more freedom and control to the player in this style then following games allowed and it was even possible to complete the game without much adaption to playing style. The arena itself had a boundaries line, hitting the barriers too many times would weaken the barriers until they gave way, at this pioint it was possible for either you or your foe's beyblades to be knocked out of the arena, losing the round.

Trivia

 * Aside from the characters of Kai, Tyson and Hiro, virtually nothing made this game into the future versions of the Beyblade franchises. However, a few of the earliest beyblades did bare the bit-beasts that appear in this game, but mostly they were a Japanese release in the year 1999. Despite this, a few of these early blades like "Spark Knight" did make it to an overseas sale.
 * In the early 2000's in countries such as the UK, when Beyblade was at the height of its craze on rare occursions fake beyblades often carried some of the bit-beasts seen in this game. This wasn't the only game to see its bit-beasts appear on fakes; bit beasts from the 2000 game Beyblade Fighting Tournament game also commonly made appearances.
 * Despite being featured in art with his face paint, Kai's in-game avatar doesn't have any facepaint on it.