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Review: Guilty Gear X2 (alternate) |
The first new 2D fighter to hit in several months has arrived. It’s already getting rave reviews from such fine sites like IGN, Gamespot and what not. IGN heralded it as the savior of 2D fighters. But they said similiar about GGX, and any other fighter they reviewed had the line, “If they took a page out of the GGX handbook then blah blah blah massive roman cancel cock.” Now you can plug Guilty Gear XX(Zex? :S)/X2 into that statement.
However, this being a Higher Voltage Review, you aren’t going to expect that. Truth be told, you aren’t going to get THAT. What you will get however, is a former Guilty Gear fan that was massively turned off by GGX, to admit that he LOVES X2. Yeah, you read right, I am loving GGX2. Trust me, I am just as surprised as anyone.
Now, I didn’t hate Guilty Gear X mind you, but I felt it lacked that adrenaline laced, massive combo fest wacky fun that the original Guilty Gear had. Yeah, that was still in GGX, but in the world of the roman cancel, faultless defense (GREEN SHIELDS AHOY) and dust combos and what not, it seemed to lose that spirit that made the original game so fun. In the quest for a more technical fighter, it gave up that special something.
Guilty Gear X2 took the technical from GGX, the fun of GG, and smashed it back together something fierce.
The game supports some sharp visuals, and seemed to have added a few frames of animation here and there, so no more of those gay 3 frame walks with stunning standstills. It’s still not on par with Street fighter 3: Third Strike, but it’s definately looking much better than it’s predescessor. It’s got some of the wackiest character designs this side of Waku Waku 7. From cute little May and her giant anchor, to the ironically named vampire Slayer, or the possessed Zappa who looks like something out of the Exorcist, you get a wide range of fighters and styles. It’s this crazy mishmash of character designs that somehow just manages to work, and work well. Their movements and standstill animations are decently animated, if not mind blowing. Bridget has this little snapping, swaying motion that would expect out of a cute little schoolgirl. Then you remember he’s a guy and gouge your eyes out. The special attacks are very vibrant and colorful, many sporting just a hint of transparency and bright enough colors to give it a glowy, ethereal effect. Sort of like the attacks from CvsS2 I suppose. During the fight, you have your lifebar, Burst bar underneath, and Tension bar at the bottom. Also neat is next to your life bar is a miniature shot of your fighter that mirrors what you are doing at all times. You aren’t likely to notice it during a fight, but it’s a neat little effect.
Sounds are pretty much your standard fighter fare. Grunts and screams from hits, clanging of metal weapons against each other, popping and whoosh sounds for flame, crackles for lightning, you get the idea. The music is that heavy metal rock out we’ve all come to know and love from the Guilty Gear games. I just find them so very fitting for a fighting game, especially one of this nature where you just want to dive into the battles, rushing down and pulling off some sort of insane combo. Some reviewers are saying this detracts from the game, but some reviewers like to suck cock, so who cares what they say? If the music is your cup of tea, you are gonna love it. On a related note, whenever you fight Robo Ky, he has this…warbled, fucked up version of Ky’s normal theme that is just so cool. It’s very fucked up, but it is just neat how they threw that little extra in.
Controls are nice and tight, and work quite well with the Dualshock 2. Hopefully I’ll be able to play the game with a joystick in the near future, but for now, the pad works wonderfully. Your controls consist of punch, kick, slash, hard slash, and the dust button. I’ve always wondered, why the fuck did they decide to call the launcher a dust attack? Ah well, that’s beside the point. Specials and supers are done with your expected quarter circles, half circles, and charges. There’s nothing too difficult, although Dizzy does sport 90% of the raging storm pretzel, and has a few extra motions to the fwd, hcf style super. Nothing too bad, and nothing beyond the realm of someone familiar with fighters. Combos are done by chaining the various hits together, like a few punches, a slash and a hard slash into a special or super, or a special then a super. That is one of my favorite things about Guilty Gear, the combo system is pretty basic, quick to pick up and with just some playtime you can pull off stuff that’s just fun to watch. I know I’m no tournament GG player, nor will I ever try to be, but I know I can get together with some pals, pop in the game and we can all have fun.
Gameplay itself is quick and absorbing. Unlike GGX, I find I can play this one very similiar to how I play GG, which is rush in and try to wail on the opponent. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t depending on your character, but that surging adrenaline style of the original is back. That’s far from the only way to play, and I know it’s also far from the best, but dammit I know I’m having fun. It’s all about combos and keeping a good offensive going, since if you don’t the game penalizes you. The negative pentalty is a great thing IMO. If you turtle or keep retreating to the edge of the screen, it takes away your tension guage. No tension, no super attack. I wish some other games instituted a similiar feature. I can understand turtling to a point, but it does get kinda lame don’t you think? Most of your combos when you are first getting into the game will probably involve a jump in, a couple of punches or kicks, a slash and a special. After some play time you’ll work in the dust attack to launch your opponent for some air juggling fun, or start breaking out the roman cancels to add even more to your combos. Also back are the old instant kill attacks. They take the Guilty Gear X route, and can only win one round for you, not the whole fight like in GG1. Pressing all four attack buttons puts you in IK mode, and it drains your tension meter, and if your tension is empty, drains your life until you attempt the attack. Whether the move hits or not, your tension meter is gone for that round. If it hits this is a moot point, since it’s a new round and you get it back. However, miss and you are hosed. Also, while in IK mode, you cannot use any attacks that require tension, including supers, faultless defense and roman cancels. It’s still handy though, since there are some matches where you are in a do or die ituation, so you just go for it, or you are having a particularly tough time with an opponent and just want to end the fight. As for the other features, I haven’t been able to get the nuances of the roman, and just discovered this morning that using a burst attack (Dust + Fwd + any attack) fills up your tension meter, so I’ll be giving that some more experimentation tonight. Again, I’m no tourney player, so I’m probably not ‘getting’ some of the stuff this game has to offer yet, but I’m having fun. However, there has been one advertised infinite involving Slayer, which is basically his HCF+Hard slash bite attack, then you dash in and do it again…and again…and again. It’s mindnumbingly dull, doesn’t do much damage, but it’s in there. I pulled it off easily, and within about 5 bites or less I was bored with it. Who knows what else they’ll find, but for now, everything is working and fun.
There are also several game modes, including your usual arcade, vs modes, and survival. There is also Story mode, which has some nice voice acting and some nifty plots for the characters. Hell, each character gets 3 story paths, with different requirements for seeing them. It’s harder than it seems, but there are already guides for it, so give them a look. Also, after nailing Story paths one and 2 for a character, you have access to their EX version, which get some different moves and strengths or weaknesses. Replay value is MUCH higher then I thought possible. There are all sorts of neat stories throughout the game, centering around the humans vs gears vs whatever deal they’ve had going for the past three games. Characters have unique interactions, and there are many bits of funny intersperesed throughout, but not out of place. One example is Anji Mito runs into May, who keeps calling him pops, much to his chagrin since he isn’t that old. In the next fight, Bridget’s last statement to him calls him pop, and he groans/screams. Some of it is subtle, some over the top, and some very serious, but it all works very well. There is also M.O.M mode, or Medal mode, where you fight round to round for a high score. As you attack your opponent, medals of various sizes drop, and as you collect them bigger medals drop, along with life restoring items. It’s one round and your life isn’t fully refilled at the end of it. It’s fun, but I don’t think you get anything special out of it. Lastly, there is the much talked about, and for many much feared, mission mode. Each mission gives you a certain character and opponent, and places various conditions on you or the match. Such as winning within a certain time frame, must win with a tension or Instant Kill move, you can’t with with a tension or IK, your life drains due to poison, etc etc. Some are easy, some are mindnumbingly hard, but it’s an alternative way to unlock all the characters. I haven’t delved too deeply into this, but I will once I complete Story mode for everyone, and again, it adds more replay value.
I was really hesitent to get this game at first, since I could not get into GGX, and despite it being fun, couldn’t play for more than half an hour. However, I started hearing nothing but good things about XX/X2, and not just from the usual guilty gear crowd, but from our own little forum, including one of our worst SF3:3S addicts, boysplitter. That in itself warrented giving the game a try, and after a play or two, I knew I had to have it.
Jesus, I never thought I’d say that sentence. But anyway, for any of you old Guilty Gear fans that just wanted to take a piss on GGX, or merely thought it could be something more, here it is. The game GGX should have been.
Images kindly stolen provided by Gamers.com and IGN.com
