Guilty Gear Isuka

"The Fighting Game Whose Name Makes No Sense Prevails!"

Now, for a long time, the Guilty Gear series, while remaining a cult classic, has been trying to constantly update itself to compete with mainstay 2-D fighting residents Capcom and SNK's fighters. Unbeknownst to many, however, because of it's cult status, the Guilty Gear series (with the exception of the PS1 original) is one of the deepest, most strategically based fighters of all time. With a list of things to do that rivals even the Soul Calibur series, it's easy to see why this series is becoming a rising gem among fighting fans.

First off, the premise of the Guilty Gear series is definitely a must-check-out if anything. It's basically any Capcom or SNK fighting game thrown into a blender with heavy metal music. The character designs, backgrounds, menus, everything is designed to be aesthetically pleasing to the modern heavy metal junkie. It's a great concept that is carried through extremely well. The attitude of the characters shows through the mood and music this entire series is set to. It's definitely a very cool new step for fighting games.

Futhermore, it's set...get this: IN THE FUTURE!! How awesome is that?

No? No takers? Ok, lets move on here.

Graphics. The graphics in this game are, as they say in my town, tight. The characters are absolutely huge and fill the screen, and animations are fluid and awesome to watch over and over again. The characters are all extremely unique looking (except maybe the two Robo-Ky clones...but that's another story) and seem to bring their own particular flavor to an already abundant source of energy and style that is presented within this game. Capcom and SNK should take a page from Sammy, as Capcom's characters are generally very small, and SNK's look simply archaic in their most recent 2-D efforts.

Now that I've praised the character designs, you may notice I DIDN'T praise the backgrounds. The backgrounds are the only problem I have with the graphics. They are still pretty grainy, drab and hand-drawn. Maybe they could go the Capcom vs SNK 2 or Marvel vs Capcom 2 route and use fully 3-D backgrounds? That would definitely be pretty sweet. This, is where this game loses half a point.

Gameplay. Now the gameplay within Guilty Gear has always been it's strong point, and always has given it's fans something new to look forward to, and Sammy hasn't let us down this time. This game is INSANELY deep. First of all, there are two new modes. A customization mode and a GGBOOST mode. The customization mode lets you do just that: customize your character how you see fit.

Now, the GGBOOST mode. This mode is a throwback to those old Final Fight/Streets of Rage style games, which has you beat up a bunch of guys and gain prizes (for the customization mode later). Now, Sammy is lucky that SEGA was involved with this game, because if I could get my character roller skates, it would play exactly like Streets of Rage 3. Which is a good thing, believe it or not.

Next! The music and sound. I mean, this was mostly already covered. The music is basically heavy metal. It's good for me to hear, as that's my type of music, although some people might find the guitar playing a bit too...I don't know...distracting, I guess? It all depends on your taste for music. If heavy metal ain't your thing, play with the sound off. Knock of one more half a point for this.

Replay Value? Same as any fighter: unlimited. As long as you aren't a hermit and have absolutely NO ONE to play with, you should have fun beating the snot out of your friends with this game. And if you don't...then...check for a pulse.

That's it friends, and as I always say:

BUY THIS GAME. NOW.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05