Guilty Gear Isuka

"Fun, but not enough"

Guilty Gear Isuka is the next Guilty Gear game to hit the market. I have to admit that it is fun, but its just not such a well made game.

Music/Sound 10/10-I must admit that the music was AWESOME! GGI has a rock soundtrack, and the music is something that you can fight to. There is even a character name Zappa (After rocker Frank Zappa), one called Axl Low (who even looks like the Guns N' Roses lead singer he is named after!) and moves named "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" (Both are Metallica CDs). The sound has a nice arcadey feel, although like all arcade style games it drills itself into your head after awhile.

Graphics 6/10-Look, I don't hate 2D graphics, but GGI's graphics are ridiculous. I feel that if you want to release a PS2 game, give it PS2 graphics. The rendering was bad and the backgrounds didn't feel like they were a part of the foregrounds, which takes some of the smoothness out of the graphics.

Story 5/10-There isn't much of a story, but you don't expect a great story from a fighting game, so that 5 rating is just because the story is pretty bland, but i really didn't expect much.

Difficulty/Replay 8/10-GGI is fun to just sit down and play, and can be especially fun as a party game (Thats the only place where the 4 player mode works well). As for difficulty, the game can be very difficult at times. My complaint here is that you start with a bunch of characters unlocked, whereas you should unlock more.

Gameplay 5/10-This is where I think the game falls apart. The moves system is not well done, and the action can be chaotic. Sammy Studios put in one of the most brainless ideas-you have to turn the character around yourself. This makes sense in a four player game, but in a two player game it is just annoying. Although the move list is extensive enough, there are little to no combos, so you must rely on your specials to win. Finally, the button combinations are ridiculous. Dizzy has one move in which you pretty much have to roll around the entire D-Pad to execute it. Now rolling can work, but in GGI you have to be too precise. There were points where I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong in the combination. And since there are no combos, I was pretty much one dead transvestite with a yo-yo.

In conclusion, buy this game if you are a huge arcade fan, but otherwise avoid it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/05