Waku Waku 7

"Another 2D fighting masterpiece on Saturn"

Gameplay: I've had a great time with this game. At first I was a little apprehensive about how this was going to turn out. There seemed to be some loading and I wasn't getting the hang of how to play as a robotic maid too well. I gave it a little while more and it turns out the game plays very much like the Vampire Savior or Alpha series by Capcom. You've got the basic moves in traditional street fighter controls, and a ''power'' bar at the bottom corner of each screen which charges up to 7 levels during the fights. You can perform a ''super move'' by completing a normal move for the character and using the highest punch or kick button. For example, the character Arina can shoot a fireball heart with a hadoken like movement and any punch button. Once your power bar is fulled to at least one level, you can perform this move with the highest punch button and it will be a super fireball heart which just takes more damage. Then you can ''super'' your character by pressing X+A like Vampire Savior. They will glow and gain speed to perform quicker combos. They also gain a glowing/shadow like graphic which follows them as they move(like the shadow animation in the sf alpha series that shows up during a super move). Every character has different super moves at various levels such as DokiDoki which are very similar to the alpha series supers. Each character also features one huge super called a HaraHara move which can take most of the opponents life but also takes a couple seconds to perform, leaving them the chance to knock you out of it before pulling the super off. Overall the game is a good mix between classic fighting combos and flashy supers. There are 7 characters + 2 you can unlock and play as in the VS. mode. The characters are pretty insane and can range from the typical aviator goggle wearing young guy to a punching bag with no arms or legs that is a parody of Ryu from Street Fighter. The characters are well varied and are all entertaining to play. There is loading but it isn't too bad and definitely doesn't interfere with the game itself.

Graphics/Audio: The graphics are very nice in the game, yet can get a little pixelated at times, mostly with the backgrounds. The backgrounds do change though during each round, and there is a lot of activity and detail in all of them. It's colorful and the animation on the characters is definitely above average. The entire game reminds me of an anime. The audio is decent to me, punches and kicks are the typical sounds, and the music is good in each level.

Control: Very nice. The moves can be connected pretty well to form some good combos and there are plenty of basic moves to learn. Response is good and there's enough variation that you can beat the average button masher with a little practice. Overall the control is tight and just like a capcom fighter, which is a good thing I feel. You have the half circle/quarter circle movements as well as all the other ones. There's also a cool twist where when you knock your character down, you can jump on them for an extra attack, much like Tekken or other 3D fighters. However if you're the one that got knocked down and can hit the buttons quick enough they jump up performing a counter hit on your opponent who is trying to jump on you.

Story? I have no knowledge of the Japanese language so I'm afraid I'm not really sure what's going on with each character. Overall though I do know that for some reason each character is the carrier of a Waku Ball(each character is a certain color ball) which they must beat the game with to use. Other than that, I'm not sure what's going on, but there's not too much story to get in the way of the game itself soit's cool.

Replay: Lots. There are only 7 characters but definitely enough variation in moves/combos to try. It's a blast to play, definitely one of the better 2D fighters I've picked up.

Overall I'd give it a solid 8/10.
How much would I pay for this? It goes for $30 most places which is a great price for it. Grab it if you're into anime-inspired fighters or just 2D fighters in general.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/02, Updated 08/25/02