Guilty Gear Dust Strikers

"What seems like a mediocre game at first...actually turns out to be a fun experience."

Ah....Guilty Gear Dust Strikers. A few of us have been anticipating this game while many have been dreading it. As normal Guilty Gear fare, you'll play as one of the anime-esque heroes. Unlike most other fighting series though, Guilty Gear relies heavily on speed. Surprisingly, none of the speed is lost on this this transition from serious 2D fighter, to fun 4P beat-em-up. You'll still have to have fast reflexes to fight effectively. The game is just a blast to play once you get into it. So here's the main portion of the review:

Graphics: 7/10
While not incredibly detailed and beautiful like some other sprites on the DS, the Guilty Gear DS sprites don't look half bad. most of them make a full console jump, losing mostly a few frames of animation. The backgrounds are well detailed, but they serve basically no purpose besides eye-candy. Overall, the graphics are a huge improvement over Guilty Gear X Advance...just don't expect really incredible, detailed sprites and polygonal backgrounds bustling with activity.

Sound: 8/10
The sound is surprisingly good for the DS. Most of the tracks have been ported with excellent quality. Even the voices are here, albeit at a lower bitrate to fit into the DS cart size. The opening guitar riff is here. As are some of the more famous tracks. There are newer tracks here too, but they feel tacked on, and lack some of the flair and polish of the previous music of the series. Overall, excellent conversion, but due to the lower bitrates some of the voices and songs may seem a bit... off...

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay, while boring at first, really starts to get fun when you get into it. The fights take place on platforms. The object is to knock out or make your enemy's health lower than yours before the time runs out (you can set match time to infinite however). You'll also pick up items which you activate with the touchscreen. This opens up some interesting combos. You can use the freeze item to stun your opponent, then pick up an infinite tension potion and roman cancel some decent hits. The gameplay is overall fun. However, the final boss (who I will not spoil) is a major letdown. He feels like he's there just to add something to the story. There's also a mode where you can create a custom Robo-Ky out of character's moves. However, you have to unlock these through minigames, which isn't really a bonus because of the ridiculous highscores most of them have. The gameplay, as said before, keeps all the fast paced action of past games. Unfortunately, you'll find yourself degrading to button-mashing fast if you're not careful.

Story: 5/10
Really, not much to say here. The story makes no sense. It feels like it's there for a story mode to be in this game. Bit humorous, but don't expect Shakespeare.

Multiplayer: 6/10
This would be an excellent part of the game... if only they had included download play. Now, some people on the forums say this is because of the DS' RAM limits... That's not it. Metroid Prime Hunter's uses up more space and even it has download play. I hope that if there is a Dust Strikers 2 that it will have download play.

Conclusion:
Fun. Fast-paced fighter for the DS. If you can import, get Bleach DS or Jump Superstars over this, but if you have those and are looking for some new fighting, or are a Guilty Gear fan, then you owe it to yourself to pick this up. The fighting may seem boring at first. But soon enough it will grow on you, and then you'll wonder, "What if they actually knew what they were doing?"

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/06