"Ignominious"

Before I start talking about the game, I might as well go ahead and say it. I'm a huge fan of 2D fighting games...and fighting games in general. I'm also a big fan of portable video game systems. Ever since the release of the DS, I've been looking for a fighting game for it. So it was with bated breath that I awaited the release of Guilty Gear Dust Strikers ever since it was announced. I followed it almost obsessively in Nintendo Power. I remember that the game was pushed back many times, much to my chagrin. When it actually did come out after what seemed like an eternity (in reality, about a year and a half), I picked it up on the day of release. I had read the reviews posted on the net, and I hoped that it would be better than what they said (IGN gave it a 6.0/10.)

Unfortunately, it was worse.

Guilty Gear Dust Strikers is a four-player fighter that's pretty similar to Smash Bros. You have a whole bunch of platforms in the arena that you can jump onto, spanning both of the screens of the DS. You've got a cast of about 21 characters, ranging from messed up to REALLY messed up. For example, you've got the chivalric Ky Kiske, the demon-possessed Zappa, and the extremely lanky Faust, who fights with a scalpel, of all things! You've got a customizable character, Robo-Ky, and a smattering of mini-games. Yet, the game on the whole feels underwhelming, and it definitely needed more work.

First, the controls are simplified, like Smash Bros. However, unlike Smash Bros., they're not as intuitive. You've got a light attack (the Y button, if memory serves me right) and a heavy attack (the B button) for your basic attacks. Hammer on the button repeatedly and you'll do a string of attacks. Unfortunately, this often means that most fights devolve into button-mashing fests.

You then have the Dust Strike (the X button.) This is used to either knock your opponent up a set of platforms or down a set of platforms. However, you can use this as a launcher for an aerial combo. This is one of the most fun features of the game.

Then you've got a button for your special moves (the A button.) However, if you press the special move button with a direction on the control pad, you'll do different moves, just like in Super Smash Bros. However, unlike Smash Bros., you can do Overdrives (i.e. super moves), each of which consume 50% of your Tension Gauge (one of the cooler names for a super gauge IMO.) These require a more traditional motion on the control pad. Now that's a little more like it.

There are also things like the Psych Burst (activated with the L button) which consumes 50% of your Tension Gauge and is used to break an enemy's combo. However, in Guilty Gear X2, it would use its own gauge and, if used outside a combo and it connected, it would replenish your Tension Gauge completely. This renders it almost useless in Dust Strikers, as it does next to no damage on its own.

The R button is used to do a Roman Cancel, a technique which allows you to cancel any attack animation into another. This consumes 50% of your Tension Gauge, but during certain attacks it may become a Force Roman Cancel and take only 25% of your Tension Gauge. However, with the attack system in this game, canceling an attack is kind of moot...

Let's take a look at the graphics, next. The character sprites are...well, they're quite impressive, actually. Though they're smaller than the sprites of the console and arcade Guilty Gear, they're still pretty fluid and most of the animations they have are still intact. The opening animation is pretty impressive, too, spanning both screens of the DS and using the full-sized sprites, too! I can't say that the backgrounds are of the same quality. Unlike the console games, the backgrounds are completely static. The platforms in the levels look out of place, like they were just haphazardly plopped here and there to create a level. The final boss, who is so massive that he is displayed on two screens, is drawn pretty well, but he looks like he's straight out of a campy horror flick. It doesn't help that his only dialogue is "Grrrr..." or some variant of that...

Speaking of dialogue, let's talk about the story mode...if you could even call it that. The story mode cutscenes consist of poor dialogue between four random characters which often has capitalization and grammar errors in it. Most of the dialogue is mildly amusing, yet despite that it does nothing at all to advance the story. I thought they said this would continue Guilty Gear's storyline... I'm starting to think that this game isn't even canon due to that.

The music is below Guilty Gear standard. The soundtrack is, to the best of my knowledge, from Guilty Gear Isuka. I've never played Isuka, but I've heard a few of the songs from it. On the whole I don't like it very much, but there are a few good songs in there (like Lady Fascination, which thankfully omits the horrible screeching noise from the beginning of the track.) I really do miss hearing No Mercy and Liquor Bar and Drunkard, though... The music for the minigames is beyond terrible, however. It is COMPLETELY out of place in a Guilty Gear game. It's not even close to rock! All this time in development and you'd expect them to either make some new songs or reuse some of them for the minigames...

The sound effects and voice acting, on the other hand, are somewhat decent. Granted, I miss hearing Sol Badguy holler out "GUNFLAME!" and "VOLCANIC VIPER!", but at least Ky's "RIDE THE LIGHTNING!" is still intact, and Faust's strange yells are in there as well. The game's sound effects have slightly less quality, but they're passable. However, with four people in the arena at once, you're going to be hearing that jumping noise so much that it'll drive you batty.

Now, finally, let's delve a little deeper into the gameplay. As mentioned before, the control scheme is simplified, which makes the game have less strategy to it than the arcade and console titles. However, when you've got four people in the arena at one time, it seems to matter less. At first, being in such a massive slugfest is fun, but for whatever reason it seems to get old really quick on the one player modes. It would really be better if they made a mode where you could pick your opponents instead of having them picked at random.

I would assume that it would be more fun to play multiplayer, but seeing as this doesn't have DS Download Play, you need to find someone who has the game. I don't know anyone with a DS who has this game, so there goes that out the window.

There is a collection of minigames in here, and when you get a high score on them, you get moves for Robo-Ky. Sounds good, right? Well, I remember staying up late at night, failing time after time to get a high score in the minigames. For starters, most of them are ridiculously hard. Especially the one where you have to chop up the falling hay (which I'm pretty sure is Johnny's)...and the one where you have to clean the yo-yo with your stylus (Bridget's game)... I'd say the best one is Venom's pool game...even at that it's a lackluster pool simulation. They even cut 3 of the promised 10 games from the mini-game lineup! The moves for Robo-Ky are few in number, and the ones that you get aren't very good, save for Starship and a few others. I would rather have more overdrives for Robo-Ky than a whole heap of useless specials!

In closing, I'm rather sorry that I bought this game, but I guess it wasn't entirely unworthy of my $30. It could have been a lot better, but then again, it wasn't as bad as I feared it might be... but it's kind of sad that the GBA Guilty Gear X is way better than this. Guess I'll have to wait until Guilty Gear Judgment for my portable Guilty Gear fix...

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06