Guilty Gear X Advance Edition

"Didn't We Learn ANYTHING From "Blade Runner"?"

It's funny. About a year before my writing this, I was the last person one would ask for a positive opinion on a fighter (right behind first person shooters... if they use something like a Zapper, they're fine. When they use the actual controller, they drive me up the wall). Yet after playing Waku Waku 7, I found myself craving more, which led to my purchasing of Street Fighter II Turbo. Some time later, a guy I know online told me about a fighter game called ''Guilty Gear X''. I'd never heard of it before, and didn't really care until I saw this at Gamestop for only $15.

My friend explained the plot of the Guilty Gear games to me, and I'm not sure I remember it correctly. About a hundred years into the future, man created a bioweapon using human and animal DNA with a pinch of magic. These bioweapons were called ''Gears'' (why they're called that is anyone guess). Overtime, humans saw the Gears as dangerous and tried to dispose of them (ala Blade Runner). Some Gears escaped, and joined forces to defeat the humans. A war took place to eliminate the Gears. Not all the Gears were eliminated, but their leader, Justice, was. The remaining Gears were confused and leaderless, making them easy for elimination.

This is where this game comes in. Everyone thinks the Gears are gone, until an announcement of a Gear roaming around is made. A five million dollar reward is offered for anyone who can do away with it.After the manual is read and the game is started, it's all down hill. The characters are fighting each other for some reason (perhaps competing for the reward? Or proving their worth to take on the Gear?), and at first I didn't know if those things that are fought at the end are the Gears that're supposed to be killed. I had to ask someone with the PS2 version... plot's so bad about the Gears I only had suspicions that Sol was one (one of his eyes appears to be a slit on the box art) until I talked to the guy. Not to mention the endings wrap up diddly squat.

I don't feel the characters were very ''interesting'' or ''original''. Most of them reminded me of characters from Waku Waku 7, Ky taking the cake with his (in my opinion) scary resemblance to Slash (similar animations, quotes/personality, and even a bit in the actual look). The ones that don't remind me of someone out of Waku Waku 7 are interesting, such as a one-armed samurai women.

Perhaps one reason for the awkward plot was because this is a fighting game. I'm not sure how one could make a fighter with a plot like that. As with most fighters gameplay is head-to-head fighting on a flat, single-left arena, in which patterns of control pad directions and the various buttons are used to make various super-attacks (No, Little Timmy. Not like Smash Brothers). There's also more than one mode, including Survival, Tag-Team, and Practice, each with different rules to keep one busy for quite a while. Not only are there several modes to start with, there's also fourteen characters to choose from, each with their own pros and cons.

And all that's just what there is to start with. A few more characters and additional game modes can be unlocked, adding even more to do.

While playing through the various modes, something felt strange about this game that I've experienced in few other fighters, like Killer Instinct. In those such games, I'd put in a combination... and nothing would happen. Then my opponent would be beating the snot out of me with his/her ''Ultra Gigabolt of Death'' while I'm trying to pull off a simple uppercut. Here, it's actually quite responsive and lenient, as the game seems fairly easy to me (as well as a few others). It almost seems too lenient. Ky's ''Ride the Lightning'' has pretty much the same combination as Alucard's ''SoulSteal'' in Symphony of the Night (of course, a different button is used to trigger it. Oh well), but I can pull off Ride the Lightning all day, whereas I can't pull off SoulSteal worth jellybeans (I think I've done it two or three times out of the dozens of times I've tried).

Note that a single combination wasn't the only thing Guilty Gear X has in common with Symphony of the Night. As with Symphony of the Night, this is NOT a game for a strongly religious person (although not quite to that SotN's extent). For starters, the words ''Heaven or Hell'' appear at the beginning of each fight. Some stages have demons and the like in the background, which are usually (except Training mode) the battlegrounds for one of two characters who are possessed or something. And that's taken one step further when we reach a stage that's even suppose to be Hell itself, which is where we run into Testament - a feminine guy with a scythe who summons demons through pentagram portals. This is also a reason for my confusion in the plot. I'm suppose to be fighting Gears, which are man-made biomonsters. Why am I looking at pentagrams? Now, I'm not the least bit bothered by this kind of stuff, but I thought I'd bring it up for those who might be.

Don't worry - this game isn't all demons. When selecting a character or being introduced to the next fight, we see some nice images of the characters. Once in the fight, we may see the lovely backgrounds, then take a look at the character... and probably notice they don't even have a face (yes, there's a few who have faces)... but that's okay. I can't even see how they'd do that. The movements of the characters are very smooth, and most of the characters with a long jacket have it billowing in the wind. Some of the special attacks look really plain and boring, but others look really cool.

The guy I talked to didn't like this version for several reasons, including the graphics. As of writing this, I've never played the PS2 version (I don't even HAVE a PS2 as of writing this, or else I would have played the PS2 version a long time ago), although I've seen sprites from it. I honestly can't say how slaughtered the graphics got from the PS2 version.

The graphics miss the plot. The music misses the whole genre, and the system for that matter. It's not that it sucks or something, but it does not feel like something I should hear in a fighter. And I'm aware the GBA doesn't have the best speaker of systems, but even for that it doesn't sound right. The title screen music makes me feel like I should be on my Game Boy Color playing as a red and blue character with a gun who uses a grappling hook to get around (no kidding. I actually felt that), Anji Mito's song starts out sounding like one of the bases from Duke Nukem, and the ending reminds me of the ending music to Mega Man Xtreme 2, although keep in mind they're not bad. Some of the other songs got on my nerves (although through a set of headphones, they're not that bad...).

I enjoyed most of the songs, but the sound rating from me got brought down a couple of points thanks to the lousy sound effects. About half the ones used in this game are different types of ''crack'' noises. Some of the other ones may not be cracks, but are just as annoying. When May and Faust walk, they make a sound like they have suction cups on the bottom of their shoes. Now that I think about it, none of the sound effects were all that good.

What I said about the graphics also applies to the sound.

Scorings
Plot: 6/10
Gameplay/Fun Factor: 8/10
Control: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Overall: 8/10

It's games like this that have made me like fighters. Guilty Gear X is fun, actually has control, has a little bit of humor (defeat Jam with Ky for some of the sick kind). And it only cost me fifteen bucks, and it was well worth it. Now if only I could find something to make me like first person shooters...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/03, Updated 04/04/03