SD Hiryu no Ken EX

"This is SD Hiryu no Ken Gaiden 2 with... whoa!! A lot more!!"

Finally finally!! Now this is what I'm talking about. Well, it's basically the same game as SD Hiryu no Ken Gaiden 2 but this time... the gameplay options really raise the quality of the game. Let me explain.

Story 4/10
Well.. this is one part of the game that doesn't change... it's the same old story... Nothing. With the same endings... Bah.... little extra stuff but not enough to raise the score.

Music 7/10
Also the same music. So why did I raise the score? I dunno.. I guess playing through the game for the 'third' time (meaning going through everything again a third time) made me get used to the music. And now I actually enjoy some of it much more. Especially Noel's music. Good stuff.

Graphics 8/10
Same nice graphics, but this time vibrant colors animate the little screen. It actually makes the game much more pleasant to look at. Usually I don't care about black and white or rather yellow and green, and I didn't, but I dunno seeing the game in color afterwards just made it look more beautiful. Also some of the images have been changed, and they used the exact same ones that they previously used for Flying Dragon on N64. So another + here.

Gameplay 9/10
Haha! Here you go. Now this is exactly the same game.. but this time the play options I've been mentioning like missing in the previous reviews are actually there!! So for a quick summary of my previous gameplay review, the game plays smoothly enough, it's traditional SD fighting with specials and etc and it's quite fun. But now, you have the choice of playing double, choosing 2 chars to do the game. And you fight against 2 comps. After one char dies, the second comes out, and you take back a little energy for winning the round. Cool. Now there is this mode called "A&D (Attack & Defence)" which I don't recall seeing in any fighting game before. After you choose your char, on the VS screen, the names 'attack' and 'defence' will shuffle on the screen to decide who starts attacking and who starts defending. When the fight starts, you are given 10 seconds to or attack or defend yourself. If you are the attacker for example, you try for 10 seconds to do the most damage possible to your enemy while he tries to defend and avoid as best as he can. 10 seconds up switch you try to defend while your enemy tries to do the most damage to you. Ends after one runs out of energy obviously. But what's even better is that you can 'counter' while you're defending so it will say 'Intercept' and you become the attacker before the 10 seconds are up. You can also play 2 vs 2 like in the normal fighting. And you also got a survival mode, no need to explain. And also another mode a bit like survival except that you have to win flawlessly, meaning getting a 'Perfect'. Oh, and there is also a new character, Ryumaou, which is a new 'final boss'.

Overall 8/10
Really this changed a lot in the score. Now I can say 'Get the game, it's worth it'. I think it is. Really fun, and lots of stuff you can do. And it is now completely useless to get Gaiden 1 or 2, if you want one, definitely get this one. It's worth much much more.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/04