Guilty Gear Judgment

"Two solid games in one"

I have really enjoyed the Guilty Gear series since its release on the original Playstation. I admit I don't own it or it's sequel but that's why I bought Judgment on the PSP. I was really surprised by the fact that not only does this game contain the second game in the Guilty Gear series but it also contains an entire other game called "Judgment". Is the game worth picking up or is the new game bad and the port shoddy? Read on!

My first problem with the game is the story. Judgment contains a pretty solid plot for a beat'em up that fits into what the series is about. On the other hand it would appear almost all story has been removed Guilty Gear XX. Not that the plot was amazing or anything but it was pretty good for a fighting game.

Graphic wise this game has some down right great sprites. I love the character models and the smooth animations. Even in Judgment the game looks nice and it seems that the character models have been given a slight graphical boost as well.

The sound in the game is rather good. The sounds and sound effects are good for a fighter. The announcer rocks but there isn't any other voice work. The music is one of the best things about the series and it doesn't let down in either game on this UMD. It has this great rock sound going that I love in this game. It really adds something to the speed of the game.

The control in the game gives me mixed feelings. In Judgment is easy to move around and move off awesome moves. My problem came with the jumping in those part, unless I was just doing it wrong but either way I died many times due to falls. The control in the fighting game is really smooth and the D-pad s almost perfect. There's also an option to use the nub and there are sensitivity options as well. I found it easy to pull off the simple moves but the harder ones really gave me a problem.

I'll split the game play section into two different things. One for Judgment and one for the fighting game.

Judgment plays out just like any 2D beat'em up. You can move up, down, left, right and you just attack guys as they appear and advance. There are items that give you bonus points, health and lives. They can be found in barrels and stuff. The levels are linear and as you advance you run into jumps and stuff. The enemy variety is a bit weak though but it's solid fun and the amount of characters available for it and the fact that they have their own move sets is pretty cool.

For the fighting portion we have a solid fighting game. You have arcade mode, survival and a few others. The game offers a ton of characters and they are all wacky and fun. The level selections while good also feel limited as you'll run into a few repeats as some guys share stages. I also found the final boss in arcade to be insanely hard.

With the fighting game I found that it was much deeper than the original Guilty Gear and that it really ramped up the difficulty. You can button mash and maybe win but you really need to learn the moves, which are accessible from the pause menu,

So the game is long and provides a good challenge. Judgment is 6 areas with 3 stages in each and then multiple play throughs as the different characters to unlock more characters. The fighting game feels like a great bonus and I actually enjoyed it more than Judgment.

Guilty gear fans will love this game since Judgment is a refreshing change to it all and the fighting game is solid, portable and I do believe if WIFI friendly (I know Judgment is). I would recommend this right now for sure since it's something like $13 in stores and on-line but it is kind of hard to find lately. It's right up there with Darkstalkers for me.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 7/10
Game Play - 9/10
Replay Value - 10/10

Final Score - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/07