Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers is fine for a quick fighting fix, but major control issues drag down the final product.
Okay, enough of "speaking to the game." Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers is not so bad, that I want to pretend it doesn't exist, but compared to most other games in the series, it's just... meh. I'm sorry, but the fact that it's on a handheld doesn't excuse it. Plenty of games work out well on a handheld. Guilty Gear is not one of those games.
When I first picked it up, it was a fun button masher, but as my time with it progressed, all of the flaws began to unveil themselves. Controls were clunky (especially movement), the two screens got annoying pretty fast, and the Super Smash Bros style gameplay doesn't feel like a Guilty Gear game, and really doesn't work for it.
Guilty Gear is not known for being a fun party game. It's a straight on 1 on 1 fighter... or it usually is. Dust Strikers decided to turn it into a SSB type game, where you fight on large arenas, acquiring different items to affect your enemies. You usually fight more than one person at a time, which usually ends up getting a bit jumbled.
One of the major reasons that it does get jumbled is due to the separation of the screens. Similar to Metroid Pinball, the top and bottom screen are both the stage. Unlike Metroid Pinball, it doesn't work well. One of the items in the game sends you shooting up to the top or down to the bottom. Let me tell you something... that gets confusing, and very frustrating. When you randomly vanish, it gets on your nerves. The split screens prove to be more of a distraction than anything remotely unique.
Another issue is movement. Turning is not simply pressing the right or left arrow. No, turning is pressing the right or left arrow numerous times until it actually responds. The clunky controls are no help, and when an enemy comes at you from the opposite direction, don't count on being able to quickly start attacking him. Likely, you'll have to pray that you'll actually turn. Either that, or you'll start attacking air, thinking you're in the right distraction.
My final gripe is the mini games. The mini games aren't all terrible... just most of them are. These are the only things that you have to use the touch screen in, and well... it doesn't really work well. One of the major atrocities is this mini game where you have to cut pieces of hay in a certain number of slashes. You won't always slash when you want to slash. Expect to lose that one numerous times, because the controls are too awful.
The multiplayer is fun. It's good to have a DS fighter to play with your friends. If you have a few friends that want to play, it's a pretty fun game. The pick up and play fighting is fun too.
The game CAN be fun. A lot of the time, I found myself enjoying the mindless button mashing. The game features to many problems to garner my full seal of approval, though. As previously stated, the controls are annoying, the dual screen use is a distraction, and it just doesn't feel like Guilty Gear. If you want a quick Fighter for the DS, you may want to pick up Dust Strikers, just don't expect to play SFIV.