Guilty Gear Isuka E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions

We were recently able to get in some quality time with Guilty Gear Isuka at Sammy's booth on the E3 show floor. Guilty Gear Isuka keeps the series' classic stable of characters and move sets but will add three all-new characters, which weren't revealed at the time of the show. The game’s major innovation to its 2D-fighting system is that battles are now four-player. You can now fight against the computer, your friends, or a mix of both in free-for-all or team-based modes. While this may sound like total mayhem, the game also adds another layer to the action by giving you the ability to switch where your character appears on the field of battle. By pressing the R1 button and the square button at the same time, you can move your character from the front of the stage to the back and vice versa. When you’re at the rear, your character will both physically move farther into the stage’s background and shade slightly darker, so it’s easy to tell where you are at a glance. Moving in this way will allow you to avoid attacks made by an opponent on another plane, making it an interesting strategic element. There’s also a four-player training mode that’ll let you and your friends practice your moves.

Another new addition to Guilty Gear Isuka is its color-edit mode, which allows you to customize a character’s appearance. Additionally, there's the Guilty Gear Boost mode. Guilty Gear Boost is a side-scrolling action mode that allows you to accrue a number of points, which you can then spend on moves that allow you to create a wholly unique character.

Guilty Gear Isuka’s wild four-player action will make its way to the PlayStation 2 console during the holiday season of this year.