Solid gameplay and controls are well-translated onto the PSP, however, it doesn't change that it is still a port.

User Rating: 7.8 | Guilty Gear XX #Reload PSP
(NOTE: Review of Japanese Import)

Seems that Arc has decided to bless gamers (in Japan) with a port of #Reload before releasing Guilty Gear Judgement. #Reload is a modified version of Guilty Gear XX, which includes some further balance tweaks to the game itself, a new expanded set of missions (100 instead of 50), and a new character.

The port to the PSP has been quite successful. Despite the horrid d-pad controls in Darkstalkers, Guilty Gear proved to be very easy to control. Within the first minute of gameplay, as Sol Badguy, I was able to pull off every single one of his special moves, including the infamous instant kill. The catch here is that I have been playing XX since its release, and while I am hardly a master, I have most of the movesets memorized. Some of the tournament level maneuvers still take some time to relearn on the d-pad, but unless you expect to use the PSP for practicing, this won't be an issue for you.

The sound and gameplay are still here. Solid guitar tracks accent the rather frenetic gameplay style of Guilty Gear, along with the voice work that still to this day has never been translated into any other language, remaining the original Japanese.

With the inclusion of Story Mode again in #Reload, the game has plenty to offer in game modes: Story, Arcade, Survival, MOM (a rather unusual Award picking-up mode), and Mission modes. Mission mode is an exact copy of the one from #Reload, which is an entirely different 100 missions from the 50 missions which appeared in XX. For the die-hard players, this presents challenges that are occasionally worthy of a shout of "Hulk Angry! Hulk Smash Puny PSP!" They range from an interesting diversion to downright frustrating in difficulty.

The biggest flaw in the port is the graphics. Guilty Gear has been using sprites for over half a decade now, and unfortunately, the PSP version looks a little worse for wear. Pixelated sprites seem to dominate the screen where they used to look crisp on the TV screen. This is very likely due to porting EVERYTHING directly from the PS2, although it would have been nice to have the pixelation issue dealt with during the port.

The main reason to buy this is if you haven't gotten a chance to enjoy #Reload on a PS2 because of region lockouts. The other reason to get this is so you can have GGXX#R on the go. Or you haven't played the series at all yet. However, if you are looking for any new content over #Reload for the PS2 or XBox, you won't find it here.