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User Rating: 9.3 | Guilty Gear XX #Reload XBOX
Let's get a few things about this game out of the way: This game borrows heavily from the visual style of Japanese Anime, a style that has held my appeal for approximately one full hour (the equivalent of two "Cowboy Bebop" episodes). There is no real significant plotline worth noting; the plotline presented in the game is just a minor reason for the actions of the game to be validated. The game is 2D, which typically turns off most video game players of my teenage demographic. The music is rather generic heavy metal with cheap electronica waves thrown in just to symbolize Japanese techno (although, to be fair, it does fit with the overall tone of the game), and the characters in the game are almost guaranteed to alienate any casual video game player upon first impression.

Oh yeah, there’s one other thing you should know about this game: It is the greatest 2D fighting game ever made.

Allow that to sink in for a minute...before you ask: 1) The previous statement is not a typo; 2) I am, to the best of my knowledge, perfectly sane...just don’t ask any of my peers or former high school teachers...

While Street Fighter may have popularized and innovated the genre, and Mortal Kombat may have given it that violent edge to not only put the genre in the consciousness of the mainstream, but put the industry in general under the mainstream microscope, Guilty Gear X2: Reload not only takes the basic functionality of previous fighting games, but creates an off-kilter innovative approach and style unlike most games, regardless of genre, to ever come before it.

As aforementioned, this is the exemplar of a dying genre: the 2D fighter. In this generation, most would consider 2D to be substandard. GGX2, however, is a beautifully crafted game in 2D that includes graphical tricks to give a 3D perception. All of the characters present animate smoothly in their own peculiar way. The backgrounds also have a uniquely 3D appearance to them, and are also just as varied as the characters present. The game as a whole is a colorful, gorgeous surrealistic world; this is about as beautiful a 2D game can really get.

Speaking of characters, you have not played a game with such humourously weird characters as this. I challenge anyone to come up with stranger concepts for main characters than some of these examples:

* A 9'3" psychotic mutant doctor who has a blood fetish, wears a paper bag on his head, and can use flowers as a weapon

* A Russian girl who uses her nearly 20 ft. long hair as a means of attack

* A scantily-clad rock Witch wielding a living guitar

* A masked semi-hitman who can contort billiard balls in certain ways to attack an opponent using his pool cue.

* A teenage bounty-hunting nun named Bridget who uses not only a yo-yo as a weapon, but a heavily bladed teddy bear. Oh yeah, I forgot to note that Bridget is a boy.

* Your everyday romantic poet-type who’s possessed by evil spirits that can function as fighting partners, ranging from a demon dog, to three ghosts, to a floating sword.

Needless to say, every one of the around 20 characters in the game contains some form of persona nuance to make him or her (or it) unlike every other character in the game, but still odd enough to fit right in with the presentation. The characters are all varied in terms of size, and their functionality reflects their respective sizes. Potemkin is a massive being, almost like a brown Incredible Hulk. He’s painfully slow, but has a much larger tolerance to damage, and is extremely strong. Conversely, Chipp-Zanuff is a rather thin, small featherweight who flies across the screen, and is capable of triple jumping in the air. However, his defensive capabilities and ability to take a punch are about as resistant as the Detroit Lions’ Defense against a combination of Peyton Manning and T.J. Duckett. This diversity makes every character have advantages and disadvantages against every character in the game. Also of note: The game and every character is in some way based off of real-life heavy rock bands. Some of these references are obvious: Characters named “Slayer” and “Testament”. Other references are a bit more subtle, or harder to catch: A planet in the game known as “Zepp”; character “Ky Kiske”being named after two members of a band called “Helloween”

It’s at this point that the excellent gameplay needs to be detailed for the rest of this article to make any sense whatsoever. Just like every other fighting game before it, GGX2 features your standard life bar and defense resistance meter (however, the latter of these meters offers almost an advantage by NOT blocking frequently; the more this meter fills up, the more regular hit damage one suffers). Different to the genre are two other meters: the “Burst” meter fills up over time, and can unleash a non-damaging counter attack to help cancel any combo landed on you instantly, or can be an offensive weapon to fill up a “Tension” meter. The “Tension” meter functions just like it sounds; a meter that rewards aggressive gameplay by building up over the course of a match. Attack constantly or simply approach your opponent, and the meter fills. Filling this meter to the halfway point allows players to unleash massive “Tension/Overdrive Attacks”, that somewhat function as flashy, extremely powerful gamebreakers that can help shift the balance of power in a fight. Think of them as exaggerated trademark set-up moves for a professional wrestler. Other than these moves, the Tension gauge can also be used to execute “Romantic Cancels”, maneuvers that can instantly cancel the recovery time of nearly any move in the game, and is primarily used to quickly switch to a defensive mode or, more importantly, execute larger chain combos.

The most noteworthy addition the Guilty Gear series brings to the overall fighting genre is the “Instant Kill” feature. Functioning just as it sounds, a player can enter “Instant Kill Mode” (which lasts as long as the amount of Tension built up in a match) and unleash a LUDICROUSLY over-the-top, hilarious move that will instantly kill a character, no matter how the life bars read, and make you the winner of the round. These moves are the apex of the game’s style, and all of them somehow intertwine with the obscurity of the characters that perform them. Take, for example, the instant kill maneuver of Johnny: when activated, Johnny will throw a typical playing card towards his opponent. If it makes contact, the opponent will instantly be turned into a customized life-size playing card, which Johnny proceeds to slice diagonally into two. Chipp-Zanuff’s is also quite a show: He proceeds to jump in the air and split himself into five separate flaming orbs that form a circle. If an opponent makes contact with any of these orbs, the opponent will be sucked right into the center of the circle. The orbs will then move to form a fiery star overlapping the opponent, which will then proceed to explode once a Japanese symbol appears over it.

The best thing about the “Instant Kill” is that is doesn’t simply function as an advantageous gimmick. While the ability to win any match using the move seems unfair, its presence functions as a way to keep anyone involved in a match in spite of life meter status and emphasizes the idea of a match quickly turning tables in the blink of an eye. Likewise, missing the “Instant Kill” attack also severely hinders one’s ability in the match. Every “Instant Kill” move can either miss the intended target or simply be blocked. Missing the attack leads to the elimination of the Tension meter for the rest of the round, meaning no use of Tension attacks. If you simply cannot like the feature at all, it can be turned off.

Despite all the major special features of the game, every character features a standard set of special attacks, and every character is capable of unleashing huge combos of practically unlimited levels. I have seen 80 hit combos pulled off before, if you want to use that as a gauge.

In terms of modes, GGX2 is somewhat standard and yet original. Present are the typical time attack, training, and arcade modes that have been mainstays of fighting games for decades. Unique to the game are M.O.M., Story, and Mission modes. M.O.M. is a simple “fight for the high score and collect medals” affair that is basically a glorified Survival mode (also present in the game). Story mode takes one through the adventures and psyche of a selected character, leading to many fights that can have various endings depending on how the results and actions of certain matches are carried out. Beat a specific opponent in less than 30 seconds, lose a match and use a continue, kill someone with a tension attack, get a different character ending. Mission mode sets parameters to certain fights, and function as good training devices to get one accustomed to the complexities of the game.

The incentive of playing these modes, aside from unlockable artwork, is the ability to earn “Super” and “EX” versions of any character in the game. Unlocking these character types results in earning extra moves that are either more power versions of regular special moves, or simply make link more moves together. If both these character types are unlocked, one can access the EX-black or EX-gold versions of a character (although only the “SP” super version is needed to access either character without the EX movelists). The black version regains health over time; the gold version is as close to a “Super Boss Character” one can get. Gold versions of character can give characters enhancements for some of their moves. For example, one of Ky Kiske’s projectiles would normally cause three hits worth of damage; as a gold character, that same projectile can cause about thirteen to seventeen hits worth of damage. One of Johnny’s simple attacks (the “Mist Finer”) goes from a simple special move to a move that will always result in a quick one hit kill if unblocked.

On X-Box, Guilty Gear X2: Reload can be seamlessly played online (although it’s rare to find many people on; hopefully I can help turn that around) and is currently selling for less than $20 (American)

The bottom line is that Guilty Gear X2: Reload not only far exceeds every other 2D fighting game before it but also, in some ways, outclasses many 3D fighting games as well. GGX2 is immediately playable to the point where one person can get a decent way through the game by simply memorizing special moves and even button mashing but is incredibly deep enough to reward anyone willing to take the time and energy to master the nuances of the game; the latter of these players always outclasses the former. Consider the game like a 2D Virtua Fighter but, you know, fun and interesting. The game’s presentation is anything but generic and offers a bizarre, humourous experience that is intriguing instead of alienating. While the content, style, and gameplay as a whole isn’t as immediately accessible as most other fighting games, patience will be rewarded in the form of one of the most uniquely addicting and fun games to ever be released on any console, in any genre.

Ironically, Guilty Gear X2: Reload may just be equal parts savior and liquidator of the 2D fighting game genre: It has crafted a presence unlike any other game before it that may rejuvenate the genre as a whole. Despite this, GGX2 may have just ended the genre for the same reasons it could save it...

...After all, with a game this fantastic out on the market, how can it be outclassed?