Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact is perverted as heck, but it's also one of the best beat-em-ups to be on a handheld.
In Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact, you play as Japanese school girls wielding either their fists or dangerous-looking weapons (and one of them fights with magic) and having two definite objectives: one, to beat up everyone that isn't them or their partner; and two, to expose their panties at every possible opportunity. Also, because that isn't enough, if they are finished off with strong enough attacks, their clothes get almost completely torn up save for a few shreds here and there. Same goes for the boss characters, all female. For this reason, perhaps, the game was never localized. Can you imagine how awkward it would be to buy this in a store?
Since the PSP can handle more technologically than the Genesis or SNES could, the game manages to surpass its influences - fourth generation beat 'em up games - in almost every way. The all-girl fighting roster is huge compared to Genesis-era games when beat-em-ups had only two or three characters to choose from. There are about twenty playable characters in all, though admittedly I didn't count them properly.
The graphics, even if one stops comparing this game to Genesis ones and compares it to current PSP games, are excellent. The 2D models are crisp and not jaggy at all and while the environments aren't very detailed apart from destructible objects, they get the job done. The music is good enough, but nothing particularly memorable; the sound effects are decent, though you might feel it gets tiresome once in a while after listening to girls screaming so much. The voices are in Japanese, since this is a Japanese game. The cutscenes are voiced, which is quite a good thing considering this is a PSP game and most PSP games don't have that, but since I don't understand Japanese I skipped them anyway since the story is the least significant thing in beat-em-ups.
Time to discuss the gameplay. Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact is very heavily influenced by Streets of Rage, only in this game you can switch between two characters if one character's health gets low. You walk around, beat people up, jump, destroy objects in the environment to find items for your health, energy, etc. have an attack with a large area of effect that drains a bit of your health, and then there are some new additions to the beat-em-up gameplay in this game. RPG elements have been added - you level up by beating up enough enemies and at the end of a level you can spend the number of enemies you defeated as a currency to upgrade the character's attack, defense, etc. Also, there is an energy bar (not the edible kind) for each of the two characters that fills up as you beat up enemies. When it is half full for one character, you can execute a special attack. When it is half full for both characters, you can press the trigger buttons together for a giant tag attack by both your characters for massive damage. You also have an assist character that you can call on to come in, smash everybody and blow out of there if you have at least one of the dots next to your energy gauge full.
Going through the game once should take around two hours, and happily you can save between levels - and there are always more characters to play as or level up, and you unlock outfit colours for characters by completing certain conditions. The game also has the blessed difficulty select that those not very good at beat-em-ups always longed for. There is also a story mode, in which the characters you play as in stages are chosen for you between three groups. The game is very import friendly as the main menu is in both Japanese and English and the controls are easy to get. You can't understand the story, of course, but the story is not the focus in such games anyway. If you are sensitive to the developer's efforts of fan service, or don't like beat-em-ups, then you shouldn't buy it. If you want to play one of the best, and very few to be honest, beat-em-ups on handhelds, then you'll enjoy playing this game.