A fun little fighting game that fits in my pocket.
- The gameplay is the same as in SC4. It works really well on the PSP d-pad, (I don't recommend the analog stick). Fighting is smooth, fast-paced, fun and pretty accessible to newcomers.
- Characters. The selection is pretty huge, as all of the fighters are different. But of course you can create your own ones, which is really fun. I created a good version of Hulk Hogan in only a few minutes.
- Graphics. SC4 looked pretty sick on the consoles, and this is fantastic for the PSP standards. It might very well be the best-looking PSP game along with Tekken 6.
- Multiplayer. I have never played it, because I don't have any PSP owners to play with, but why wouldn't it be awesome?
- The Endless trial is a survival mode with 2 rounds in a fight and full health recovery. When you really get rolling, it can be a long session, but sometimes it smacks you mercilessly in the first fight. It's a good one.
-Funny weapons. Every character (except Kratos, who I will talk about later) in this game has one funny weapon that can be found in the create mode. Some of them are really silly: Sophitia has a big spoon, Mitsurugi has a wooden training sword, Astaroth has a huge rubber hammer, Cervantes has grill food, and believe it or not, Ivy has an enormous...sausage. Really.
The not-so-good.
- Gauntlet mode. What were they thinking, or were they thinking at all... It's even less fun than Weapon master from Soul Calibur 2. Barely playable. Also the storylines are absolutely silly and forgettable.
- Other modes. The most important fighting game mode, Arcade, is gone. Instead you have something called Trial of Attack/Defence. Attack has 5 stages (always the same opponents, I think) and you can't continue if you lose. Not very good.
- No difficulty levels. It's always default, so if it's too hard for you, then it just is. You'll have to accept it and get smacked.
- Randomly created characters. It's really dull to fight those "rcc's" instead of the real characters. It's just stupid.
- Kratos. Overpowered piece of something that has moves that are unblockable, unavoidable, unbelievably over-everything and not only that, it's also one of the worst character from one of the most worthless game series of all time. Oh, now you're going to give thumbs down to my review. Go ahead, make my day.
Bottom line: Great gameplay, graphics and characters make SCBD a fun game to just pick up and play a few moments, but the lack of really-good game modes and difficulty options prevent it from being the best in the business. It's also not very good for players that are new to the series, as it can be a little too rough sometimes. Training mode is great, though, and fans of the series will mostly like this one.