Print
Email Story
When it comes to fighting game fans, there are usually two camps: Those who enjoy the fast-paced, tactical, and beautifully balanced play of the Street Fighter series and those that like Mortal Kombat.
There are, however, what I like to call the "fringe" fighting games like King of Fighters, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. This section serves only to point out that I might be biased.
First of all, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is the full title of the new Arc System Works fighter and it is ridiculous. It's seriously a made up mish-mash of words followed by a nonsense phrase that, regardless of what the in-game story may try to say, holds absolutely no meaning. I'm not the kind of guy who judges books by the cover however (except when the cover bears the name Stephenie Meyer) so let's discuss game play.
While BlazBlue put a lot of work into the trimming, but it's the meat of the game that is truly its best asset. Being from the same developer, BlazBlue has a similar controlling system to Guilty Gear, but with a better frame rate and new lineup of characters BlazBlue has been able to make it more refined.
A problem I've noticed is that it is entirely too easy and too effective to spam the same powerful moves over and over again with certain characters. This is made even easier on the Xbox 360 as the right analog stick will automatically pull off a move for you, making it a friend to first timers and button mashers alike. Thankfully this feature is eliminated in ranked online play.
As described in recent Penny-Arcade comics, there is a lot going on in BlazBlue for the advanced gamer. There are counters, blocks, combos, cancels, and barrier bursts that can go totally unseen by the novice player. At the same time, some of the more powerful combos can be executed by pushing the same button repeatedly. BlazBlue lacks the balance of something like Street Fighter 4, but it makes up for it by being super-duper anime!
As I've mentioned, BlazBlue was developed by the same people who developed Guilty Gear, which in turn introduced the world to one of gaming's favorite transsexuals: Bridgett. To be honest I was afraid to get into too much of the story within BlazBlue. There is a sense of modern storytelling in Japan that doesn't quite translate favorably to my Western mind.
I applaud BlazBlue for trying to give a fighting game a little more depth, but like me you will probably hit the skip button as much as possible before your third battle in story mode.
For me, BlazBlue is a kind of gaming novelty. A rental at best, it's the kind of game that helps cleanse your gaming palate but nothing you'd want to invest serious time in.
Be happy BlazBlue fans, at least there's a slim chance of seeing Hollywood try to ruin one of your favorite fighting game heroes. I will avenge you Chun-Li. You have my word!
