Infinity Blade 2: iPhone

What is it?

Infinity Blade II is the perfect video game sequel. The visceral and cinematic melee combat has been expanded from a glorified quicktime event into a proper, fleshed-out fighting system. IB1's thin storyline has been replaced with a voice-acted narrative full of twists and turns. And players now have an entire castle to explore, full of branching paths and secrets, in place of the original's short and linear path to the God-King. Chair successfully accomplished all this while also setting a new standard for mobile game visuals.

Infinity Blade II picks up right where the original left off. Our hero (retroactively named Siris) needs help from The Worker of Secrets - the titular blade's creator. The catch? The Worker has been imprisoned and can only be released if three "Deathless" are defeated. Each resides in the Vault of Tears, at the end of a lengthy gauntlet of enemies. Along the way players learn much more about Siris' true nature, and why he is seemingly doomed to repeat a never-ending cycle of violence.

Cue dozens upon dozens of enemy encounters, as Siris explores the Vault's varied branching paths. After every battle gamers earn a helping of XP and Gold, allowing players to increase Siris' stats and purchase new weapons and equipment.



Did we like it?

Infinity Blade's touch-powered sword-slashing combat has always been a blast, but the sequel infuses it with much more depth. Each and every enemy encounter felt fresh and fun for the duration of the 5-6 hours it took me to reach & defeat the final boss.

I especially appreciated the two new combat styles at my disposal. Players can still use the IB1-standard sword and shield, but it's tough to go back after experiencing the sequel's devastating heavy weapon and explosive dual wielding systems. Heavy weapons allow for powerful critical hits by swiping in specific directions, and dual wielding enables massive combos while dropping the ability to block. Any time I got tired of one combat system, I simply bought a new weapon and switched.

Little (and not-so-little) tweaks are abound in Infinity Blade 2, making every aspect of the game more enjoyable than its already-polished predecessor. Enemy patterns seem more dynamic. Far more bags of gold litter the environment. Enemies can now cast magic. Players can slot gems into weapons and armor for special bonuses. The entire menu UI has been re-worked, sorted by equipment slot. It's clear a lot of care and attention went into virtually every aspect of this sequel.

The branching paths that make up The Vault of Tears represent the next evolution of the "looping" game structure pioneered in the original Infinity Blade. Players still have to travel through the Vault several times to complete the game, but I was still finding new rooms and connections between areas of the castle several hours in, reducing the grindy feeling of these loops. Chair is seemingly one step ahead of other mobile game makers – just as other studios are beginning to ape the original's repetitive loops, Infinity Blade 2 reinvents its own formula.

Of course, it certainly helps that Infinity Blade 2 is absolutely gorgeous. The game is incredibly impressive on a technical level, with realtime shadows, improved particle effects, and other abstruse bells & whistles. But more importantly, the game represents a maturation in Chair's ability to create memorable set pieces and enemies. The game's entire aesthetic is a clear cut above what anyone else is even attempting on iOS.


Should you buy it?

Infinity Blade 2 is a perfect representation of what iOS games are capable of. Chair has created a near-flawless combination of best-of-breed visuals and touch-controlled gameplay.

Best of all, the entire package is a bigger and better value than the original in virtually every way. Four times the number of combat locations. Nearly triple the volume of equipment. Double the number of unique enemy types. And once you complete it all, a robust and challenging New Game+ awaits. Chair is also promising aggressive post-launch support, including cooperative multiplayer "Clash Mobs."

Infinity Blade 2 is a must own - it is the App Store's killer app.

Closing Comments
I didn’t love the original Infinity Blade as much as most gamers, but Chair addressed each and every concern with the sequel, and made the game more than four times bigger to boot. I’m now a complete believer. I can’t wait for what else the studio has in store.

by Justin Davis

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Posted in: Fighting

Tekken Hybrid

Admit it, the PS2 launch lineup sucked. We all went out to buy The Bouncer, we thought that Summoner would be the greatest RPG ever made, we wanted Street Fighter EX3 to be the series' true transition into 3D, and we were all disappointed. However, one bright beacon really shone above the rest; Tekken Tag Tournament was a great launch title that really showcased the processing muscle that the PS2 was capable of, offering up great-looking character models and fast, fluid combat.

Other games in the Tekken franchise have come and gone, but the one that I always found myself drawn to Tekken Tag Tournament. The excellent tag system was simple and intuitive, feeling unique even compared with other tag-based fighting games like the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise. The game totally holds up, and was something that I would continue to revisit for years. Now that fighter has gotten the HD (and 3D) treatment courtesy of Tekken Hybrid, an HD package that includes a remake of Tekken Tag Tournament, a 3D version of the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, and a playable teaser for Tekken Tag Tournament 2

In order to play either of the game components, you must first install them to your hard drive in full. While they don't have a huge footprint at a little over a gig a piece, you'll still need to have the the Tekken Hybrid Blu-ray in your system to play them.

The main component of this pack is a 3D version of the CGI film, Tekken: Blood Vengeance. The film's story isn't great -- as you might expect, and there are some really dull periods and pacing issues. It is a lot better than the dismal live-action Tekken film from 2010, and boasts some pretty cool fight scenes. The film actually benefits from 3D, as this will be the preferred way of watching it if you have the means to.

The second (and argruably most important) part of Tekken Hybrid is the HD version of Tekken Tag Tournament. This is a full version of the original PS2 game, with its full roster of fighters (all unlocked from the beginning), the full movie/music gallery, and the awesome Tekken Bowl mini-game.

The action in Tekken Tag Tournament is as fast-paced and tight as ever. The classic Tekken move set returns, but Tag represents one of the most different approaches to the Tekken formula, as you have two characters to send into battle, instead of just one. As rounds end when one character is KO'd, switching your characters must be done quickly and efficiently. This coupled with the game's Netsu Power system, which charges up your resting fighter while the other one takes damage, requires you to not only switch your character out before they get knocked out, but also leave them in the fight just long enough to take sufficient damage to empower your other fighter. Mastery of this system requires patience and skill, and is one of the better examples of a tag-in tag-out system in a fighting game.

Almost of paramount importance in Tekken Tag Tournament is Tekken Bowl. This bowling mini-game (also unlocked from the beginning) could just seem like a throwaway extra, but it's an exceptionally fun and well-balanced bowling game in its own right. As in the fighting game, you'll select a team of two fighters and have them bowl a standard 10 frames, each character with their own bowling strengths and weaknesses. For example, faster characters like Xiaoyu won't be able to throw the ball quite as fast as their stronger counterparts like Gun Jack, but will have better control. The way to take the best advantage of this is by selecting a team of one heavy fighter and one lighter one, affording you a giant roll at first and then letting you pick up the remaining pins with a more controlled one secondly. Tekken Bowl is an blast to play, and extremely addicting for a mini-game.

If anything is sorely lacking from Tekken Tag HD, it's online. Sure, the original game didn't have online capabilities when it released during the PS2's launch, but this feature would've gone leaps and bounds towards extending some of the game's replayability.

Graphically, Tekken Tag Tournament looks pretty good in it's HD form, with the great animations and smooth clip moving holding up well. The character models and environments aren't quite so lucky, with some of the characters looking blocky and lacking detail when compared to latter Tekkens. However, as an HD update of a PS2 launch title, Tekken Tag looks pretty damn good.

The third component of the pack is Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue. Offering up four fighters (Xiaoyu, Alisa, Devil Jin, and Kazuya; who perhaps not coincidentally all factor into Blood Vengeance's plot pretty heavily) and a few stages, Prologue is a slight tease for the upcoming sequel. However, in an effort to make this addition more than a glorified demo, the developers have added trophy support. As you can imagine, the trophies aren't too time-consuming to snatch up, and your efforts will earn you a handful of silvers and one gold trophy.

As Prologue is simply a teaser for an upcoming game, I can't really use it as a metric to critique the game. However, I will say that Prologue hits all of the points of what should be a great sequel to Tag, with the same brand of fluid combat, great graphics, as well as new features like dynamic environments and great new tag throws.

Closing Comments

When you break Tekken Hybrid into its respective elements, it’s really not a bad deal. Factor about $25 bucks for a 3D Blu-ray film and an additional $15 for Tekken Tag HD, and the $40 price makes more sense (since Tekken Tag 2 Prologue is basically a beefed up demo, we’ll just count that one as a freebie). However, as an all-or-nothing pack, Tekken Hybrid all but requires you to wholeheartedly want to purchase both the film and the HD reboot of the game; if you aren’t sold on or are ambivalent to one of those halves, you won’t be getting your money’s worth out of Tekken Hybrid.

That being said, for the Tekken purists out there, there is a lot to love. From the 3D film to the HD-ified Tekken Tag Tournament, if you are a super fan of the series, this is a solid chunk of Tekken content, and a fine way to pass the time until Tekken Tag Tournament 2 hits.

by Steven Hopper

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Posted in: Fighting

Final Fight: Double Impact: X360

The re-release of a classic videogame isn't much of an event anymore. Nintendo's Virtual Console pops out greatest hits every Monday, Xbox Live is packed with stuff like Frogger and Pac-Man, and Sony regularly puts PSone titles on the PlayStation Network. Whereas it was once exciting and rare to go back to a game you vividly remember from your childhood, it's not as special today.Final Fight: Double Impact might be the exception to that rule. Packing both Final Fight and Magic Sword, Double Impact gives you two great games, a slew of unlockables, an arcade cabinet view, and much more. The wave of Final Fight nostalgia that swept over me while punching dudes in the face with Cody's blue fingerless gloves and listening to a gang member exclaim "Oh my God!" when he

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came upon the car my friend and I had just ruined was nothing short of heartwarming. And if by some act of God or age you missed these games in your local arcade, you're in for a treat because they most definitely hold up.

Final Fight is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up similar to Double Dragon or Streets of Rage. A fine young lass named Jessica has been kidnapped. You choose from three characters -- her boyfriend, his friend, and her ripped, mayoral father -- to take through the streets of Metro City while spin-kicking bad guys, eating turkey legs for health, and beating people and phone booths with lead pipes.

Magic Sword, on the other hand, casts you as one of two He-Man-type guys and sets you loose on 51 levels of mummies, dragons, and Tiki heads. As you slash with your sword and hurl magic fireballs, you're finding keys used to unlock prisons. Released prisoners join your party (you only keep the last person you freed) and help out with their unique abilities. Priests are good against the undead, ninjas have shuriken for ranged attacks, and so on.

The gameplay in these titles is tried and true. Punching dudes to death feels polished and precise, and even though there are a billion things happening on the Magic Sword screen, it's fun to steamroll a bear, smash open treasure chests, and climb to the heavens door by door.

Now, as anyone in the know would tell you, the real draw to Final Fight and Magic Sword is playing with someone and marveling at all the crazy crap you see -- the bipedal bear, the sexy ladies, etc. In the past, this meant another person sauntering up to the other joystick in the arcade, but Final Fight: Double Impact offers both in-house and online multiplayer. Obviously, if you have a second player on your couch, he or she can just press start on the second controller to join. But if you want to join an online game, the process is pretty much the same.

When you boot up Final Fight or Magic Sword you're booting up an online-enabled game by default. This means that while you're playing, a second player could pop in at any time -- just like you're back at the arcade. If you want, there's a custom option to setup a single-player game or private match and you can always invite friends, but the virtual arcade experience is pretty slick

This arcade feel is really solidified by the visual presentation. When you start Double Impact, you see the original Final Fight cabinet in all its glory (a button press switches you over to the Magic Sword machine if you like). Choose "play" and you move close to the machine, so that the game screen is centered on your TV with the cabinet visuals acting as left and right borders. It looks like you're looking into the old school monitor. You can change this if you like -- make the game take up the whole screen, zoom in, adjust the margins -- but for me the classic look was part of the experience. Similarly, you have a wealth of visual tweaks you can do to the image. You can leave it looking like it's playing on the classic arcade monitor (glow and scanlines intact), smooth out the edges, or make everything look crisp.

In terms of things that Final Fight: Double Impact does wrong, there isn't much to list. My personal pet peeve is the fact that you can't pause an online-enabled game. The idea is that Capcom doesn't want you grinding the game to a halt for the other player, but it's a bit goofy when it's you playing by yourself. True, you could set the game to be offline so you can pause, but it's a mini-detail I'd often forget when setting out to play, you can't change it once you start, and the game doesn't remember to do it even if you switched it before.

Another issue is the challenge of the overall game. Back in the day, I can assure you that young Greg Miller didn't have a shot at finishing Final Fight in the arcades unless he was packing thousands of quarters. Now, there's no penalty for using continues. Even on "hard," there's an unlimited amount of do-overs. On the one hand, I like this because it means I can just sit down whenever I feel like it and beat the game, but on the other, there's no reason to worry about how you tackle the baddies. When I get to a boss in either game, I can just run up and button mash away. There's no real need for strategy unless you're gunning for some of the carrots at the end of the stick.

And there is the real hook of Double Impact -- there are a bajillion little challenges for you to tackle. Sure, there are the usual Trophies/Achievements for beating the game as each character and cooperatively completing every level, but then there are in-game awards for completing the Metro City Slums in five minutes or finishing a level in fewer than 18 continues. The in-game rewards unlock concept art, comic pages, and more. These games are fun to play, and Capcom has given you plenty of reasons to keep playing long after the credits roll for the first time. Plus, the ability to save anywhere means you can chip away at a game at your own pace.

Closing Comments
Whether you played the original games or not, you will enjoy Final Fight: Double Impact. The presentation of the cabinets and different views are great, the gameplay is as fun as ever, and there’s tons of stuff to collect as you play through this title. Yeah, these are the same games that were released oh-so long ago so there won’t be a million surprises, but Final Fight and Magic Sword are fun to play, the co-op integration is impressive, and there are plenty of reasons to keep playing them over and over again. Two great games just got a welcome dose of polish and love. You should pick them up. Also on: PS3

by: Greg Miller

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Posted in: Fighting

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum: X360

What exactly happened to this one? The original NeoGeo Battle Coliseum first hit the PlayStation 2 more than two years ago, bringing with it a host of characters from past NeoGeo fighting game franchises. Now, the game is finally making its debut on Xbox Live, and it couldn't have been more poorly timed. The past two years have been an absolute godsend for the fighting game genre, with phenomenal titles like (Super) Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Tekken 6 and even a slick remake of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It baffles me why NeoGeo Battle Coliseum took so long to make the jump over to the digital download scene. And although the game has some fairly rewarding fighting mechanics, its lack of polish and the superiority of its recent peers make it much less exciting.

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In NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, players have access to more than 30 characters from across the many fighting franchises of the NeoGeo family. Terry Bogard, Kyo, Iori, Haohmaru and Robert Garcia are among the many familiar faces you'll find in Battle Coliseum, along with newcomers like Yuki and Ai. Every battle is a tag team affair, where each side brings in two different characters that can be switched in and out at any time.

Like many other fighters out there, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is brimming with special moves, super moves, throws, cancels, guards and all other manner of crazy techniques that will probably scare away gamers not intimately familiar with traditional 2D combat. Battle Coliseum does very little to introduce players to these concepts, as there's no tutorial or instruction given to newbies outside of the sparse "How to Play" section in the options menu. At its most basic, each character has two punch attacks and two kick attacks, along with an assortment of special moves and some supers that consume energy off the power gauge at the bottom of the screen.

There are only a few flavors of Battle Coliseum: story mode, survival mode, versus mode (for local play) and the obvious online matches. When you actually get into a battle, the many characters in the roster play as you might expect from their past appearances. Terry has his Burning Knuckle and Power Wave ready to go, and the overall strategy that goes into fighting another human player is here and always the most enticing part of a fighting game.

The unfortunate thing about Battle Coliseum is that the default controller (a 360 pad) is still one of the worst controllers for a fighting game, as the d-pad is a spawn of the Dark Lord himself. This won't be a problem for those hardcore fighting game fans that own 27 different fighting sticks, but this is huge deterrent for more casual players that usually game with a standard pad. When I tried to play with a controller, I found the game to be stiff and uncomfortable. Our resident fighting game enthusiast Mark Ryan Sallee was much happier with a stick.

But the worst thing about NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is what's happening on screen. Not only is this a nearly direct port of a two year-old PlayStation 2 game, but almost all the sprites are a lot older than 2008. What's worse: there are some hideous filters on the character sprites which give them a blurry, washed-out look that just doesn't work with an HD set. If you're going to use 2D sprites in your game, you might as well embrace the old-school nature of it all and not try and hide it underneath layers of disappointment.

When it comes to online support, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum runs well enough, but there doesn't seem to be much of a community at the moment and the game's been out for a few days already. There's certainly more time for players to get connected, but I barely found any matches when testing Battle Coliseum. I imagine that most of them are playing the far superior fighting games on the market today...

Closing Comments
Although NeoGeo Battle Coliseum has plenty of characters, tag team attacks and a fair amount of potential for strategy against another player, its poor visuals, lack of polish and general stiffness make it a much less appetizing entry in the fighting game genre. For only five dollars more, players can download the legendary Marvel vs. Capcom 2 instead. I'd recommend that over Battle Coliseum any day.

by: Ryan Clements

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Posted in: Fighting

Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory: WII

Ah, Fatal Fury. First and foremost of the famous fighting franchises found at SNK, it's a somehow soothing series in its simplicity – well, compared to the company's other choices. It doesn't bother with the swords and spears of Samurai Shodown. It doesn't try to cross-over tons of different games' characters like The King of Fighters.. It's always just been straightforward, simple, bare-knuckle brawling in Southtown. Until Fatal Fury 3 tried to make things more complicated. The FF series' one key quirk up until 1995 had been its double-plane battling system – it was basically a standard head-to-head fighting design, except that you could roll and dodge back and forth into either the background or foreground of the current stage. OK, still easy enough to grasp. Until Fatal Fury 3 added a third.

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Now you've got a background plane, a foreground plane and a middle-ground plane placed between the two. The progression is understandable, I suppose. But like Schick and Gillette adding more and more blades to their straight razors, you've got to wonder at what point "more" stops being a good thing and starts being, well, unnecessarily complicated.

It's a tough adjustment to make, as the "Oversway System" (as the game names it), makes you have to chase down your foe through three times as much on-screen territory to try to land a single hit. You can use the multiple planes to your own advantage too, of course, but it takes some time to learn the tactics and proper timing of when to do so – there are specific maneuvers included here to help your character dodge into a different plane defensively, force your opponent to re-enter the space you're occupying, cross from one to another with a direct strike and more. It can be a lot to manage.

And playing it on Wii adds another, extra layer of complexity on top of the entire process, as the Virtual Console's button reassignments conflict with the instructions the game gives you on-screen for how to activate the plane-traveling techniques. Trial, error and plenty of patience will be needed to get comfortable enough to start really having fun here, and not just be mashing buttons hoping to get something right.

Beyond the three-plane gimmick, Fatal Fury 3 offers just what you'd expect from the series. A decently varied roster of characters to choose from with series standards Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi forming the foundation. A handful of tweaks and modifications made to the special moves, including a secret set of Hidden Moves that you have to be really dedicated (or lucky) to access and activate. And that signature SNK style of excellent spritework and killer tunes, pumping up your blood pressure and getting you going as you step into battle.

 

Closing Comments
That's all solid, and it all makes Fatal Fury 3 another perfectly fine choice for VC fans looking for a fighting fix. I'm just not sold on why the series' simple fighting system needed that complicated third plane.

by: Lucas M. Thomas

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Posted in: Fighting

Dragon Ball Raging Blast 2: X360

I loved the Dragon Ball Z animated series when I was a kid. It had ridiculous battles, tons of super-powerful moves, and a host of characters who were always getting just a little bit stronger. Say what you will, but I actually enjoyed the light-hearted, far-too-campy drama of the series. It's a shame that Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 incorporates basically none of the drama from the series. The latest Dragon Ball fighting game from publisher Namco Bandai, and it, sadly, just isn't very good. Raging Blast 2 is similar to a lot of other fighting games, with a few twists so it fits into the Dragon Ball universe. You maneuver your favorite characters from the Dragon Ball series, battling in gigantic environments wherein you can fly around and

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pull off some of the signature moves from the TV show. The spectacle of the series is here in full force: characters scream as they charge up, pull off absurdly powerful moves, and even transform into various fan-favorite forms.

A decent number of modes are available, but none held my attention for very long. You can recreate individual characters' famous fights from the series, or you can just play random battles against players online either in one versus one showdowns, or in World Tournament mode against up to 16 players. Granted, it's not a bad thing to have a bunch of modes to play, it's just that they all involve using Raging Blast 2's frustrating combat mechanics.

The fighting just isn't well done. It's overly complicated, with characters having an array of attacks, special moves, unique moves, aerial maneuvers, grabs, and more. It's easy enough to pick up the controller and mash your way through fights, but it has a significant learning curve for learning more complex combos. In general, it was simply more rewarding to block and button mash, bumbling my way through my opponents. Button mashing shouldn't be so effective, but the characters feel sluggish in between combos, making it easy for attack spammers to take out people who are trying to pull off the awesome moves. You know, the reason for playing Raging Blast 2 to begin with.

Playing against the AI alleviates some of the frustration of the overly complex and lethargic fighting, but this is only interesting for a few rounds. The characters feel too similar, with some playing almost like the exact same fighter with a slightly altered appearance. I know they wanted to include a huge roster of characters -- and they do -- but what's the point if so many of them feel basically the same? I'll take ten unique, balanced characters over 50 mediocre ones any day.

Raging Blast 2 does nail the Dragon Ball aesthetic, which is a good thing if you're a huge fan of the series. The characters are faithfully recreated, complete with voice actors in both Japanese and English, and are animated quite well. The environments are utterly abysmal in comparison, though, looking as generic as they ever did in the anime's fighting scenes. Sure, you could say that they're being true to the series, but I'd prefer they deviated a little bit than put in such bland-looking worlds.

It wouldn't be such a big deal to me that the environments are so bad looking and the character so same-ish if Raging Blast 2 didn't force me to experience them for hours and hours just to unlock the full roster. A nice amount of characters are available at the start, but if you want to unlock the gigantic list of series favorites then you better be ready to spend hours and hours playing various modes. The argument could be made that you'll be getting motivation to play it and get your money's worth, and in a better game it might not bug me as much, but in Raging Blast 2 it's simply more tedious than it's worth.

Closing Comments
Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 has hours and hours of combat that only the most hardcore of fans are going to enjoy. The ability to quickly move between the ground and the air in fights, or to do ultra-powerful super moves will tickle any person's fancy for a moment or two, but ultimately this just isn't a very good fighting game. Overly complicated controls are put into a game where button mashing can win the day with ease, layered on top of no story and a host of unlockable pictures and other trivial things that only the most hardcore of Dragon Ball fans will enjoy. If ever there was a good example of a "strictly for fans" sort of game, Raging Blast 2 is definitely it. AlsoOn: PS3

by: Anthony Gallegos

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Posted in: Fighting

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade: PS3

If you've been staring at the 35 characters on Super Street Fighter IV's roster and thinking it's just not enough, then you might want to take a look at the Arcade Edition. It drops four more combatants into the fray, bringing the total to a staggering 39. It also tweaks the online replay channels and adds a host of game balance tweaks that no seriously competitive Street Fighter fan should miss. That being said, what's here is by no means an essential purchase for the average player, and especially not the player that doesn't own a fight stick. For all but the most hardcore fans, this downloadable add-on to Super Street Fighter IV is icing; delicious but unnecessary.

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It is worth pointing out that, in addition to being sold as a downloadable add-on, the Arcade Edition is also being released eventually in stores. If you don't already own Super Street Fighter IV, which is still one of the best fighting games money can buy, then by all means pick up the boxed copy of the Arcade Edition when it's available. The focus of this review is the new content, which starts with Evil Ryu.

He's one of the four added fighters, a mix of Ryu and Akuma wrapped up in some impressive visuals and animations. On-screen he's wreathed in dark flame, capable of launching standard fireballs and shoryuken uppercuts as well as teleporting back and forth across stages like Akuma. He certainly feels like a formidable fighter, and though many of his moves are familiar and he's missing some of Akuma's more unique moves like an air fireball, he does get a lunging axe kick capable of stepping across a third of the screen to deliver a heel strike. With a few unique twists like a mid-air dive kick and chargeable Ultra fireball, you're sure to see him in many an online match.

Perhaps the more impressive new fighter is Oni, who in appearance bears similarities to Gouken and in combat shares a few things with Akuma, but has enough moves to really set him apart. Like Evil Ryu, his on-screen appearance is intimidating as he bristles with ominous energy and sports a glowing mass of spiky hair. He can toss out two types of fireballs, one that hits multiple times and knocks down an opponent, and another that's chargeable for added travel distance. Not only does he get a spinning hurricane kick special, but also a jumping ground pound that flattens an opponent and a cross-up charge move. Even in mid air Oni can be a danger, as he has a special to rapidly charge forward, back, or hop, and can perform a Raging Demon super mid-jump, though this version can only land on opponents also in the air. Add in some of the most powerful Ultras in the game – including a fireball that can be fired mid-air, straight up, or horizontally – and Oni's move set becomes incredibly versatile, making him an immediate favorite out of the included new fighters and in the roster as a whole.

Yun and Yang are the less flashy additions here, previously appearing in Street Fighter III. They're separate characters in the Arcade Edition, and though they may not feature the flickering glitz of Evil Ryu and Oni's bevy of special moves, they are considered some of the top fighters in the game by hardcore players who've been clashing in the Japanese version already. Yun (the one with the hat) can swiftly travel across the screen with lunging punches and spinning shoulder charges, and can deliver a quick, multi-hit rising kick. Yang (the one with the hat-like hair) is also quick to cross the screen, capable of initiating an invulnerable dash and a forward roll that transitions into a rising kick, and is a character that will definitely require practice to unravel his more effective combos.

It's important to keep in mind that a fighter's effectiveness isn't necessarily based on the number of specials, but minutiae like the hit boxes of normal strikes, unique moves, and more technical aspects like animation frames required for move start-up and recovery. If you're the type of player whose eyes blur over at the mere mention of details like the extension of Ken's standing light punch hit box or the slight damage reduction of Guile's flash kick, then you're not in the core market for the Arcade Edition content.

There are a few presentational improvements in this version, mostly related to online replays. The Arcade Edition lets you check out the replays of elite players and integrates a Twitter-like follow function that lets you more easily add replays to your channel. Capcom also considered that adding in the Arcade Edition might fracture the online player base, and so lets you filter to search for Arcade, vanilla Super Street Fighter IV or both when looking for a match against others. It's a nice way of ensuring that purchasing Arcade Edition doesn't lock you out of the entire Super Street Fighter IV community. Also on: X360

Closing Comments
The changes in Super Street Fighter IV's Arcade Edition aren't extraordinary, but serve to further refine and balance one of the best fighting games in existence. The four new fighters are equal parts flashy (Evil Ryu, Oni) and subtly formidable (Yun, Yang), and are solid additions to an already enormous roster. If you're an obsessive fighting fan that demands the most up-to-date experience possible, then by all means download this update to Super Street Fighter IV. But if you're a more casual fighter, this isn't a must-buy piece of content.

by: Charles Onyett

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Posted in: Fighting

Mortal Kombat: PS3

The first time I played Mortal Kombat, I was too young. I remember the chilled unease in my chest as I watched life-like characters get knocked into pools of acid, limbs torn asunder, and other lovely images not fit for mini-Ryan. More than a decade later, I'm sitting in front of the latest Mortal Kombat, conveniently titled "Mortal Kombat." After years of spin-offs, 3D fighters, and other efforts, the developers at the newly coined NetherRealm Studios are bringing the series back to its core: violent, 2D fighting with an outrageous aesthetic.

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While many Mortal Kombats in the past were remembered for their excessive gore and not for their fighting engines, the latest Mortal Kombat is a legitimate competitive fighter... and it has enough gore to make parents run for the hills. Even though the single-player modes are rife with imbalances, the core experience in Mortal Kombat is exciting, challenging, and hella bloody.

I think we all know that the plotlines in Mortal Kombat are a little ridiculous. Ice ninjas, half-dragons, thunder gods, and busty policewomen are commonplace in this series. In Mortal Kombat, you'll be reliving the events of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3, so newcomers to the series won't actually be lost here. I don't know the lore well and I felt comfortable following along with the zaniness. Here's a summary: big, bad Shao Kahn is seriously f*****g up the world. He kills everybody at the end of the Mortal Kombat storyline, so Raiden sends a message back through time to prevent it. The result? Alternate history!

The story is weak compared to other recent, non-MK video game efforts. I was entertained from start to finish -- partly because of all the dismembered limbs and the fact that Baraka is a total joke -- but it was a cheesy ride.

Mortal Kombat has returned to a 2D plane, which I've always preferred for fighting games. Both one-on-one and tag team matches are available, so there's plenty of options when you're setting up a fight. When it comes to the basics, each character has a set of simple moves as well as a bunch of special attacks. I found combos and special attacks easy to execute, but stringing together attacks and keeping an opponent stunned/juggled will take some time to get.

The crux of Mortal Kombat's fighting engine is the super gauge, which fills as you give and receive damage. This is where a fair amount of Mortal Kombat's strategy comes into play. The gauge is divided into three segments, and those segments can be spent in different ways. Expending one segment will enhance any of your character's special moves. So instead of Nightwolf's single glowing green arrow, he fires three.

If you fill the gauge more and spend two segments, you can break out of an opponent's combo. This is a critical defensive option if you find yourself flailing through the air with a rapidly depleting health bar. Lastly, spending the whole shebang will unleash a devastating x-ray attack, which deals terrible, terrible damage to your victim. It can turn the tide of a fight, but missing it will put you in an awful spot with no super gauge to spend.

To me, this gauge is one of the best parts of Mortal Kombat. It's a simple concept (spend more, do cooler things), but it's rich with possibilities. I found myself favoring the combo breaker and x-ray attack, but I'm sure there will be players that use enhanced specials more often.

The gameplay in Mortal Kombat will be different for those of you accustomed to the speed and fluidity of games like Super Street Fighter IV. I appreciate those types of fighters as much as the next guy/gal, but the savage, deliberately paced fighting in Mortal Kombat feels great to me. Landing a combo and executing special moves is more visceral here then in other fighting games. This is, in part, thanks to the glorious sound design, because effects like Kitana's fans and Jade's staff sound incredible.

So with exciting combat, bloody Fatalities, and tons of things to unlock, Mortal Kombat sounds awesome, right? It is, especially when playing with friends locally or online. Local play is the best because it doesn't suffer from any lag, whereas I detected a slight delay in online play. But not all all is well in the land of Mortal Kombat. I was bewildered by the imbalances found in the single-player modes. You're very often thrown into two-on-one matches and confronted with bosses that actually break the game's rules (like not being staggered when hit).

Whenever I voiced my frustrations to other IGN editors, the response was always the same: "Sounds like typical Mortal Kombat." Sticking to tradition isn't a good excuse, and I was so frustrated with certain sections of the story mode I almost quit playing through it. Sure, I beat it by falling back on special move spamming and plenty of sweeps, but why play a fun game in a boring way?

Furthermore, there's some odd presentation issues that I wouldn't have expected from Mortal Kombat. Chief among them is your inability to pause or skip cutscenes in the story mode. There isn't even a chapter select of any kind. It's a terrible setup.
Read more details on how Mortal Kombat was reviewed. Also on: X360

Closing Comments
Mortal Kombat combines the novelty of extreme violence with a great fighting engine. My favorite moments with Mortal Kombat were always playing against a friend (Gamespy’s Ryan Scott is a beast), but I was disgusted by how unbalanced some of the single-player challenges are.

Even still, Mortal Kombat is a great game. It’s not the most polished fighter out there, but it has a distinct flavor and it’ll be a hit at gamer get-togethers. I’ll leave you with some friendly advice: show your friends Noob Saibot’s default Fatality. It’s amazing.

by: Ryan Clements

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Posted in: Fighting

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: X360

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is an incredibly flashy, fun and kinetic fighting game, one that contains an unbelievable amount of depth. Beloved characters return to the fold while new arrivals, though bearing their own signature styles, have some similarities to classics that didn't make the cut. MvC3 also manages to dig up some very obscure Marvel and Capcom heroes and villains, which will no doubt please longtime fans of both worlds. Less

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impressive, however, is the lack of diversity when it comes to the game's modes. If you're looking for an expansive, varied fighting game experience, it's nowhere to be found.

This third entry in the MvC series attempts to be the same addicting game as its predecessor. We're still talking about three-on-three battles, complete with the overly-exaggerated hyper combos that we all know and love. If you're eager to cast fireballs the size of your HDTV, this is the game for you. The basic elements of tagging in partners or summoning them for brief attacks is still here, as is the notion of building up a special meter to execute particularly devastating moves.

The core mechanics for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are at once fantastic, familiar and alien. The four main attack buttons have been remapped from two kicks and two punches to a set of light, medium, heavy and special attacks. Other notable alterations to fundamental controls include a common move to pop opponents into the air for combos, and a shift to calling in partners through the assist buttons instead of pressing punch and kick. It all sounds similar, but veterans will find themselves relearning many mechanics because of the changes. Ultimately the alterations help mature the franchise, removing needless complexity – the game has enough depth as it is.

The biggest change to the core game is the roster. Unlike its predecessor, which sported 56 playable characters, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 only gives you a roster of 36, four of which are locked when you start the game. While it's true that the basic format of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the same as before, the characters are largely different. Even the few who were also in MvC2 are different in subtle but significant ways. Combatants who seem to have no business in the game (X-23, anyone?) quickly prove fascinating. I found myself returning to them more than established veterans like Spider-Man and Ryu. Each character has its niche, and no two are alike. You'll never mistake Dormammu's ability to trap and manipulate player movement with the Hulk's more direct, physical style. Even characters that at first seem powerful, like Devil May Cry's Dante, fit well into the balanced roster.

What's important here is that this cast of fighters is diverse and incredibly entertaining. As you begin to master a character, you'll wonder how that set of abilities and attacks might mix and match with others. That's a true testament to Capcom's tireless efforts here, and it's also a true sign that the developer has succeeded in reviving this franchise. This game isn't perfect, but it got the most important elements right. However this raises the question of quality versus quantity. Compared with MvC2, we've lost 20 characters. Does the balance and diversity of this group compensate for that loss? In some ways it does. There is something very refreshing about seeing unconventional and original fighting archetypes enter a franchise this established. And yet it's undeniably disappointing that many favorites like Mega Man or Venom are nowhere to be seen.

The changes don't necessarily end with the roster. In addition to adding the ability to swap out characters during mid-air combos and adjusting the basic control scheme, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 also introduces the X-Factor mechanic, which boosts the speed and strength of characters. The concept seems simple until you consider every single fighter in the game is affected differently. Moreover, X-Factor activation cancels any attack, including hyper combos, allowing added creativity in combos and tactics. Like everything else in this game, what seems insignificant will take a long time to master.

While the Marvel vs. Capcom series is often thought of as a "button-mashing" game, it is anything but that, and a skilled player can quickly cut off a casual player at the knees. Yet it can still be incredibly difficult for the unfamiliar to adapt to the game's mind-numbing pace and move sets. But Capcom, in an effort to attract players who only want to play a few casual games and not worry about complexity, has introduced Simple Mode.

Simple Mode re-maps the three primary attack buttons to focus on special moves and abilities instead of strength-based punches or kicks. So instead of having three different punch/kick buttons, you'll now have one. Instead of having to memorize a series of inputs to execute a special attack, you can simply press one direction and one button. Want to use one of those devastating hyper combos? That's also just one button now. This streamlined approach does have its cost – most characters will lose access to several of their moves, including some of the most powerful in the game. It's a handicap that affords you easier, but not necessarily unfair, access to existing special moves.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has an incredible gameplay foundation that is familiar, fresh and skillfully assembled. Hardcore genre fans are certainly going to appreciate the careful construction here, particularly the fact that most of the roster is immediately available. The presence of an extensive training mode, as well as a "License" screen that collects statistics and allows you to "preset" three teams for quick use, will also certainly be popular. A full suite of online functionality is here, including the ability to play ranked and unranked matches as well as create lobbies for you, your friends and random players from across the globe. You can also allow impromptu challenges from online players while you play Arcade mode alone. At the time of this review, Capcom's servers were firing on all cylinders, and latency during combat wasn't an issue. With any luck the publisher has anticipated the demand that is about to come.

But for all its care in nailing the fundamentals, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 seems to be missing a lot from its total package. Over the years fighting games have added many extras that not only extend the life of the product but appeal to those who aren't necessarily going to want to spend 100 hours in Training mode mastering a half-dozen characters. The Simple Mode control scheme seems custom built for this mass market, but the rest of the game does not.

What's a bit bizarre here is we've seen other Capcom games nail these extras. Outside of Mission Mode, which challenges you to execute various special moves and combos, there's not much to the game if you tire of the core battle experience. Even Marvel vs. Capcom 2 extended its life by allowing players to "purchase" characters using in-game points. Let's also not forget you have 20 less faces to look at when it comes time to select your team. MvC3 seems content with galleries of models and art, none of which are that interesting and most of which were debuted in the build-up to the game's release.

Where's Spectator Mode? Alternate victory conditions? Time Attack Mode? The ability to change costume colors, freeing you from the four that are preset? Crazy, unexpected bonus games? Extra stages? Behind-the-scenes footage? Survival Mode?

Several of the ideas I just listed were done by Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, which debuted over a year ago on Wii. Once you beat the Arcade Mode a few times, and have unlocked the four hidden characters, you'll find there's not much else to add to the experience. The core of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is incredible - but for many of you that's only going to go so far.

Closing Comments
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 doesn’t disappoint as a fighting game, even after a decade of waiting. It’s very much the same insane concept we know and love, which isn’t a bad thing. By drastically revising the roster, what’s old is definitely new again. The balance and depth in the game is astonishing, and even the odd characters have their distinct charms. It’s easy to lose hours and hours exploring team combinations and battle strategies. Graphically the game is solid, particularly when the action is at its most fierce. Some of the effects work and animation is stunning, despite a lack of detail because of the visual style that was implemented.

What’s really a shame here is that the developer didn’t manage to find a way to supplement the core experience with extras that would extend the life of the game by adding some variety to the package. If M.O.D.O.K. can be animated so that he presses different buttons on his keypad for every single move he performs, we should have a Survival Mode.

by: Richard George

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Posted in: Fighting

Deadliest Warrior: The Game: PS3

There's certainly something to be said for a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. Deadliest Warrior is a traditional fighting game at first glance, but once you delve deeper into the download it becomes clear that this is something a bit different. You can lop off limbs, achieve instant kills with arrow shots through someone's eyeball and pull off some of the most gruesome fatalities since Mortal Kombat. If that alone is enough to warrant a ten dollar investment, then Deadliest Warrior is for you. If you're looking for a traditional fighting game like Street Fighter, you might be left disappointed.

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Deadliest Warrior is based on the Spike TV show of the same name that pits some of history's greatest combatants against one another in totally preposterous yet undeniably epic battles. And therein lies the reason that Deadliest Warrior will find a home with some gamers. The notion of having a fighting game that pits a pirate against a viking is just as awesome as it sounds. So awesome, in fact, that as I'm writing this there are three IGN editors standing over my shoulder shouting about how they just turned Charles Onyett's pirate into a peg leg.

The game adheres to the same premise of the show and gives gamers eight fighters from throughout history to choose from. The list includes a Viking, Apache, Centurion, Ninja, Knight, Samurai, Pirate, and Spartan. All of the warriors have different weapons, both ranged and melee, as well as different attack speed and power. Every fighter seemed fairly well balanced, though I'm sure some die hard Street Fighter fan will hop into the game and prove me wrong.

Deadliest Warrior isn't designed for the Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat fans of the world. The gameplay lacks depth and doesn't have nearly as much strategy as a typical fighting game, which undoubtedly hurts the download's lasting appeal. But for those that aren't concerned about the depth of their fighting game, Deadliest Warrior will likely fit the bill.

While it lacks the usual combos and moves that require precisely timed button presses, it does have plenty gruesome fatalities and attacks that are entertaining to watch. You can hack off limbs two seconds into a fight and watch your opponent trudge ever closer, bloody stump in tow. Of course, if that doesn't work you can always just shoot your arrow or throw your spear directly into your opponent's brain. That's sure to bring him down if you can nail the toss.

Sadly, the gameplay is fairly limited with only two real modes of play. You get the main ladder system that has you work your way through all eight fighters and includes a few interesting bonus mini-games, and there's also the standard multiplayer options like ranked and unranked games as well as local play. There are little trinkets like a training mode, but those don't really add much to the game after you get a feel for the action.

The visuals in Deadliest Warrior won't turn many heads unless you're oddly attracted to lots and lots of blood. There are seams on some of the character models where their limbs are designed to split from their body and the camera can be a bit wonky at times (especially while dodging an incoming attack as forcing the camera to rotate can take some time). Thankfully, the game makes up for its mediocre graphics with more hilariously chopped off limbs and blood smears than your typical fighting game. Also on: X360

Closing Comments
Overall Deadliest Warrior has some great moments where the personality of its creators shines through and I have no doubt that non-fighting game fans are going to find something to enjoy in this download. Still, I can’t help but think that those looking for some depth along with their new fighting game are going to be left a bit disappointed. There just isn’t enough staying power in either the gameplay or the modes to satiate those looking to peel back the initial layers and still have plenty to enjoy. That withstanding, if you’re looking for something simple and bloody (and I mean bloody) that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Deadliest Warrior could be for you.

by: Nate Ahearn

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Posted in: Fighting

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift: X360

My head almost exploded with delight when the original BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger hit store shelves last year. The game featured gorgeous, hand-drawn character sprites, amazing gameplay, and a sweet soundtrack. It also boasted one of the most complex stories that fighting games have ever seen, and plenty of unlockable content to keep gamers happy. Fortunately, that wasn't the end of the BlazBlue name, as developer ARC System Works has given us BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, a refined version of

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the original BlazBlue with plenty of new modes, new characters and a brand new story. Even though a good deal of content in Continuum Shift is identical to the original, there's still plenty of new BlazBlue goodness to enjoy.

If you're new to the BlazBlue scene, Continuum Shift is a one-on-one fighting game from the same developers that brought us the eccentric and wildly fun Guilty Gear franchise. The real beauty of BlazBlue, besides the incredible cast of characters, is the fighting system. It's really easy to pick up and play but it has an absolutely staggering amount of strategy to learn over time.

At its core, there are really only four attacks in BlazBlue: weak, medium, strong and Drive (or A, B, C and D, alternatively). Every character has this basic assortment of attacks, and the Drive attack is a simple way to execute a character-specific technique. Rachel, for example, uses her Drive attack to summon a gust of wind, which can push not only her through the air but also alter her special moves. Iconic hero Ragna, on the other hand, uses his Drive to absorb an opponent's health.

These Drive techniques represent just one of the reasons why I love BlazBlue: the cast. The characters in this fighter are so diverse and play so differently there's always something new to learn and figure out. You must understand, I am too intimidated to master unorthodox characters like Litchi Faye-Ling or Carl Clover, but they're available to those fighting game veterans that want a challenge.

For newcomers, one of the additions to Continuum Shift is Beginner Mode, which is essentially pointless for anyone even remotely invested in fighting games. However, for someone that's never played a fighting game before (or, perhaps, for young relatives that want to play along), this mode changes the control scheme slightly and turns button-mashing into a glorious torrent of combos. Again, this isn't for a serious fighting game fan, but it's a nice nod at the inexperienced.

More valuable is the tutorial mode, which offers interactive walkthroughs for nearly every aspect of the BlazBlue experience. Everything from basic movement to counters and cancels is covered in these tutorials, and players can even learn general strategies specific to each character. This tutorial system, along with the challenge missions that instruct players on advanced combos, give prospective BlazBlue fans some fantastic tools to learn the ins and outs of combat.

Legion mode was also added to Continuum Shift, after its initial appearance in BlazBlue Portable. In legion mode, players must take over enemy points on a map in a series of survival-style matches. With each successful takeover, players can keep one character from the defeated team to draft into their own army. This mode is really enjoyable as it adds a bit of a strategy element to the equation, but it would have been nicer if the maps were randomized. As it stands, each difficulty level only has one map to work through, and those maps are populated by the same characters every time. It's still fun, but the replay value isn't as significant as it could have been.

Gamers will be happy to hear that BlazBlue's robust online support returns, with stable matches, leaderboards and the ability to save replays. It's hard to say how the fighting game community will react once Continuum Shift is released, but at least it has local multiplayer in case the online community is lacking.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift does feature a brand new story, complete with branching paths for each character. This is one of the most enjoyable additions to the experience, though the incredible horde of unlockable content is just as drool-worthy.

The new characters in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift are excellent additions. Tsubaki is an easy character to learn and she uses her Drive technique to power up her special attacks. She's mostly a close/mid range character and seems pretty accessible to combo with. Hazama, on the other hand, is a bit crazier. His Drive attack sends his chains flying outwards, which he can use not only for offensive purposes but to move around the screen as well. There are almost no other characters in BlazBlue that can close spaces as quickly as Hazama, so I expect gamers will have fun with him.

The only problem with Continuum Shift, as you might expect, is that a good deal of content is identical to the original. Most of the character sprites are the same, stages are reused and the soundtrack is also repeated. Even with the new content, this can be disappointing, but the game is only retailing for around forty dollars, which isn't entirely unreasonable. Also on: PS3

Closing Comments
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift might reuse a good deal of content from Calamity Trigger, but it's still a blast to play and there are a lot of welcome additions. New characters, stages, modes, and story are just some of the reasons why BlazBlue fans should consider dropping the money on this "sequel." I especially encourage gamers that have never tried BlazBlue to pick this up -- it's an excellent fighting game that shouldn't be missed.

by: Ryan Clements

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Posted in: Fighting

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm: X 360

I'm not super into the Naruto anime, and I'm not all that into fighting games, but I enjoyed the hell out of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2. It's so strikingly beautiful that it drew me into the narrative despite my general ambivalence to the TV show, and really won me over with its easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master fighting system. Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is a fun fighter, with a well-fleshed out Adventure Mode and is a game any fighting game enthusiast should consider.

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Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 takes place in the Shippuden story arc. The game has a host of playable characters (both good and evil), but the narrative in Adventure Mode follows the fate of ninjas Sasuke and Naruto. Adventure Mode is where players will explore beautifully drawn environments from the anime, taking part in pivotal (and sometimes trivial) fights from the show, as well as take on side quests for various minor characters. It fleshes out enough of the story that even those who are unfamiliar with the setting can figure things out, but it's clearly made for fans who want to relive their favorite moments from the show. Still, I'm not going to lie, the story is well told enough that I actually cared about the fate of the characters by the end.

Despite having some minor exploration elements, Adventure Mode is really just a super basic world that serves to provide narrative tie-ins for the fights. And while it can sometimes get a little tedious to listen to or read several minutes of exposition, the fights in Adventure Mode are generally worth the wait. Several of the biggest fights from the show that you take part in are more than just typical battles, with multiple phases and moments of grand spectacle. The battles are filled with special powers you won't see anywhere else in the game, with the game engine perfectly blending quick time events and fighting seamlessly. Sure, it sucks you're not directly controlling the characters during some of the absolutely crazy parts of boss battles, but the eye-candy you're given instead definitely helps to make up for it.

Still, if you want to kill a bunch of time in Adventure Mode, you can. This game has a ton of side quests, as well as the option to go back and play through previous battles. Sadly, though, you have to find and collect tokens before you can access the battles you've already won, adding a tedious extra step before you can get to the fun part. That's pretty much par for the course with Adventure Mode -- while it's filled with really beautiful narrative portions that help flesh out the characters, it also has more than its share of pointless exploration that just eats up time. Still, you better be ready to play through the many, many hours of story or Free Mode fights because you have to if you want to unlock the full roster of characters. I'm all for giving people reason to play the story, but if I wanted a homework assignment I'd go to school, not pay $60.


Whether or not you enjoy the Adventure Mode, the crux of the game is the fighting, and it's a crowd pleaser. It's deceptively easy to pick up -- only one close attack button, one ranged attack button, a jump, and a block -- but it gets increasingly deep as you learn the game's nuances. One way you can change up your moves is by using Chakra. Chakra is essentially Naruto's version of Mana, and as it charges throughout the battle you can use it to modify your basic moves. This means that you can use Chakra to do a super jump or dodge, super attacks, and even throw powered-up ranged weapons. When you combine non-powered attacks with Chakra-powered ones, the game gets a whole lot more interesting.

But that isn't the end of what Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 does to intensify battles. Along with Chakra, players can also use a variety of items that reduce enemy stats, give their character boosts, or even directly damage their opponent. Support Characters are picked before a battle (if enabled), and specialize in Defense, Offense, or are Balanced between the two. Players can drop these support characters into combat on a whim, allowing them to mix up their move set, stymie their opponent's combos, and even build greater combos themselves. Of course, Support Character usage is limited, but they -- along with weapons -- add a lot to the player's arsenal. Suddenly a simple single-attack button game has become a rich, skill-based fighting experience.

You can play Vs. battles against the AI, but other players make the fights even more interesting. Playing online, I was surprised at how damn good other players are. Seriously, if you think that this isn't a real fighting game, or that it's not very complex, just try to play it online. Even locally the game's a blast, being just easy enough that anyone competent with a controller can have a shot in their first match, but also being deep enough that it stays interesting round after round. It really is a good party title for gamers, whether or not they're Naruto fans.
Closing Comments
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2 is one of the more gorgeous games I’ve seen in a long time. They’ve really captured the feeling of the cartoons, and playing the Adventure Mode -- at least in the less tedious portions -- feels like you’re playing inside an episode of the anime. The fighting system is surprisingly rich; I just wish they’d unlocked the full character roster from the start. No one wants to buy a fighting game, invite their friends over, and then realize they need to play hours of the game just to get their favorite characters. Still, this is a fun fighter, even if you don’t really care for the subject matter.
by: Anthony Gallegos

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Posted in: Fighting