Schimid
Nov 3rd, 2004, 10:49 PM
I traded in a ton of my old games to pick this baby up--SSX3, DDRMAX2, my entire Command & Conquer collection, a bunch of stuff. I cheated the system and "pre-ordered" Halo 2 for five bucks which, for some reason, gives you awesome Trade-In capabilities the same day at EB (Every game that was younger than two years old was given $10 store credit, guarunteed) and I got around $81 with everything altogether.
My first purchase was this--Guilty Gear Isuka.
Now, I'm going to be completely honest. You'll hate it. At first, you'll hate the foreground-background mechanic, the fact that you gotta manually turn around your fighter to face the other direction, everything. The controls will mess you up and you'll hate the fact that Story mode is gone.
Now, while nothing really justifies the lack of a Story OR Mission mode here (WTF), you get used to some of the other problems. The foreground-background becomes necessary only in heavy four-player battles, the turning becomes second nature and the controls are easily customizable.
All of the characters I've used so far are still in tact, and I'm speaking from my top three--Chipp, Slayer and Faust, respectively. Nothing drastic has been changed, and while that may not be for better, it's definitely not for worse.
The new GG Boost mode is a nice change of pace. A Final Fight / Streets Of Rage type beat-em-up will let you team up with one other person to take on waves of mindless drones that will stop at nothing to pummel the crap out of you. Nothing too impressive, except for the difficulty. These types of games are my specialty (I've gotten through Streets Of Rage 2 with one credit/continue) and I can't get past the second level.
The Arcade mode has been integrated with the Survival mode from X2--you no longer go through a set number of matches, you work yourself up 1000 levels until you're taken out. It's a lot easier to be decimated this time, as you'll find yourself against two or three opponents at a time. Try fighting three Potemkins with Chipp, it's hard.
You're able to customize any character's look now, which is a nice touch. Changing colors is all you can do but, honestly, I'm fine with that and I'm sure others are too.
Now the biggest buzz has been coming from the Factory mode--you customize your very own Robo-Ky II. Only thing is, you can't customize him too much. He'll have all of Robo-Ky's moves, with the only difference being the ones that you actually select. I don't like that. I want a full customization mode, right down to the punches and kicks. It might be a little much to ask for, but hey, so is an impossible Mission mode.
You can customize stats, and that's a biggie for me. I've always wanted a character huge on defense and speed, because it's so ridiculous. You can't even hit the guy and when you do, he doesn't feel a damn thing. To prevent online Goliaths, ARC has included a balancing system. Up your speed and your jump will take a hit. Wanna raise attack? You'll see your defense go down. I'm disappointed that you can't remove what you want to up one stat (Attack always lowers Defense, etc.) which really doesn't make sense. Potemkin has great Attack and Defense, he's just slow as crap.
You earn these upgrades and moves through the new Boost mode, as mentioned earlier. You run through it with your Robo-Ky II and see how far you can go, and your "Function Points" (I just call them EXP) are decided at the end.
The soundtrack isn't too bad, although there's nothing truly mind-blowing. I remember playing GGX2 and being blown away every time I heard the guitar solo in Fu-uga (Anji's Theme). Nothing will do that here. Character themes have been scrapped, since more than one fighter is usually on-screen at a time, in favor of location-specific songs. This is disappointing, I'm sure, because songs like Momentary Life (Baiken) and Simple Life (Bridget) have gained fans that would die for their songs.
Although the stages haven't grown on me yet, I will say that I like the inventiveness of them. Nothing matches to the junkyard or forest in GGX2, but there IS one level on the moon with these huge purple behemoths walking behind the fight constantly. Cooler, but not exactly purtier.
I have this and GGX2#Reload for X-Box and while I like X2 better, I think that Isuka is a mighty game in its own right. I haven't had the chance to play it multiplayer, but the character selection screen looks a lot like that of Super Smash Brothers. I can't wait to get a hold of multitap and wear this thing out. Overall, I think people will hate this one at first, as I did--but the addictive nature of the game itself grows on you, even without the perfectionist's touch that came from Story and Mission mode. Get X2 first, then pick this one up when the price drops.
Overall,
4/5
My first purchase was this--Guilty Gear Isuka.
Now, I'm going to be completely honest. You'll hate it. At first, you'll hate the foreground-background mechanic, the fact that you gotta manually turn around your fighter to face the other direction, everything. The controls will mess you up and you'll hate the fact that Story mode is gone.
Now, while nothing really justifies the lack of a Story OR Mission mode here (WTF), you get used to some of the other problems. The foreground-background becomes necessary only in heavy four-player battles, the turning becomes second nature and the controls are easily customizable.
All of the characters I've used so far are still in tact, and I'm speaking from my top three--Chipp, Slayer and Faust, respectively. Nothing drastic has been changed, and while that may not be for better, it's definitely not for worse.
The new GG Boost mode is a nice change of pace. A Final Fight / Streets Of Rage type beat-em-up will let you team up with one other person to take on waves of mindless drones that will stop at nothing to pummel the crap out of you. Nothing too impressive, except for the difficulty. These types of games are my specialty (I've gotten through Streets Of Rage 2 with one credit/continue) and I can't get past the second level.
The Arcade mode has been integrated with the Survival mode from X2--you no longer go through a set number of matches, you work yourself up 1000 levels until you're taken out. It's a lot easier to be decimated this time, as you'll find yourself against two or three opponents at a time. Try fighting three Potemkins with Chipp, it's hard.
You're able to customize any character's look now, which is a nice touch. Changing colors is all you can do but, honestly, I'm fine with that and I'm sure others are too.
Now the biggest buzz has been coming from the Factory mode--you customize your very own Robo-Ky II. Only thing is, you can't customize him too much. He'll have all of Robo-Ky's moves, with the only difference being the ones that you actually select. I don't like that. I want a full customization mode, right down to the punches and kicks. It might be a little much to ask for, but hey, so is an impossible Mission mode.
You can customize stats, and that's a biggie for me. I've always wanted a character huge on defense and speed, because it's so ridiculous. You can't even hit the guy and when you do, he doesn't feel a damn thing. To prevent online Goliaths, ARC has included a balancing system. Up your speed and your jump will take a hit. Wanna raise attack? You'll see your defense go down. I'm disappointed that you can't remove what you want to up one stat (Attack always lowers Defense, etc.) which really doesn't make sense. Potemkin has great Attack and Defense, he's just slow as crap.
You earn these upgrades and moves through the new Boost mode, as mentioned earlier. You run through it with your Robo-Ky II and see how far you can go, and your "Function Points" (I just call them EXP) are decided at the end.
The soundtrack isn't too bad, although there's nothing truly mind-blowing. I remember playing GGX2 and being blown away every time I heard the guitar solo in Fu-uga (Anji's Theme). Nothing will do that here. Character themes have been scrapped, since more than one fighter is usually on-screen at a time, in favor of location-specific songs. This is disappointing, I'm sure, because songs like Momentary Life (Baiken) and Simple Life (Bridget) have gained fans that would die for their songs.
Although the stages haven't grown on me yet, I will say that I like the inventiveness of them. Nothing matches to the junkyard or forest in GGX2, but there IS one level on the moon with these huge purple behemoths walking behind the fight constantly. Cooler, but not exactly purtier.
I have this and GGX2#Reload for X-Box and while I like X2 better, I think that Isuka is a mighty game in its own right. I haven't had the chance to play it multiplayer, but the character selection screen looks a lot like that of Super Smash Brothers. I can't wait to get a hold of multitap and wear this thing out. Overall, I think people will hate this one at first, as I did--but the addictive nature of the game itself grows on you, even without the perfectionist's touch that came from Story and Mission mode. Get X2 first, then pick this one up when the price drops.
Overall,
4/5