Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Guilty Gear X2

Written by Tim McGrew on January 30, 2003

First Impressions: It truly will be a Guilty pleasure.

When someone asks me what comes to mind when I think of fighting games, I automatically think of Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and a slew of others that have seen more then their fair share of sequels and ports to nearly every console ever made. Street Fighter alone has seen over twenty different renditions since it was first created in the arcades, not including its console ports which would take the number well into the thirties, and with each version, a bunch of die hard fighting fans cash their money in at the coin laundry and walk (or run) to their local arcade to try their hand at this new flavor of an otherwise recycled genre. Because of these fans, 2D fighting and 3D fighting will never die even though the arcade scene is rapidly spilling off into nothingness as consoles begin to surpass even the best looking arcade games available.

However, despite these fans, the genre still needs a fresh flavor every now and then and this fresh flavor is always different every few generations. 2D spilled into 3D with the release of the first entirely 3D fighting game, Virtua Fighter, Midway realized the usefulness of motion capture technology with the invention of Mortal Kombat, and today, a bunch of creative anime style artists at Arc System Works are realizing the potential of an attack based game mixed with beautifully drawn character mixed together for ultimate clarity in the beautiful package known as Guilty Gear X2, the third installment in their once niche Guilty Gear series. I must digress that the programmers, nay the artists, over at Arc System Works know exactly what they are doing when it comes to designing something new and fresh to spice up the genre. Guilty Gear X2 is poised to do just that to the 2D fighting realm dominated by the likes of countless Street Fighter and Versus clones.

Released in Japan towards the end of last year, Guilty Gear X2, renamed from its arcade counterpart, Guilty Gear XX, for the Playstation 2 will be an inventive and creative romp comparative only to other 2D fighters in design alone, but Guilty Gear X2 leaves its mark with beautiful high-res hand drawn animation and attacks that are just so out of the ordinary and completely obscure as to warrant at least a few rounds of play even from the most die hard of 3D fighting and Capcom 2D fighting enthusiasts. That is, as they say, just the tip of the iceberg.

Unlike a number of other 3D games released with their forefront of development time centered on a flawless graphical engine, Guilty Gear X2 takes that same ideology around a truly beautiful and unique game and wraps that up around a core fighting engine that is an absolute joy to play that is far more unique in character design and move sets then any other fighting game released. Included in GGX2 are some of the all time favorite abilities from GGX including the popular Dust Attack and many other signature moves unique to each character, but even more exciting is the inclusion of the all new Burst Gauge, which allows for tons of offensive and defensive opportunities, and six brand new characters thrown into the fray.

Included in GGX2, aside from its traditional story mode which unfolds via anime cut-scenes, GGX2 will also have seven different modes of play including MOM, which is a competition to collect medals which are acquired by beating them out of your opponent, Mission, which is similar to the Soul Calibur missions that has you defeating certain opponents with a slot based system limiting your abilities and increasing the CPUs, Survival, which pits you against the computer in a nearly non stop battle with just one energy gauge to sustain you for the entire time, and of course the standard 2-player Versus, CPU Versus, and training modes that have become veritable standards in home console conversions for 2D fighters.

Personally, I always felt that a fighter can be judged by the originality of its characters and GGX2 has, by far, the most original character set from a game released on the Playstation 2. For starters, there are characters that are missing limbs, which fight with sea creatures including killer whales, and those who teleport out of bathrooms nailing their opponent with a forceful shove of the bathroom door. If that weren't enough to take in, the characters themselves and every frame of their attacks are drawn entirely by hand giving the game its high quality look that rivals some of the 3D fighters out there. And, to top all that off, there are twenty totally unique characters to choose from as well. Trust me when I say that after looking at Guilty Gear X2, the fighting games released by Capcom, including their latest 2D release, Capcom Vs SNK 2, just won't look as fluid as they used to. The backgrounds are also hand drawn with elements in the foreground that make the game pop off the screen in beautiful 2D glory.

If that weren't enough, the game also bolsters a heavy metal rock soundtrack that brings the quirky jazzy tunes of most other fighters to their knees. This type of music is a staple to the series and much like the rest of GGX2 is a vast improvement over GGX and the first GG. Of course, you can always simply turn the music off and pop in your own CD into the stereo, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that unless they absolutely loathe metal guitar and heavy drums.