Gaming Target - Xbox: Guilty Gear X2 #Reload

Written by Ryan Genno on October 13, 2004

Full Review: In this world you are always guilty, never innocent!

Fighting games have been around for a while now but very few of them have the style of a game like Guilty Gear.а This particular one on one beat Сem up series was one of the deepest and most impressive looking 2D fighters out there. It also has one of the weirdest cast of characters I have ever seen. Now the sinister world of Guilty Gear finally arrives on the Xbox complete with new features, and all for the low price of 29.99 (or 19.99 for you lucky US gamers). See why if you never got the chance to play the series, this is sure an excellent place to start.

The story of the Guilty Gear takes place in the year 2180, when humans have managed to control the threat of renegade robots called Gears. These perfect fighting machines were created to eliminate the use of humans in war, but the new machines developed independent thought and with the leadership of a super robot called Justice, they came to the conclusion that humans were inferior and a massive war ripped the world apart.а Thanks to the events in the first Guilty Gear, the humans were able to stop Justice and his army -- but some of these robots are still active.а There is a lot of social unrest about whether the remaining Gears are safe or not, but many world governments are not taking any chances.а Many of the world's best bounty hunters are looking to make it rich, while the remaining Gears are fighting for their very survival.
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One of the best things about a Guilty Gear title is the fighters themselves.а One of my favourite characters is a sexy female who has two polar opposite guardians for wings, and she is just one of many cute girls here.а Then there are these huge characters like this scary 1,400 pound, 8 foot tall giant with muscles everywhere. The other big guy is this nearly ten-foot doctor who looks pretty menacing at first, but he is actually kind of silly.а There are no generic or Сso called normal' characters here; each one of 21 fighters has something strange or unique about them, plus if you are good enough, you can even unlock a couple of characters from the original Guilty Gear -- including the super powerful Gear Justice.

Mostly everything remains the same as Guilty Gear X2 for the Playstation2, but there is one new guy added to the line up: the robotic clone of Ky-Kiske: Robo Ky.а Most importantly though, #Reload also marks the first time you can play the series online thanks to the new Xbox Live feature.а There are no added options and there were definitely some lag problems, making the game difficult to control at times as well, but at least there is another online 2D fighter other then Capcom vs. SNK 2.

We can't forget about the game's other standard modes like Arcade, Story, and Mission here either. The Arcade and Survival modes are the basic Сset them up, knock them down' game found in most one on one fighting games.а No big deal, but these are still fun.а The Story mode is the more intriguing mode to play, mostly because it lets you learn more about these strange characters and why they are fighting to begin with.а This mode doesn't take long to complete, but each stage is a confrontation and you can even unlock multiple endings for each fighter.

Medal of Millionaire (or the oddly named M.O.M) mode may appear to be like the game's Survival mode, but hitting your enemy can get you special medals. The more technique you use on an opponent, the better your medal and points will be.а The game's Mission mode is definitely the most difficult mode of them all.а You still have to fight the usual one on one contest here, and you can freely select from any of the 100 missions, but each stage has its own set limits.а Some of the missions may have healing enemies while others can restrict a simple move like jumping.а The reward for completing these challenging missions is getting some bonus artwork for the game's Gallery section.а Finally, there are other modes like Vs. CPU and Training that can help you polish your skills, and for a game this complex you're going need it.

Unlike some other fighting games, randomly mashing the buttons won't get you very far against a seasoned player or difficult computer-controlled opponent.а You have to learn a lot of the game's techniques like Recoveries, Overdrive Attacks, Faultless blocks, and much more if you want to master this game.а You can even kill your enemy with one hit believe it or not.а It may be slow and easy to counter, but unlike the Fatality in Mortal Kombat you can use this cool attack anytime during the match, and it's great move to use on your younger brother.

Another strong part about Guilty Gear X2 #Reload is the Anime-style graphics.а All the hand-drawn characters look amazing here, and the backgrounds are very detailed as well.а One fighter named Slayer even has this cool intro where he sucks the blood from a beautiful young girl and then quickly throws the body away (this is one of the reasons why this game gets the СTeen' rating by the way).а Although the animation isn't as crisp as Capcom's Street Fighter 3, if you're a fan of high quality artwork then this game really deliverers.а The game also has some great sound effects and unique voices to give an added impact during a fight. The only problem in the sound department, besides some average rock tracks, is that most of the dialogue is in Japanese - so many will be clueless to what everybody is saying.а It really feels like you're missing something.