But if it allows me to do things like this:



Then it's alright in my book.

I'll be very honest, I didn't think much of the title a little over a month ago, if you check out the "Re-Evolution"post on my site I was NECK deep in hype over the care and attention to detail SNK was placing in their latest game, The King of Fighters XII. I didn't have time to care about anything else, especially since I'd played Guilty Gear almost exclusively for a year and a half, I knew what I might be getting myself into, so I shrugged.

Then I was dragged into an arcade, and I finally got to see this game in action.

All I could say was...wow.

My eyes were treated to high definition sprites superimposed over detailed, colorful 3D backgrounds, with all manner of seizure inducing effects bouncing all over the screen. It's an understatement to say I was in shock when the first thing I saw was something like this:



By the time we left, I swore I had to have it. By the time it arrived in my store, the plastic was already off and it was spinning in the demo 360.

This post is actually late because I spent all of last night tooling around with ONE character.

Yeah, think it's safe to say that BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger has a hold on me.

For anyone wondering exactly WHAT a "Calamity Trigger" is (outside of context) I couldn't tell you the story if I tried, something about a beast, a great war, something else about a powerful sort of weapon called "Armagus" and how only a few people can use it, a caste system was formed, someone stole something and--ARGH.

It's absolute nonsense (That I'll probably enjoy as I get deeper into it--I can explain Guilty Gear's story at the drop of a hat), but it's a setup that basically gives you a reason to do things like the video above.



However, aside from being gorgeous, it's also a surprisingly technical fighter as well. Not being TOO removed from the formula that made Guilty Gear such a success, there are only 4 buttons, and like GG, there are basic "bread n' butter" combos that let you easily chain moves together and be flashy with a decent amount of effort. For the frame counting, priority driven tourney player, there is a surprising amount of depth contained as well, with drives (unique specials), rapid cancels, burst modes for a tactical advantage (attack increase=/=defense increase by 30%) the barrier system..it'd take its own post just to explain every gauge on the screen in depth, but the great thing, like in SF4 with its "Focus" system, is that you don't need to learn it all in order to have fun.

I've also heard complaints about the lack of characters (ther are only 12), but I ask: Would you rather have a game with 30+ characters where the balance is all over the place (and only 12 of them are worth using) or would you rather have a game with a small, balanced cast, and EVERY character controls and feels different from the next?

Its a no brainer, I think. However I'm done raving, enjoy a small basic combo video that shows off just how flexible the fighting system can get with some basics, and hint to how flashy the moves are. You'll be glad you did.



(KOF who?...ah..I'm so fickle..)