Let me begin this post by saying that when I was growing up, most of the games I rolled with were 2-D and out of those, ninety percent of those games I plunked quarters for were of the fighting nature. Legendary games like Capcom's
Street Fighter, as well as their
Vs series, or SNK's
Samurai Shodown, and
King of Fighters. This was before Sega put out
Virtua Fighter. Before Namco followed suit with
Tekken and the seed of 3-D games started to really take shape. 2-D was king back then and I played them all, I made their playgrounds my dojos of pain for those unlucky to challenge me.
Fast forward to now and its all 3-D. The beauty and art of 2-D is an endangered species and what was once the prevalent form of fighting games, that being hand drawn 2-D, is dead. It's now classified niche. Fucking niche. Can you believe that? They are clumping 2-D fighters with horse racing sims and fruity JRPGs that nobody ever heard of aside from Dale North. You know 2-D is on its deathbed when Capcom's new
Street Fighter IV is 3-D. The sacrilege! Sure I love the game but I had to accept it for what it was... the best representation of the 2-D games that preceded it. But I wont delude myself thinking the new entry is their equal. It is not.
Capcom turned its back on its diehard fans, moved away from their 2-D roots and stepped into the realm of 3-D. The masters of 2-D fighting just ...well moved on. Left the scene to others should they, IF they choose to pick up the reins. You see 2-D doesn't sell. Haven't you heard?? I mean unless you're Nintendo and you keep releasing the same jumping Mario game or that whatever hot popular property, over and over on their portable system.
But out of the darkness came the
Guilty Gear games. Fighting games with beautiful clean 2-D with a deep fighting engine. No pixelated over the hill reused sprites here. Just spiffy hand drawn graphics at blazing speeds and animation to die for. Life was good for awhile. Heaven & Hell was rocking. But again time passed and new consoles came out. No new
Guilty Gear. No new 2-D Capcom fighter. Had the curtain finally closed on true 2-D fighting? I guess s-
WAIT. Folks, what I'm about to proclaim you probably already heard. Arc Systems the same folks that made
Guilty Gear have lovingly created a new fighter for the HD era. And they didn't pussy out like Capcom either. They made a 2-D fighting game for the diehard and novice fighter alike. A fighting game that is easy to play and hard to master. That rare breed of game where that cliche is supposed to be used for. The game I'm speaking of if you haven't figured out is
BlazBlue and I'm here to tell you, to urge you, that if you're a fighting fan, no matter how big or small... you need to go get in your car right now and buy this game. Even if you're NOT a fighting fan those directions apply to you as well.
This game is gorgeous. I'm not talking raising your eyebrows gorgeous. I'm talking having an orgasm in your pants gorgeous. If lesbians could impregnate each other then this game would be the love child of Megan Fox and Scarlet Johansson. When I say this game will make your eyes pop with its animation and beautiful hand drawn goodness all in stunning HD, I'm not joking. In the arcades it runs on a Taito Type X2 arcade system board, with a 16:9 ratio and 768p resolution. In motion it looks SICK. The animation is through the roof. Did I say it's in glorious 2D? What
Street Fighter IV should of been? That image above is of the console version and it has been 100% faithfully ported over to your console of choice. Not only will the conversion to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 be arcade perfect, but Arc System Works/Aksys Games will also include console-exclusive content not found in the arcades.
[ Go Wiki-pedia Go ]
* Console-Exclusive Content! Brand new music, animations, backgrounds, and a fully fleshed-out 30+ hour story mode with multiple endings have been made exclusively for the console release.
* Dual Language Support! Experience the fully realized BlazBlue saga with fully-voiced dialogue in English or Japanese.
* Online Battle! Train your skills online through ranked and player battles. Create online lobbies where up to six players can battle each other or spectate from the sidelines to gauge their opponents!
I picked this game up today and played it for like four hours and I couldn't believe how many combos I found for just one character. I barely scratched the surface of the engine.
Street Fighter fans its okay to put down
Street Fighter IV. I release you from that game. It's all right to spine it on your shelf. The game you've been wishing to really use that arcade stick is here.I used to pray to the gaming gods above for a fighting game like this when I was younger. It took twenty years for that wish to come true. You don't need to wait as long as I did. Its on the store shelf ready for you to pick it up right now. The first run of
BlazBlue will be automatically the special edition which includes the game, the soundtrack, and a very thorough DVD/Blu ray of basic and advanced techniques for every character in the game as well as an even deeper look at the game itself. For the same price as the stand alone game that will follow it.
Do yourself a favor and buy this right this second. It's worth the sixty bucks. Save the
"I'll buy it when it drops to twenty bucks" bullshit for the next over-hyped game published by EA or Ubisoft.. Support this niche 2-D fighter. Show how large this so called niche nation really is.
[ For the record
BlazBlue will be a staple of PS3 Friday Night Fights. Hope to see you there. OH! Almost forgot... this game can be played on your PSP through Remote Play. :D ]
(# 0) on 06/30/2009 22:17
(# 1) on 06/30/2009 22:20
(# 2) on 06/30/2009 22:30
(# 3) on 06/30/2009 22:44
(# 4) on 06/30/2009 22:54
(# 5) on 06/30/2009 22:57
(# 6) on 06/30/2009 23:02
(# 7) on 06/30/2009 23:04
Next paycheck I'm buying this.
(# 8) on 06/30/2009 23:05
(# 9) on 06/30/2009 23:05
I'm going to beat you're ass with my Gigantic Tager (Yeah, you heard me...)
(# 10) on 06/30/2009 23:06
1-0 SUCK IIIIIIT
(# 11) on 06/30/2009 23:11
(# 12) on 06/30/2009 23:16
(# 13) on 06/30/2009 23:18
Yes, yes it is. Lots and lots... and lots more of crazy ass guitar riffs.
(# 14) on 06/30/2009 23:21
(# 15) on 06/30/2009 23:30
(# 16) on 06/30/2009 23:34
(# 17) on 06/30/2009 23:52
(# 18) on 07/01/2009 00:09
I just know a lot of guys are going to kick my ass. :c
(# 19) on 07/01/2009 00:34
Okay, so I have one of my technical questions for you... If you've read my blogs in the past, you know I HATE when PS3 game saves are locked to the console... Is that the case with this game?
(# 20) on 07/01/2009 00:42
(# 21) on 07/01/2009 00:43
(# 22) on 07/01/2009 01:06
(# 23) on 07/01/2009 01:31
(# 24) on 07/01/2009 01:36
(# 25) on 07/01/2009 01:49
(# 26) on 07/01/2009 01:50
If anyone wants to play me sometime, or just help me get better add me.
PSN: zoitspider
(# 27) on 07/01/2009 02:13
Also, you forgot that Arcana Heart got a release for PS2 as Guilty Gear began waning, and that King of Fighters XII is out shortly after BlazBlue, so we're not /that/ short on 2D fighting games.
(# 28) on 07/01/2009 02:57
(# 29) on 07/01/2009 03:25
(# 30) on 07/01/2009 03:57
also i'm fucking poor, can't pick this game anytime soon
(# 31) on 07/01/2009 04:11
(# 32) on 07/01/2009 06:13
Funnily enough, the commandment "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" is RIGHT next to me in 'Jimbos profile as I typed that!
(# 33) on 07/01/2009 07:12
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(# 35) on 07/01/2009 07:31
(# 36) on 07/01/2009 07:58
(# 37) on 07/01/2009 07:59
(# 38) on 07/01/2009 07:59
I've never actually played a Guilty Gear game before but once I saw this game I instantly fell in love. Gah I can't wait for this game. SF4 was awesome, but I'm way more looking forward to this.
(# 39) on 07/01/2009 08:03
(# 40) on 07/01/2009 08:12
WHAT?!
Oh bloody hell indeed...
(# 41) on 07/01/2009 09:05
(# 42) on 07/01/2009 09:24
Also, looks like you can't export replays directly to a computer, I looked through the files and it won't work in case anyone was wondering.
(# 43) on 07/01/2009 09:25
(# 44) on 07/01/2009 10:11
If there was ever a game to do it for, its this one.
This game looks crazy in motion,easily one of the most gorgeous games you will ever lay eyes on, jimbos right this is how SF4 should have looked.and the depth of each character is amazing, I'll be practicing with Ragna the Bloodedge for a while.
Bought it, love it and when I get my brother his ps3 this will be one of the games I get for him to start him off.
(# 45) on 07/01/2009 11:28
... and one of these days I'll give fighting games another try... but I was never any good at Mortal Kombat on the Dreamcast and have avoided them ever since.
(# 46) on 07/01/2009 11:42
it IS region free but not for PAL regions.
on that note...sexy game is sexy. Too bad I still don't have a PS3 to fight Jimbo yet.
(# 47) on 07/01/2009 13:07
(# 48) on 07/01/2009 14:32
@Jimbo - Awesome blog.
(# 49) on 07/01/2009 16:10
I guess you're talking about the 360 version right?