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 ]