I'm in love.

This.
Game.
Is.
AWESOME.

This completely makes up for the fact that there will probably never be another proper Guilty Gear thanks to whatever the deal is with Sega and Aksys. (I don't even know if that's true or not, I just heard that somehow Sega technically owns GG) I'm so ready for BlazBlue to continue through out the years, and I've only had the game for a little over an hour.

I popped in the game and instantly went into training, and I can say if I'm this impressed by beating up on a character just standing there, then sweet jesus I'm going to have a great time with this game for the months to come. I started as Noel (blonde chick with guns) and within pressing A and a few other buttons I was pulling off combos by shooting someone launching them up in the air, and throwing her Hellsing-esque big ass pistol like a boomerang.

I'm pleased to say the move sets in this game are your standard quarter/half circles, up/down moves, etc. And to quote some reviews, the A button pretty much is a "do something awesome button" so, if you weren't very good at GG, you'll be able to get into BlazBlue. Though it may look a little intimidating for a novice, its actually pretty accessible. The right stick (if you're playing with a standard controller) pulls a move out of Soul Calibur II's book and maps a special attack to a direction, but if you care enough about fighting games, you're probably not going to use a standard controller.

I found it hard to use the 360's analog stick for BB. I can play SFIV fine with it, I don't like to, but I can. Trying to dash with the 360's stick is hard, then you move to the mess of a D-pad that the 360 has, and you're fucked. I haven't played it on the PS3 obviously, but I honestly don't think the PS3's D pad is any better for fighting games, it's too flush with the controller and not tactile enough in my opinion. THUS I'm glad I have another use for my Madcatz SFIV fight pad, which I highly recommended for this game if you don't like/have enough $$$ for a stick.

Graphics... holy damn this is the most beautiful 2D fighter I've seen. And I can't judge now, but I think it's going to blast KoF XII out of the water. It's so flashy and unique looking. It's just pure eye candy. And while the roster is pretty slim by today's standards, the characters are so varied and unique that you're guaranteed to find someone you like. I've already decided Noel is my main. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!

I mentioned this in a comment, but I love Aksys for making the first pressing of this game the LE standard with out upping the price. I think more publishers should do this if they want a bigger instant install base, and it will help combat used game sales.

THERE IS ONE PROBLEM THOUGH!

I don't know if this is just me, but the game has some sort of fucked up resolution that just doesn't fit on an HDTV correctly. I originally had my 360 set to 1080i on my 16:10 tv. Now because I don't like images being cut off I have the TV set to 16:9 so there are black bars on the top and bottom of the images usually letting a game/movie be displayed correctly. I noticed that the top and bottom of the actual image were cut off, just barely but still noticeable. I switched the TV back to 16:10 mode and I regained the tops and bottoms of the image but lost the left and right sides. I switched my console to 720p and the issue persisted. This may be something like BioShock where they fixed it with a patch (I think they did?) or it may just be because its a port of the arcade game which might have some crazy resolution. But it just seems like this game is stuck somewhere in between 16:9 and 16:10.

If anyone else notices this, or has a fix let me know.

EDIT: I found out how to fix this issue. If you're having the same issue and part of the screen is cut off, go into options>display and change the scaling type to "Type B." And fixed.

That is my only complaint, and it's just a mild OCD complaint, so god damn it THIS GAME IS AWESOME! GO BUY IT!