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Guilty Gear: Judgment Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Monday, September 18, 2006
Two games in one; beautiful graphics and sound; Wi-Fi compatible.
The beat-em-up gets repetitive; the controls take some slight adjustment.
Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers, now that I look back on it, wasn't really a great step up in the series. It was a decent Smash Bros.-esque game for the Nintendo DS, to be sure, but the game still came up short when it comes to the standards of Sammy's long-running brawling series. Maybe it's just the fact I love the Dreamcast and Reload games so much more, that I've gotten used to a certain kind of style for the series that kept me from fully connecting with Dust Strikers. Or maybe it was just its awkward control scheme. Could be a little bit of both actually.
But those tempted to find a Guilty Gear portable game that they could clearly identify with have to wait no longer, as Guilty Gear Judgment is upon PSP owners. Majesco released the game a little while back, in the midst of bigger releases such as NHL 07 and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and that may have dwarfed a bit of its impact as a result. However, now that the dust has settled on those releases, people can finally see what Judgment is all about- and fans will definitely want to invest in it.
This installment isn't just a singletary fighting game. Far from it. Along with including a port of the enhanced Reload fighting game that previously appeared on the Xbox, the game also includes a side-scrolling fighting game in the same vein as Final Fight. You select from five different characters (more open up as you complete the game), and then take on all sorts of odd characters, beating them up with countless combos and special moves galore.
Judgment does get a bit monotonous, I admit. The gameplay in any sort of beat-em-up manages to grind on over time due to the fact you're not really doing anything past beating up numbers of minions. However, Arc System Works has done a great job putting together the game, complete with different levels and obstacles to overcome. For instance, in the second set of stages, you'll be working your way down staircases, beating up dragons while avoiding the occasional rolling boulder, which can mow down your energy if you happen to be standing in the way. What's even better is that you can add a friend via Wi-Fi hook-up and get some two-player action going. The game is easily beaten within about an hour or so, but you can always go back with new characters, and see who provides the best ass-kicking.
Reload is also a great game, a fighting game where you can again engage in versus action with a number of characters. Arc System Works continues to show how it's done here. If the game runs into any kind of limitation, it's probably in the way you have to deal with the PSP controls. Like I've said in past reviews, the PSP wasn't built for fighting games, and it shows once again here. Pulling off some super moves and combos is not as easy as it appears to be, thanks to the limited movement of the D-pad. However, that's not to say the game isn't playable. You just have to work at it.
The graphics and music still run the Guilty Gear standard. The tunes are made up of hard, head-banging tunes that really pump up some much-needed energy into the fighting action, and the sound effects and voice samples, while slightly repetitive, give the game some identity. The animation is beautiful, hand-drawn and smooth for the most part. There are the occasional slips in the animation, but nothing major. Backdrops look stunning, and the game moves frenetically. The menu system's a little extreme, but easy to get into, with various selections to choose from in both games.
Guilty Gear Judgment is probably the best the series is going to get for now, until it makes the jump to next-gen sometime in the inevitable future. The inclusion of both a fighting game and a brawler is the best of both worlds, as players can switch off between the two and have hours of fun knocking people out. The Wi-Fi option is superb, allowing a friend to jump in the fun at anytime (provided they own a PSP and a copy of the game). Some more diversity in Judgment itself would've been nice, and the controls aren't always perfect because of the PSP interface. Still, this is a fantastic game, and a well-received answer to those who wanted a real Guilty Gear game on the go. The Judgment is all good.
