Take a trip back in time with me. The era is the early to mid 1990’s. An era where the most advanced popular systems were 16-bit and you finally had stereo soundtracks or multiprocessor audio synthesizers. A time when games were challenging, fun, and (most importantly) 2D. This was an era that games like Contra 3, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight reigned as kings in their prime. These games still continue to be cult classics with gaming enthusiasts and fans alike! As history has shown… there are always competitors that tried to steal the thunder away from the original product. The market would eventually just see titles trying to saturate the market, such as the Splatterhouse series et al. I remember as a child that these games were almost as good as the arcade versions. One of the offshoots from the “beat ’em up” genre that I am sure many of the 1980’s born children remember is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game that supported up to 4 players on the arcade edition. When the late 1990’s finally set in, these games would slowly fade from the lime light and the focus became “3D is the in thing! 2D is so lame!” with many developers. There would be some companies like Capcom who to merge 3D with a beat ’em up flavor, but that didn’t pan out so well (ps2.IGN.com – Final Fight: Streetwise – PS2). I have always had a place in my heart for the classic beat ’em up games, but with most of them disappearing I just left them as a memory. Fighting games still have a vestige of a place in the world in 2D form, but with pretty 3D effect work for things like special fighting moves. The new Street Fighter games and the Guilty Gear series are (in my mind) canonical definitions of the new era of fighting games

Do not take this above preface as an attack on 3D games, let me make this clear. I don’t mean to offend those who love 3D games, but I will say that there are quite good 3D games out there.

I love the Guilty Gear series as it blends a fresh fighting experience to the scene of games with characters that aren’t just composed of a color change and minor pixel art changes. I have played the original Guilty Gear for PlayStation and even up to the last recent title, Guilty Gear Isuka. (For those readers of my blog who wonder about my endearing nickname for my cousin is Sol, it’s a “throwback” to Sol Badguy from the Guilty Gear games as that is his favorite character.) From the series, I have much love for Ky Kiske, Millia Rage, Chipp Zanuff as my “picks” of characters. From the series, I loved Guilty Gear XX #reload the most. When the Japanese market was getting a Guilty Gear beat ’em up game titled “Guilty Gear Judgment” for PSP. I remember lamenting that it may not make it to the American market. I had contemplated getting it, but at the price of $45 for the UMD… I was not too keen on it. About a week later, the Japanese market got another announcement that they were getting Guilty Gear XX #reload for PSP with wireless play for roughly the same price ($45). Again, I was a bit angered that the American market was going to miss out again. My disappointment would just eventually come to pass when Majesco would announce that they would be publishing “Guilty Gear Judgment” for the US that my interest would pique.

The American release of Guilty Gear Judgment is a little unique to the Japanese/Asian release, as it merges both Guilty Gear Judgment and the Guilty Gear XX #reload discs into one. This is one of the few titles that the American gamers got a break on versus those who paid for the import copies. I personally could never fathom paying $90 and shipping for 2 standard edition Guilty Gear games when this American release goes for $19.99. (Note: I understand paying $90+ for limited edition games, that’s something for the die-hard fan.) The only thing about this game is that most normal retailers won’t have it in stock, which leads me to believe that this game may be a limited print. The going price is about that range, so don’t fret about the price skyrocketing any time soon.

Guilty Gear Judgment plays pretty well for a beat ’em up game. The story is a bit varied from the original plot of the War of the Gears, but it does give more flavor to the Guilty Gear story. The game play looks just as great as Guilty Gear XX #reload with the anime style animations with a hint of 3D effects for things like special projectiles or dust being kicked up from dashes. These are things that make the most discriminating Guilty Gear fan will be at home in. The characters do have their “handicaps” just like they do in the fighting game that are applied to Judgment. Things like Chipp’s triple jump, Ky’s 1.2 damage ratio, or Potemkin’s 0.8 damage ratio are all here which make the game an additional challenge. The characters are unlocked through story modes to give more background story to them with access to most of the cast.

The characters do still have their trademark moves and overdrive attacks, but some of them are performed differently due to the button map change to allow for a jump button. The maneuvers are not easy to perform for a casual gamer and take heed not to blister your thumbs from it. The control scheme works alright and serves for a tolerable Final Fight/Streets of Rage experience, but you will find that relying on special moves will become a staple later in the game. In my opinion, I feel this takes a little away from the experience. However, I understand why… It is to go hand-in-hand with the combo counter system in the game which rewards you for racking up hits together. The issue with relying on the special maneuvers is that the game quickly becomes a tiring experience, almost to the point that the game becomes a chore. The other side of the combo counter and special moves are things like the Tension Gauge and the Burst Gauge are integrated to the game to make things a little fair. The Tension Gauge doing the same thing as in the original games and the Burst Gauge functions as a corner trap escape with HP regeneration equal to the amount of damage outputted from a Burst attack. The jumps can be a bit of a sensitive topic as being just a simple pixel off will have you plummeting to a penalty of life loss. The character differences can have a definite bearing on how hard some fights can be sometimes. I have had times where there’s a stage where Ky just simply cannot dish out the pain, while Sol or Chipp are just slaying anything and everything. This can be a bit of an issue to some, as the frustration may inspire you to throw your console around from sheer rage. Other than this game being a blister busting, rage inducing beat ’em up game, it can be great for getting your fix for classical style gaming. I have not been able to try the wireless co-op mode, but I’d imagine that could be a little more of a fair experience.

As far as the Guilty Gear XX #reload game on the disc, it’s nothing new to write home about. The good part is all of the “unlockable” characters from the game are already accessible from the get-go, instead of having to unlock them through normal means. The main difference is wireless play and I don’t have another friend to try that one out to test out latency or lag for the game. Unfortunately, no internet play is available on the game.

Kudos to Arc System Works for releasing these two games for the PSP. There could have been some minor improvements, but at the price of $19.99 it isn’t too steep. Majesco did a great job on combining the two games into one disc, making this a great buy! However, they could have given better documentation and presentation of the game’s instructions and details about the wireless game play.

Zero’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Zero’s Verdict: For the Guilty Gear fan who would like to do battle on the go either in story or competitive modes. It would definitely not hurt the casual buyer.