Guilty Gear Dust Strikers

Unlike many fighting games that took the plunge and moved into the realm of 3D fighting, the Guilty Gear franchise has stuck to its roots and remained in 2D. While the developer team has done this, they are still perfecting the franchise by adding new moves, levels, and various other improvements to an already established, successful formula. Since the Nintendo DS has been flying off the shelves and into the consumer’s hands, the developers of Guilty Gear saw this as a great opportunity to bring their game for the “gaming on the go” crowd . Read on to find out more about the DS version of the game and if you should purchase the next time you see it.

There are plenty of game modes that will keep players busy for a while. First off there is the arcade mode that allows you to compete against various computer-controlled players and you have to defeat them before you can continue. Next up is the story mode that allows you to pick your favorite character and battle it out against various other players as you progress along their own unique story. Versus mode allows you to play with up to four various players either computer or humans. Challenge mode players will battle one-on-one in an arcade-style mode. If you love making your own characters then Robo-Ky factory will be for you as you can customize your Robo-Ky character by acquiring various characters modes and using them for yourself.

If you get bored of these game modes you can play various mini-game modes that revolve around using the touch screen. There are a couple of fun mini games that will keep you occupied for a while, but most of them are pretty mundane. The reason to play these modes is that you can acquire moves for the Robo-Ky Factory. One of the better mini games is the Venom’s Billiards, which is a standard nine ball pool game. Sword Master is another fun game where you must use the stylus to sluice up falling hay before it hits the ground. While these mini gamers are not the deepest around, they will provide a nice distraction from the main game.

One of the best things about this game is that it includes 20 of the characters from the Guilty Gear universe. This is great because unlike other fighting games that have multiple characters, each character in the Guilty Gear universe is completely different from one another, from the style of clothes to the way they fight. For instance, you have people using swords, fans, hair, yo-yos, anchors, and various other weapons that are just crazy and insane to see on the screen, but really cool at the same time.

The developers erred when they decide to change the game formula and make this game more like Smash Brothers/Power Stone. Instead of the smooth gameplay that you might be used to, now you will be extremely confused as you see up to four players going at it at once at one screen. Then you will see various items thrown about the level (you activate them by pressing your thumb on them on the touch screen) and this makes the action more hectic.

Another thing that is a shame as this game was dumbed down way too much for a game of this nature. In the console versions of the game it took a while to master all of the controls for the characters, and it felt really satisfying to pull out some “uber” hard moves to take out your opponent at the last second. With Dust Strikers it is just a few presses of the button and you can do the same move. This is such a shame and takes a lot of fun out of the game if you can do all of the really hard moves with little to no effort.

The graphics for this game also took a beating in a sense. While the characters and stages are pretty well detailed, it is the animations for each of the characters that have been limited. While this is understandable (since there can be up to four characters on the screen at once) it is also sad because this is one of the staples of this game. The music and sound effects are decent in this game, but it can’t compare to the console versions.

Guilty Gear Dust Strikers is rated Teen for alcohol references, suggestive themes, and violence.

Gameplay: 5.8
The game has changed from a glorious 2D fighter to a Smash Brothers wannabe. The developers didn’t spend enough time with the game to really smooth it all out and all that gamers are left with is a huge mess when they try to play a game, especially when you are fighting with four characters at the same time.

Graphics: 7.2
The graphics for this game are decent but can’t match up to its console counterparts (obviously). The score drops due to the very limited set of animations, which is one of the best and most recognizable things about this series.

Sound: 6.5
The sounds for the game are at least somewhat recognizable to the rest of the series, but it is not good enough.

Difficulty: Easy
Players can perform most of the super moves with just a press of the button, which takes a lot of the skill out of doing the moves that you sweat blood to get done in the console counterparts.

Concept: 6.0
The developers took a real step back here, and added new things that really didn’t need to be in this game, or at least made them make sense. While all of the mini games help the cause here, the game still isn’t what it should have been.

Multiplayer: N/A
At the time of this review I didn’t have the capability to test the multiplayer portion of this game.

Overall: 6.0
It is a shame that this game is not like its predecessors. While I can understand the developers change up the formula to adjust to a new platform with its own unique features, the execution of this is something less the desired.