Guilty Gear Isuka Review - PC

X-Play takes a look at Sammy’s latest in the venerable Guilty Gear series, and discovers that apparently in Japan; they’ve never heard the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This Gear game takes its cue not from Guilty Gear X2, but from the old SNK game, Fatal Fury, which seems odd to say the least. The results? Pure, confusing combat carnage, and not always in a good way.

Four-Way Gear Action

The Guilty Gear series has always been known for great graphics, bizarre character design, and superb gameplay. Those core elements are still here, but a rather unnecessary four-character battle gimmick has confounded the gameplay. Granted, you can play Isuka in the standard one-on-one mode, and it’s still a solid fighter, but the battle mode creates an unusual, if flawed new dimension to the series.

Since this is a PS2 game, in order to take advantage of the four-player mode, you’ll also need a MultiTap. You can play two-on-two, one-on-three, or even a wild free for all, and the sheer chaos of such matches has a viscerally entertaining sensibility. The problem is that, while it definitely offers some hilariously over-the-top, four-way action, the already archaic nature of the series is made almost overwhelming with the added layer of not only twice the fighters on the screen, but a front and back layer. That’s right, Fatal Fury’s fore and background gameplay is being used here.

Which Way You Going?

One resounding flaw in the gameplay that makes even just one-on-one matches annoying is the need to manually change directions. Pressing the R1 button makes your character face in the opposite direction, and you have to do this constantly to keep up with the action, whether fighting one opponent, or three. While, in theory, this addition to the controls makes sense, in practice, it’s just annoying.

The final additions to the Guilty Gear Isuka ensemble are the boost, and “Robo-Ky II” modes. Inter-related, these two modes add interesting, but not great minigames.

Boost mode is basically a side-scrolling, Final Fight-style sub-game. Pick any fighter to fight through a nearly endless army of clone thugs, racking up points and unlocking bonus goodies. Mostly, you’ll be playing the boost mode to help improve Robo-Ky II, a robotic fighter capable of earning all the moves of every other fighter in the game. He earns points in boost mode, and can buy original versions of Gear fighter moves, which is an interesting concept. Unfortunately, the boost mode is hampered by an incredible lack of variety in opponents. You fight the same few enemies over and over, with “boss” fights thrown in regularly, and, in this day and age, boring gameplay. The gameplay is made worse by the oddly unresponsive manual turnaround function.

While the inability to automatically face your opponent is annoying in the standard game, in boost mode, it’s a downright fatal flaw, since there are so many enemies attacking you at once from all directions, and you can’t switch directions while being attacked. Still, the extra gameplay modes are bound to be a kick for fans of the series. One overwhelming flaw through the entire game is the complete lack of online play, making Guilty Gear X2 Reload on the Xbox, by far, the best game in the series.

Turning Gears

Guilty Gear Isuka looks almost identical to X2, with the same characters (although some new backgrounds are included). Therefore, it looks excellent, and it runs incredibly smooth, even when the screen is filled with action. The audio is also replete with all the familiar cheesy rock and fighting voices fans know and love.

The multiplayer-centric changes to the gameplay have really managed to change the feel of the entire game. Many will argue that the addition of fore and background action, the ability to change directions (and attack someone from behind), and four-way action add layers of fighting strategy that competitors can’t match. They may be right; if you are a hardcore 2D fighting fan, or devout worshipper of the Guilty Gear series, anyway. For everyone else, Guilty Gear X2 is still the king of 2D fighting, and the “enhancements” in Isuka often make the action devolve into a chaotic mess.

Guilty?

Despite the criticism, there’s still entertainment to be found in Guilty Gear Isuka. Over 20 truly bizarre and inspired characters, great backdrops, fantastic special moves, and plenty of game modes all add up to a solid, if faulty package. In the end, this is a marginally recommendable side note in a truly great series.