Platform: Playstation 2

Genre: Fighting

Number of Players: 1 - 2

It has been a great while since I've been excited about a fighting game, and even longer since a 2D fighting game captured my interest.  Games in my collection (ie: Street Fighter II Turbo, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter III Third Strike) still get played from time to time, but the 2D scene has been rather dry--until now.

Known as Guilty Gear XX in Japan,  the sequel to Sammy's fighting series has finally come to America -under a new name.  Why go with a 2 instead of another X?  My best guess is that they wanted to avoid Guilty Gear XXX as the next logical step in the series.  Fortunately, only the name and box art have changed, and (with the addition of English subtitles) all the Japanese goodness is intact.

Set in the 22nd century, societal upheaval has been caused by the finding of a renewable source of energy called "magic".  This new technology causes and end to pollution and the need for other forms of energy, but it is soon discovered that it can be used to fuse human and animal DNA to create "Gears".

 The Gears were created to serve as super-soldiers, and were made only to follow orders.  Unfortunately, a few gears became self-aware and gathered the other gears in a declaration of war on mankind.  After 100 years of war, the gears were defeated.  A fighting tournament was then created to find humans capable of taking on the gears in the event that they should be needed.

20 characters are available in all, adding six new character from the prequel.  The new and old characters alike have such individual styles that it can literally take hours to each contestant's potential. 

To compel you to master each player, multiple ending pictures, alternate colors, and motifs are available to be unlocked.  A special section allows you to browse all your hard-earned booty, and is a very nice touch.

Eight play modes are available, and include, Arcade, VS Human (2 player), VS Computer, Classic Story, Survival, Training, M.O.M., and finally Mission mode.  The options are almost overwhelming,  and while most will be familiar to anyone who's played a fighting game, I will endeavor to briefly explain the last few:

M.O.M. mode involves doing a great deal of damage to opponents to make them spew out medals, which are collected to increase your rating or health as you work your way through each opponent.

Mission mode changes up the odds by presenting you with different challenges each match, like a time limit or a super-tough opponent.

In any mode, the plethora of moves at your disposal are further multiplied by your ability to use such moves as the dust attack, which allows you to interrupt, stun, and pounce on your opponent, and the roman (and false roman) cancel, which allows you to bypass an attack animation to immediately launch another attack. 

Also included are the psych burst, overdrive attacks, instant kills, dead angle attacks, sweeps, throws, gatling combos, faultless defense, two-level and high jumps, jump cancel, counters, recovery moves, staggers, and forward thrust attacks.  Whew!  Depth is obviously not an issue here, unless options bother you!

In addition, GGX2 has implemented a system to penalize players that constantly dodge and retreat, playing defensively.  A tension gauge fills up when you advance on or attack your opponent, and allows you to perform moves such as the dead angle, overdrive, and instant kill.  Avoiding combat will drop your tension gauge to zero, limiting your ability to really dish out the damage.  Really this causes defensive players to fight with only one arm, but it's still rather innovative, and in this old genre innovation is a must.

My one complaint may seem fairly pathetic, as it involves my amazing ability to get stomped for what seems like an hour at a time by a few characters that pull the cheapest, most aggravating moves since Street Fighter II was popular.  Sol and I-No,  you know I'm talking about you.  More than once I have had to go to work or to sleep late and completely defeated after making my way through ten other fighters.  The impatient need not apply.

Sound is well done, with original Japanese voices, excellent effects in combat, and a guitar-metal soundtrack that doesn't suck.  Fighting games should have energetic music, and nothing here is cut from the standard cookie-sheet.  While not anything familiar, it gets the job done well.

Even with so much to accomplish and unlock, one can't help but pay attention to the beautiful detail that has been lovingly packed into this game.  It has been drawn with a sort of style that might make you believe you are playing an anime.  Few games can boast such polish, and in Office Space terms, it definitely wears far more than the required 15 pieces of flair.

-scott-