Fights against other humans tend to
play out as a tense series of feints
and jabs, as each player tries to draw
a counterable error from the other,
before exploding into a lightning-fast
flurry of spectacular violence.
It’s amazing to watch, with special
moves that look like they could flatten
a city block, and rapid-fire changes
of camera angle as the momentum
swings back and forth and the pace
heats up to dizzying levels. There are
more technical fighting games around,
but there are surely none that will
catch the eye of a casual observer
quite like this one. It’s a visual feast.
There’s a rock/paper/scissors
thing going on behind the scenes,
with almost every move being strong
or weak against something else,
and that’s where the character-
switching really comes into play.
When your go-to moves start getting
blocked or countered, switching to
the next fighter can change your
luck. Swapping characters also has
the benefit of instantly closing the
distance on an opponent, which is
almost like having a free hit, so there’s
a cooldown to stop it being overused.
Instead of a menu there’s a huge
online lobby where players gather
round booths offering various game
modes and interact with one another
via dances, weird animations and a
list of predefined phrases, which goes
a small way towards breaking down
language barriers. Of course all of the
acting in the game is in Japanese, and
we can’t imagine the target audience
would have it any other way.
On the downside, the frequent
loading screens, complete with
progress meters that bear no relation
to how long you’ve got left to wait, will
surely test your patience. Starting a
battle or even requesting a rematch
with the same characters comes
with a frustratingly long pause. It’s
completely at odds with the snappy
and immediate nature of the actual
gameplay, and can tilt the balancefrom ‘one more go’ to ‘time to go’ if
you’re on a losing streak.
Still, it’s the fights that really count,
and they’re crazy fun. It goes from
being a button-mashing frenzy at
the lowest levels to a really cagey
cat-and-mouse kind of thing when
you figure out what’s going on, and
its curious capacity for last-second
reversals and victories snatched from
the jaws of defeat is either heroic or
suspect, depending on who’s on the
receiving end. That’s surely the mark
of a multiplayer favourite. QSPECIAL
GUEST STAR
The character
creation mode is very
serviceable,
producing a fighter for
the single-player
story mode that you
may well want to take
into normal battles.
As well as buying
clothes and
accessories, you can
pick and choose from
the special moves of
all the other
characters, plus you
earn experience
points and cash for
levelling up. Strange
as it may seem, given
the wealth of
characters on offer,
we felt a bit guilty
whenever we left our
custom avatar out of
the team.“You can launch
a signature move
so epic that it
comes with its
own cutscene”
ABOVE In the
midst of all
this there’s an
epic comeback in
progress.
LEFT With two
players on one
Xbox, the
camera swings
behind whoever
is currently on
the attack.OXM VERDICT
A riotous
multiplayer
brawler for any fan
of the Shonen
Jump manga.8
FAR LEFT The
prelude to an
ass-kicking,
courtesy of our
frankenfighter
avatar.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 071