To be frankly honest, I never gave the guilty gear series a fair shot. Back in the early 2000's i was a total Virtua fighter snob and wanted nothing to do with 2-D once VF4 and 5 were out and about. Street fighter 4 came along and definitely educated me as to the merits of 2-D fighters and dominated my playing schedule from February straight through to July. July is when BlazBlue came along and it has definitely made me question whether or not I can or would go back to SF4.
Now before I continue, let me just state that SF4 is an incredible fighter. Great cast, great mechanics and relatively easy for beginners to jump into. But BlazBlue does all that and in a far better manner. First, lets just discuss the package they put out with the game. For 60 bux you got the game, official soundtrack and a full tutorial DVD! Not just some basics about the fighting engine but even character specific strategies and combos. It took me a whole month of scowering shoryuken.com to even figure out how to FADC in Street Fighter 4.
But more important than the packaging is what Ark System works has done with their fighting engine. Forget crazy 1 frame link combos as in SF4 or having to input 4 different commands to cancel a move (hello FADC). Instead, Ark system works has done the smart thing and made execution of moves easy and let the game rely on strategy to separate high and low level play. What I mean is, in SF4, when you see two high level players play, you just know there is no way in a game situation you would be able to pull off the focus cancelling and other combos required to survive. But in BB, when you see high level players play, its not the execution that you're marvelling at, its how they know what and when to do. That to me is the single greatest accomplishment of BB. Never have I ever felt that I whiffed a move or simply failed to do what i wanted. Instead, when someone has beaten me its because their strategy was better than mine. And I know i've been harping on FADC alot in this review but seriously consider what Capcom requires of you to actually cancel a move into another: Hit medium punch + kick then double tap forward and then input the move you would like to execute. In BB, to cancel, just hit all four buttons. That's it. Some people may say that its the complexity of the inputs that makes SF4 great, but i don't think needlessly complicating what should essentially be a simple operation makes the game more enjoyable.
Now gameplay preferences aside, there is one flat out statement that I think no one can challenge BB with respect to SF4: BB's online blows SF4 out of the water. Not only do you have everything SF4 did but it has rooms for up to 6 people including voice chat during the lobby and fights themselves! Not only that, you can record matches and view matches from the top players around the world. And most important of all, the netcode is superior to SF4 and trumps even SF2 HDR.
So in short, if you like fighting games and want something that is unique and rewarding (plus no god damn scrubs spamming shoryukens), pick BB up.
