Guilty Gear Isuka
(LAST UPDATE: 5/8/08)

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General: Guilty Gear: Isuka takes the Guilty Gear X series in a new direction in terms of gameplay, featuring 2D simultaneous 4-player fighting, for the first time. Along with the new gameplay style comes  the addition of a couple new characters, new music tracks, and completely redrawn backgrounds.

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   The main difference between GG: Isuka and all the previous versions of the series is most definitely (and unfortunately) the gameplay system... Unfortunately becasue it doesn't work quite as well as previous installments. Now, players have to use a "turn" button (R1 by default), to turn around and face their opponent if need be. This is a somewhat unfamiliar (and annoying) gameplay element due to the fact that nearly all fighting games have "auto-targeting." It works "alright" in a 2 player battle, but the turn button becomes a big problem during single player games, as the computer AI (on higher difficulty levels) no doubt has a big edge on turning. The new fighting engine also features a foreground and a background (much like the classic Fatal Fury series).

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    The single-player frustration continues with the new GG Boost mode... A novel idea that borrows its side-scrolling inspiration from games like Final Fight. Boost could have been a terrific addition to help fill the void when not playing the regular game too, if not for it's need to use the turn button just like a one-on-one match. Why should there be a need to manually flip yourself in the other direction in a side-scrolling hack and slash just because you need it for four-player? It just doesn't make any sense.

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    Flaws aside, GG: Isuka is a unqiue and stylish game... It also features some pretty cool customization options, including color edit. You can also "create" your own version of Robo-Ky.

Manufacturer: Arc System Works / Atlus
Platforms: Arcade, Playstation 2
Release: 2004
Characters: Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Millia, Chipp, May, Jam, Johnny, Baiken, Potemkin, Dr. Baldhead, Axel, Anji, Venom, Dizzy, Testament, Zato-1, Justice, Kliff, Slayer, Bridget, I-no, Zappa, Robo Ky, Leopaldon, ABA
Related Games: Guilty Gear, Guilty Gear X, Guilty Gear X Advance, Guilty Gear XX, Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, Guilty Gear XX Slash, Guilty Gear Judgement, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Blazblue, Hokuto No Ken, Sengoku Basara X
 
Gameplay Engine
5 / 10
Story / Theme
8 / 10
Overall Graphics
8.5 / 10
Animation
8.5 / 10
Music / Sound Effects
8 / 10
Innovation / Creativity
8 / 10
Customization / Options
 7.5 / 10
Intro / Presentation
7.5 / 10
Replayability / Fun
 4.5 / 10
"Ouch" Factor
7 / 10
Characters
 9 / 10
Overall Score
6 / 10

Closing Comment: Not a bad attempt from Sammy, but they could have done a lot better with turning their hit 1 on 1 2D fighter into a 4 player 2D fighter... The Guilty Gear series seems to be best when featuring 1 on 1 battles, and should probably stick with that formula. ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG