Review:
Guilty
Gear: Isuka takes the Guilty Gear X series away from it's roots and
into an entirely new direction,
featuring "simultaneous 4-player fighting" for the first time. Along with
the new gameplay style comes the debut of a new playable character, A.B.A; and
an all new (and ridiculous looking) boss, Leopaldon. The title also features all new music tracks, backgrounds, and an
entertaining color edit mode on the home versions.
Sol even looks confused on
how to play this game.
The main difference
between Isuka and all the previous versions of the series is most
definitely (and unfortunately) the gameplay mechanics...
"unfortunately" because
it doesn't play nearly as well as previous installments. The main flaw
is that players have to manually "turn" using R1 to turn (by default).
Manually having to turn around to face your opponent in a 2D fighting game???
...yeah, it's pretty clunky. Manually having to turn your character is unfamiliar
and annoying because "auto-targeting" is a staple in every single
fighting game to date. It works
"alright" in a 2 player battle, but the manual turn becomes a huge problem
when playing against the computer AI, which has a ridiculous edge on turning!
It's completely unfair. The new fighting engine also features a foreground and a background (much
like in SNK's classic Fatal Fury series).
What the hells goin' on?!?
The
single-player frustration continues with the new GG Boost mode... a novel
idea that borrows it's 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, if not for it's need to use the damn
turn button once again. Why should there be a need to manually flip yourself
in the other direction in a side scrolling beat-em-up?!? It just doesn't
make any sense. All in all, it's a decent extra mode if you can get a hold of the
controls, but still seems rushed and leaves a lot to be desired... it's also
very, very
repetitive if you're playing by yourself.
Last Updated:
5/27/2010
Developer(s):
Arc System Works
Publisher(s):
Sammy Corporation
Designer(s):
Daisuke Ishiwatari
Platform(s):
Arcade,
Playstation 2, Xbox, Windows 98
Release Date(s):
2004 ( Arcade), July 29th 2004
( PS2), November 2nd 2004
( PS2), December 16th 2004
( Xbox), November 28th 2005
( Windows)
Isuka
most likely wouldn't have turned out so bad if the controls weren't
so lousy... the game can be played with some practice, but a player
shouldn't have to work so hard to control their character.
My favorite thing about the game would have to be
the character color edit mode... even though I didn't actually bother playing
the game enough to enjoy the colors I created.
~F.Yagami,
Webmaster
of TFG
...yeah, it's pretty clunky. Manually having to turn your character is unfamiliar
and annoying because "auto-targeting" is a staple in every single
fighting game to date. It works
"alright" in a 2 player battle, but the manual turn becomes a huge problem
when playing against the computer AI, which has a ridiculous edge on turning! 
It's completely unfair. The new fighting engine also features a foreground and a background (much
like in SNK's classic Fatal Fury series).
Arcade), July 29th 2004
(
PS2), December 16th 2004
(
My favorite thing about the game would have to be
the character color edit mode... even though I didn't actually bother playing
the game enough to enjoy the colors I created. 
