BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Standard Edition (Xbox 360)

Each character is unique and has his/her own fighting system. I can't see any weak points in the game. Graphics, gameplay, story, characters, music... all top notch.

This is a very combo friendly game, that can be frustrating when you're first learning to play. Expert players will create long combos which are impossible/almost impossible to escape. One mistake and your opponent will unleash a furious combo. For players new to this style of game, it can be frustrating, but you'll soon get used to it.

• from

This is a fantastic game. The amount of care and attention that went into its creation is constantly evident. There are three main things rare among fighters that this game does enormously well:

1) The fighting style of each and every character is creative and meticulously crafted to be unique and fun;

2) Despite that, the game is somehow finely balanced;

3) The deeper aspects of the game do have a steep learning curve, but enough shortcuts are etched into that hill that newbies should keep up admirably and enjoy learning.

How it manages to pull off all these things so well is a mystery to me. I would place BlazBlue high on a list of examples of game design as art.

The downside of these balancing acts is the relatively small number of characters, but personally I'm fine with that. There's no question that the game delivers enough meat to sink one's teeth into, more than this and it might be difficult to chew. The music and graphics are also very high quality.

Some flaws/cons (mostly nitpicking):

1) Some of the character designs don't quite hold up to the level of originality you'll find in their gameplay. You've probably seen a lot of these designs before (Cat Girl, future military dudes with sword guns, massive-breasted slut-in-glasses, GooAlienMonster that spits/summons stuff, Goth Lolita, etc.), but A) that's anime for you, and B) they're particularly well done cliches, and none of this has anything to do with gameplay.

2) I'm a bit of a puritan when it comes to this stuff, but for me some of the defense mechanics are needlessly complicated, which I think is directly related to...

3) The combo system is firmly into the mad waters of Marvel Vs Capcom 2. By which I mean, you can combo virtually anything at any time with few limits, and can actually get infinite combos with a single repeated button press in a lot of situations (try it in training mode). HOWEVER, the aforementioned defense mechanics, in all their complexity, give the defender plenty of options to prevent that from happening. It just strikes me as an oddly sloppy and needlessly convoluted system.

Anyway, those cons really are quite nitpicky and shouldn't influence your opinion. I can't recommend the game enough to fans of fighters. I write reviews very rarely, and glowing reviews like this almost never, but I just had to rave about this one in public. In other words, this isn't just good, it's a truly exceptional game. It will be a terrible pity if it isn't as popular as it deserves to be, Guilty Gear isn't quite the same pedigree as the competition.

• from

I got Blazblue almost a year after the initial release. I'm fed up with Street Fighter 4. I'm tired of being torn to shreds online because of the precise timing combos require and how anyone with a fightstick can whoop me because they aren't using an XBox controller and have access to a turbo button. And because they've been using Ryu since they first played Street Fighter 2. Hadoken then Shoruken when I jump. I get it.

Blazblue is everything Street Fighter 4 isn't, but in the best way possible. It's 2D. It's got a clean, anime style that brings it 's twelve characters to life. Twelve may not seem like many, all the characters are brand new and there are NO clones. It does take a LOT of time to really know each individual character's best combos, however. Combos people will teach you over the great online mode. There's no "Create a Lobby" going on here. Search for a match, and you appear in everyone else's searches. Connections are good (unless indicated other wise), and as of this review (May 2010), the online community continues to see new faces, as well as many veterans.

It's got a story mode with some pretty great english voice acting and a cool plot that actually manages to be pretty funny and even touching sometimes. The music. Sweet justice, the music is phenomenal. I don't know who writes this stuff, but as of now, this is the first game that I actually CARED came with a 2-disc soundtrack. It's on my iPod. No other game music is.

Frankly, if you're someone who's peeved that Super SF 4 costs 40 bucks, forget that. Come join in this brand new series that's been taking off both here and oversees. If you enjoyed games like Marvel VS. Capcom 2 like I did (sorry, never played Guilty Gear or whatever else these guys made...)... definitely give this one a try.

• from