Guilty Gear is out and it is a feast.  Be ye a fan from days of yore or but a timid squire waiting for your chance to enter the fray, there is more than enough heavy metal action to go around.

For those not familiar with the Guilty Gear series, it essentially shattered the mold of the 2D fighter.  Granting new variability of play style as well as mobility mechanics not thought possible, fans’ fervor for the game was almost cultish.  This is their newest tweak.

Presentation [6/10]
Sound and graphics are the most noticeably different.  While the BGMs seem to be left intact, each character’s voice-over has been redone.  Some you may enjoy some you may hate.  People familiar with the game should note that Jam and May have had their high-pitched squealing toned down. Conversely Axl’s voice isn’t as funny anymore.  Eddie’s voice suffers as well, as his original seiyu (voice actor) had passed away and a new voice had to be found.  The worst is the announcer who sounds far too effeminate and far too excited.  While opinions may differ, the re-recordings overall seem to go down like a glass of water.

The visual effects have been taken to the next level and the difference is quite noticeable.  When anybody uses a ‘force break’ or an ‘overdrive’ the lighting goes crazy to emphasize the coolness-factor.  What’s sad is that the ‘new’ sprites seem nearly untouched and still look pixilated on larger screens.  Perhaps as a way of apology, each character is given four sets of colors to choose from; no “unlocking” required to play Vash-Ky, 1940s cinema Slayer, Valentines Day Johnny, Hulk-Potemkin…  They say it’s the little things that matter.

Controls [8/10]
All characters handle differently, so this is a great opportunity to introduce friends to the game; everyone will be learning and relearning anyway.  While older renditions of Guilty Gear stuck to a policy of smooth fast-paced action, Accent Core seems more interested in punctuated attacks that you can almost feel.  Consider perhaps the difference between Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike, or Naruto and Samurai Champloo.  The first is fluid mayhem while the other emphasizes gravity and density almost excessively.  What this means is that there’s a little more time between input commands.  Characters like Chipp Millia or Ky will notice this the most: while these characters tended to be the ‘machine guns’ of the game, they’ve all been slowed down in favor of dexterity or deception.

All characters also have moves called ‘force breaks’ now that require 25% tension.  Some of these are old moves turned super-powered while others are new altogether.  Eddie’s large drill, Testament’s ‘gravedigger’, and Slayer’s ‘pilebunker’ are all moves that have been replaced so they could be turned into mini-overdrives.

Lastly, it seems the game has implemented a parry system into the game much like later renditions of Street Fighter.  A gold orb will flash around your sprite if you time pressing back, [S], and [HS] with an incoming attack.  This negates knockback and recovery time, thus allowing you to counter faster.

Mechanics [8/10]
The new stylistics goes hand-in-hand with new game mechanics.  While in previous games, ‘bouncing’ characters seemed scarce, it’s all over the place this time.  Some moves will now even make your opponent skid across the ground or stick to the walls.  And with all this bouncing and skidding and sticking (Oh I’m getting excited) you can expect more air combos as well.

If you don’t notice this yourself, the UI will let you know how it is.  The computer in Accent Core is much smarter than the last game, and understands how to combo in the air or on the ground.  If you’re used to playing on “Maniac” mode, don’t immediately expect to be able to handle it with anything than your best character.

One thing that seems missing from the game is the mission mode.  Arcade, Survival and MOM are still there, but Mission isn’t.  Perhaps with the addition of the revived UI, the developers expected it to teach players more than enough.

Consensus [8/10]
An overall success, this game is worth picking up for anyone who likes a decent fighter.  Each character’s uniqueness has been tweaked and accentuated so as to set each character’s playstyle even further apart from each other.  While Sol and May remain totally broken powerhouses, nobody in good conscience picks them up anyway.  You may find, however, that you cannot in good conscience refuse to buy this game, so mod that PS2 if you haven’t already, or mod your Wii as it will be released for the next-gen Nintendo console on July 26th.