GUILTY GEAR XRD SIGN REVIEW

Guilty Gear is mean. Underneath its cute, anime facade lurks a hard-rocking, in-your-face fighting franchise that'll bestow upon you one of the fastest and most colorful beatdowns this side of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The oddly named Guilty Gear Xrd Sign strictly adheres to this tradition. The roster has taken some deep cuts and the underlying mechanics are a bit different, but the core experience remains unchanged. When you're in a fight, you're either relentless or get trampled underfoot. There's no room for pause, no hesitation. It's do or die. Heaven or Hell. Let's rock!

Xrd is undoubtedly a game for the returning Guilty Gear fan, one who saw the series' last major release way back in 2002 (Overture? Nope). For those who aren't in that camp, take heed: this game is a vast and complex labyrinth, the entirety of which you may never fully experience. It has over a decade's worth of narrative and technical baggage in tow - Roman Cancel, dust attack, Robo-Ky, Order-Sol - most of which you're expected to already know. It's a lot of fun once you wrap your head around it, just don't expect that transition to be easy.

Like its predecessors, Guilty Gear Xrd Sign is a 2D, one-on-one fighting game with a heavy anime influence. Its fast-paced play style makes the calculated combat of Street Fighter IV look like a leisurely chess match by comparison. Both games may share the same fundamentals, but Guilty Gear feels quicker and far more chaotic. Defeating your opponent is always the goal, but doing so requires smart application of your Tension meter. Nearly everything you do either generates, or consumes, Tension - and you always need more. Tension lets you tap into the game's underlying fighting mechanics, and unleash your strongest attacks. Victory follows those who know how to manage this resource wisely.

If you peek under the hood, you'll find these techniques aren't drastically different from those in previous Guilty Gear games. Roman Cancels are the ticket to big combos, and Bursts are your 'get out of jail free' card. There are a couple of notable additions, however, in Blitz Shield and Danger Time. Blitz Shield, a blocking technique that's difficult to time and requires significant Tension, will send your opponent reeling, leaving him or her open to attack. Danger Time (which sounds like a sweet action movie) may activate when two strong attacks collide. If it does, a brief countdown will occur before the fight resumes, only now all attacks are much stronger and it's easier to perform combos. Dangerous, indeed.

Together, these two new mechanics interrupt the cadence of a fight, but do so in a way that makes your eyes go wide and causes you to grip the controller a little tighter. They (quite suddenly) raise the stakes in an already high-stakes game, which keeps the combatants on their toes, and the viewers hyped.