Game Review :: Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2 (Ps2)

Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2 A brand new tale arrives as Naruto faces different challenges to defend the Hidden Leaf Village and surrounding villages from the evil force trying to dominate it. An ancient organization, which was thought to have been disbanded, is alive and in search of orbs to resurrect a mechanical terror. It's now up to Naruto and all of the Hidden Leaf Genin to join forces with those of the Hidden Sand Village to stop this menace.

Release: Sep/04/2007
Read More :: www.gametab.com

Game Review :: Wild ARMs 5 (Ps2)

"Butter my butt and call me a biscuit," says a character in XSEED's new Wild ARMs 5. Well, calling him a character is a bit of a stretch--he's really one of the immobile town dwellers you see in every RPG who delivers a single line and nothing else, the gaming equivalent of a Hollywood extra. But in a way, that makes him emblematic of Wild ARMs 5--a game like every other Japanese RPG this side of Final Fantasy, with a few extremely weird differences.

Wild ARMs, in case you're new to the series, is composed mostly of traditional role-playing games in which a main character and friends battle a great evil to save the environment, while learning to share, keep promises, and generally come of age. The series' two trademarks are the hex battle system (a simple tactical battle grid) and ARMS, aka guns. In practice, these guns are just like the weapons from any other series. For example, the main character in Wild ARMs 5 uses his twin pistols like tonfa, hitting enemies with them rather than shooting them.

The story takes place in the Western-themed world of Filgaia (can't you tell by the name?), where a teenager named Dean and his best friend Rebecca discover a giant, severed robot arm with an amnesiac girl named Avril in its palm. Avril remembers only two words, "Johnny Appleseed," and is clutching two pistols, which she gives to Dean. And so the three embark on a globe-trotting, gunslinging adventure to learn about the fabled folk hero, the meaning of perseverance, and the incredible economic iniquities spawned by technological power, not to mention its socioecological ramifications. Well, butter my butt...

Though Wild ARMs 5 starts shallower than most (Barney and Friends comes readily to mind in the early going), the themes it raises later have real-world roots. Indeed, older players will recognize references to the Berlin Wall and be surprised by a succinct, coherent explanation of political schadenfreude. But in true adolescent form, the game oversimplifies its adult themes. In one conversation, for instance, a wicked concentration camp boss who has slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of people repents his wicked ways and is completely forgiven by the party, who knew he was a hero all along. He just had the wrong attitude...about genocide.

The same clumsiness that causes Wild ARMs 5 to fumble big ideas yields strange but delectable fruit elsewhere. For example, in the same game, there are characters named Avril, Rebecca Streisand, and Elvis (for a pop-cultural hat trick) as well as characters named Duogrammaton and Fereydoon. And then there are talking-bird save points, each of which wants to discuss a deadly sin. Or, as one bird puts it: "Well now, you're one handsome looking fellow. You here to take a dip with me into the sea of lust? Or do you want to save?" Horny talking-avian save points, Batman!

So Wild ARMs 5 is pretty weird and tells an interesting, if out-of-control story. Even better, its pace is brisk, so you'll never go more than a half hour without some new piece of narrative gristle to chew on. This is very important, because the game follows your usual town-dungeon-town-dungeon flow. You go somewhere, someone tells you to get something from a dungeon, you enter said dungeon, battle through a hundred random encounters, kill bosses, get item, return to town, buy better weapons, move to next town. It's the E=MC² of RPGs.

Wild ARMs 5 deviates from this formula in subtle but important ways. For one thing, each dungeon generally has three or four bosses, not one. And each contains a statue known as a Sol Niger, which when cleansed allows you to turn on or off random encounters. Each door is marked by whether it's been entered, recently exited, or used (but not recently) for navigational purposes. And every save point, including those horny little birds, will provide a hint as to where you're supposed to go next. How convenient!

Your guns also come into play in the dungeons, where you can shoot treasure chests and pots to open or break them. The guns are also worked into the game's environmental puzzles, some good some bad, and you eventually accrue seven different kinds of bullets to help you make your way through rooms full of switches, boxes, buttons, and torches.
The battle system uses a small grid with one space in the middle, and six surrounding it. Three of the outlying spaces have an elemental property (spells cast from them assume that element), and figuring out your enemy's weakness then capturing the space that can exploit it is the name of the game--or at least, the boss fight. It's a pretty deep system, but the overall effect is that random encounters are more dynamic than usual (though no less frustrating), and boss fights play out like chess matches. Except that while you play chess, the enemy plays checkers, routinely making unaccountably stupid choices. If you miraculously lose to its Fisher Price artificial intelligence, you can elect to start the battle over, or return to your last save point. This is also very convenient.

Like the Hex system, character development is a blend of the intuitive and the arcane. There are items called mediums, which are essentially equippable classes. They have names like sea, sky, mountain, and sword (so much for consistency), but they boil down to normal RPG roles--blaster, tank, thief, healer, and so on. However, when you equip one of these, based on your level, you can allocate points to combat, magic, or special meter regeneration. (By the way, your party has a special meter that fills during combat, which lets each characters use class-based special moves as well as multiple-character team attacks.) You can switch all of this at any time, and while some characters are better fighters or casters, the point is, it's a simple class system with an underlying level of customizable detail. You can set it and forget it, or nerd out with micromanagement--the choice is happily yours.

That sounds good, but it doesn't look good. From the field, to the fights, to the menus, Wild ARMs 5 looks like a much worse game than it is. The artistic style is bush-league anime. The big eyes, crazy hair, and skimpy clothes are there, but nowhere are the signature touches of a professional artist. The hex system is an eyesore, and the menus are full of acronyms, numbers, and weird meters, all of which have substance, but zero style. And then there's the game engine. You don't fully realize how broken this is until you gain a one-wheeled motorcycle to, in theory, quickly traverse terrain. In practice, it's like having a seizure in a bumper car. Invisible walls abound, and the wheel is governed by truly fantastical laws of physics. Still, it beats all the random battles.

But what would a Wild ARMs game be without horrible, repeating sound bites? Rather than assault you with the full, telephone-book-size list, allow us to reveal the most offensive instance of audio gone awry: ladder climbing. That's right, when you climb a ladder, the game's sound files go berserk and fire off like a string of firecrackers. Within two rungs, your character will grunt, shout "Yeah!," grunt again, and yell "Here we go!" while simultaneously cheering. The music, on the other hand, is outstanding. There is a solid steel-string guitar track, another one that features flutes, and, of all things, a whistled travel tune.

Wild ARMs 5 is a tripolar blend of the good, the bad, and the ugly, but most importantly, it's odd enough to distinguish itself from other RPGs, and well-designed enough for you to enjoy playing. While its wacky foibles stretch a little thin after hour 25 (the game takes roughly 30 to beat), this teriyaki Western is worth checking out, especially if you can get it at a bargain or rental price.

Read More :: www.gamespot.com

Game News :: Hellgate: London Updated Impressions - Early Levels and Last-Minute Updates

It was probably hard to predict the tremendous success of 1996's Diablo, the hack-and-slash action RPG that led to the 2000 sequel Diablo II. Both games would be responsible for countless wrecked computer mice as players clicked endlessly to lead their fantasy warriors and wizards to victory by hacking away at hordes of monsters in a dark, demon-infested world. What was perhaps even more surprising was that Diablo II was a very hard act to follow. Few other games dared to follow in the incredibly addictive sequel's footsteps, and arguably, none of them was up to the task. Now, the creators of the original Diablo series have returned as a separate developer, Flagship Studios, and Hellgate: London has finally been dated and set for release next month. We had a chance to catch up with the always-upbeat studio head Bill Roper at a recent press event and take a look at a near-final DirectX 9 version of the game's earlier levels.

The game itself looks much more complete than it has on previous occasions. It takes place in a postapocalyptic version of London in the wake of a demonic invasion, and the environments look more complete and more lived-in. The game's character and weapon models have also benefited from several additional layers of polish and detail, as has the game's interface, which looks much more streamlined and perhaps less overwhelming. A full tutorial has now been added to the content-complete game that will walk beginners through the basics, but make no mistake--Hellgate: London will have a lot of stuff to play with. For starters, the game will have lots of different customizable weapons with modular components that you can swap in and out to power them up, as well as one-handed and two-handed weapons your character can dual-wield. You'll also pick up several different types of armor your character can wear. Furthermore, in order to avoid making your character look like a multicolored clown who wears an orange helmet, a brown chestpiece, and purple boots, the game will have an "eyedropper" tool you can use to make every piece of your character's attire have the same color scheme.

Hellgate: London will also have lots of different character skills you can unlock and develop as your character gains experience levels, and even lots of randomly generated, "instanced" environments (that is, environments will be treated as separate areas that exist only for you and any other players who have joined you in an adventuring party). The game will even have "rare" sublevels that may randomly be generated in various areas, such as a sewer level hidden under a surreptitious manhole cover that may or may not spawn in the next area you explore.

At the event, Roper also confirmed details for the game's much-discussed paid subscription service, which will eventually offer new content to players in the form of new items, new quests, and even new playable character classes. However, the game will be fully playable in single-player, as well as online, without any need for players to sign up. The Flagship chief also confirmed that players who purchase the game but do not subscribe to its monthly service will be able to play online with paying subscribers with no restrictions, as well as form adventuring parties online. Roper said that the studio "remains committed to giving people a great experience right out of the box." From what we've seen, with the huge depth that Hellgate: London's weapon, character, and random level systems will offer, players should get plenty of bang for their buck. The game is scheduled to launch this Halloween.

Read More :: www.gamespot.com

Game Review :: MySims Hands-On

At EA's recent summer showcase, we got to check out a new playable version of MySims for the Wii. We got to run around town, build stuff, meet people, and build them homes.

For our first act, we played around with our house, removing windows here, adding doors there, and marvelling at the simplicity of it all. With the Wiimote, you can simply grab any element of a house and remove it. Underneath, you'll see blue pegs upon which you can hang new items, which are featured at the bottom of the screen. For instance, we removed our house's spooky door and replaced it with a happy-looking fun door almost as easily as if we'd physically plucked the one off and plopped down the other.

For our next act, we built an arcade cabinet. This took us to a screen that showed the transluscent apparition of a girl playing at a machine, just to give us an idea of the space and proportions we'd be working with. From there, we stacked various blocks into a roughly arcade-looking shape, adorned it with some fish, a dog, and painted it like bacon. Why? Because we could.

With our newly constructed cabinet, we headed to the local arcade to see the proprietor. Opening our handy map, we located the place, and plopped a beacon onto it, which showed us the way in the normal view. Once there, we walked in, told the proprietor a joke, which he didn't find very funny, and then gave him the new arcade cabinet as a gift. Overjoyed, he bestowed us with lots of angry essence. We know that sounds like a bad thing, but in the MySims world anger is like a currency for fun people. So if you want a chair fit for a fun person, it must burst with fury. We don't know what that means, but it sounds funny, and that may very well be the point.

With our newly acquired essence of anger, we proceeded to place our arcade cabinet. We simply rotated it with the D-pad, and set it against a wall with the Wiimote. Then we noticed that the arcade's inside wasn't painted interestingly, so using some geeky essence we'd acquired from previous deeds, we made geeky paint, and redid the arcade interior with a few easy strokes. The proprietor, seeing our Space Invaders inspired work, leapt for joy.

After that, we went outside and shook some trees by literally shaking the Wiimote, and gathered some essence that fell. The presenter told us it was possible to get eyeballs, plant them in the ground, and then grow eyeball trees, from which eyes could then be harvested as currency for spooky people. But we didn't have time to hunt for a person with spare eyes, so instead we searched for minerals and rocks with a metal detector, in a simple game of "Hot or Cold."

Satisfied with our haul of rocks and dug up magic eight balls, we went to the hotel to see if anyone was interested in moving into our town. The goth kid was, but said he needed a place to live. Since there were no open lots in town, and we didn't want to evict anyone (though we could have), we built the goth a house in the desert, complete with creepy windows, a gargoyle, and pink rosebush for him to secretly nurture in the backyard.

And that's a taste of what's in store for you in MySims for the Wii and DS, when it launches this September 18. It may sound random and silly, but there's method to this madness. By socializing with your town's denizens and producing various crafts, you'll eventually build an awesome town that any of the game's wacky denizens would want to live in. We'll let you know more when this game launches later this month.

Read More :: www.gamespot.com

Game News :: Console wars

It is not being fought with sofa cushions, but the battle for the living room is hotting up. The great white hope for consumer electronics manufacturers is that one day households will have just one box that fulfils all their entertainment needs. So far, no single frontrunner has emerged.
Rather, the current frontrunner is a rejection of the "one box" idea. Since its launch in December, Nintendo's Wii has leapt off the shelves at more than twice the rate of Microsoft's competing games console, the Xbox 360. Despite the 360's head start of a year, its total of 11m units shipped will soon be overtaken by the Wii. Sony's PS3 languishes in third, with less than 5m sold.
The cheapest and least powerful of the trio has stolen a march on the competition with an innovative motion–sensitive control system and a family-friendly approach. It has also, sensibly, not tried to be anything more than a games machine. Sony has suffered because its decision to bundle the Blu-Ray player, which can run high definition video, made the system very expensive – sales in the US only perked up when it cut the price tag of its cheapest machine by $100 to $500.
Still, these are only early skirmishes in the console war. Sony has shipped 120m of its previous system, the PlayStation 2, since its launch in 2000. Microsoft has a separate HD-DVD player add-on to go with its boxes. Both should benefit as the take up of high definition televisions increases. The Xbox 360 is also ready made to deliver television over an internet connection. If telecoms companies are serious about delivering films and programming on demand, it is not impossible that they will start giving the console away as the market develops. But until consumers actually start to ask for these features, the simple charms of Nintendo are unlikely to fade.
Read More :: http://www.euro2day.gr/

Game News :: Bye-Bye 60GB PlayStation 3?

Almost a month ago, Sony was enjoying a 113% spike in sales for the 60GB PlayStation 3, and now it seems the stocks for that model are exhausted.

The long expected PS3 price cut everyone craved for finally arrived in the eve of this year’s E3, from Santa Monica. Following the $100 reduction, SCEA announced that they will “continue to sell the 60GB in the US and Canada at the new price until current inventory is depleted, which is predicted to be this fall based on current consumer demand.”

After the aforementioned depletion, the only remaining model would be the 80GB PS3, sold for $599. The promotion resulted in an increase in sales in both Canada and the US, with PS3 surpassing for the first time its next-gen rival Xbox 360 north of the border.

When GamePro went to Sony’s online store to see if there are still 60GB consoles available (considering that tomorrow we’ll be entering September) they only found a very nice button right besides the wanted unit, which said “Back Order”.

Sony later confirmed that they no longer have the 60GB PS3 in stock:

"We no longer have any inventory in SCEA warehouses. All inventory has been purchased and shipped to retailers," Sony's Dave Karraker said in an email.

"We don't have visibility as to if that is on their store shelves or in their warehouses at this time. However, based on inventory reports from our retailers, there is ample supply still left in the channel."

"We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated," Sony told GamePro.

However, it appears that in order to meet online demand, Sony is shifting its inventory from its retail stores to the site.

Amazon.com seems OK with the supplies, while Game.co.uk is also covered; they even have an extraordinary offer, with 3 free games at only £424.99.

Read More :: www.efluxmedia.com

Game News :: Nintendo Wii Has Won A Battle. What About The War?

People have tried to foresee who will eventually win the video gaming consoles’ war since Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was just an idea, Sony did not know when its BluRay unit was to be released and Nintendo’s Wii was also just a project in the company’s engineers’ minds.
However, the first important hit came from Microsoft, which was able to release its video gaming console months before its rivals. Back in November 2005 the company was launching Xbox 360 with much ado. And thanks to its rivals’ technical problems in quickly developing their projects, Xbox 360 remained the unique next-gen console on the market for about a year.
But in November 2006, after postponing the event for few times, Sony did eventually launch its long-waited for PlayStation 3, almost at the same as Nintendo released Wii.
And now, just nine month later, Nintendo’s Wii rules the video gaming consoles’ world. Just from the first month of release, Nintendo’s “tiny” console succeeded in selling constantly some hundreds of thousands units every month. It has usually got ahead of PS3 and Xbox360’s sales put together.
NPD Group’s every month long-waited for estimations have always indicated that Nintendo’s Wii rules over its rivals, which are however superior from the technological point of view.
Next week, according to VGChartz’ estimations (http://www.vgchartz.com/news/), Nintendo’s Wii will surpass Microsoft’s number of sold units.
The two companies have both succeeded in exceeding the threshold of 10 million sold video gaming consoles; but Nintendo has needed only 9 months to reach Microsoft’s performance.
On the other hand, although it represents the most powerful console on the market Sony’s PS3 hasn’t surpassed the number of 4.3 million sold units, which means a market share of only 16%.
Taking into account the numbers indicated by the companies themselves, VG Chartz’ estimations seem to be quite accurate.
In July, the Japanese maker of the gaming console Wii, Nintendo, said that in the April-June quarter it sold 3.43 million Wii machines worldwide, which means that the total number of the units sold is 9.27 million units. From these 3.81 million were sold in the Americas, 2.95 million in Japan and another 2.51 million in other territories. Also Microsoft confirmed it has pass the 10 million mark for its Xbox 360
But it is not accuracy that matters the most now. The question is in fact what Nintendo’s Wii’s secret is. Is it its highly competitive price comparing to the other gaming industry’s famous companies, its innovative controller feature, or its way of hooking even non-gaming audiences to become its customers? It’s obvious that Wii’s success is made out from all of these “ingredients”.
But, as the video gaming consoles’ war is not over yet, the next question arising is for how long Wii will be able to get through its rivals. As the new winter holiday season is coming, each of the companies is highly preparing its weapons.
Microsoft is to launch “Halo 3”, which is an emblematic game highly related to Xbox 360’s trademark. On the other hand, the company has appeared to eventually understand that superior technique is not everything; so Microsoft has already cut its console’s price and we shall probably see another price cut in November too.
For the moment, as Microsoft previously announced, the 20GB Xbox 360 pack will now cost $349.99, offering a wireless controller and a headset, while the Core Pack will retail for $279.99. The Black Elite Xbox 360 will have an estimated retail price (ERP) of $449.99, while the highly anticipated Halo 3-themed console, which will hit stores’ shelves in September, will be available for $399.99.
Sony, the third competitor on the market, hasn’t seemed either to surrender, although the company’s situation seems to be quite complicated.
Ever since the price of PS3 was announced, Sony has been heavily criticized for its decision to put a price tag of $600 on a gaming console. Sony argued that given the technical specifications, the price is right, but the last few months has demonstrated that the gamers had another opinion. Now, Sony is struggling to put PS3 back on track, but again the Japanese electronics maker doesn’t consider the price as a problem. Although Sony announced a price cut for US version of PS3, the company will not extend this policy to other territories.
But Sony is ready to unveil a lot of games during the next months as Sony’s CEO, Howard Stringer, has revealed some time ago during a meeting with share holders in Tokyo. Stringer vowed to have no less than 380 “software titles” for the PlayStation 3 by March 2008. Of the 380, 200 will be boxed, retail titles with the remaining 180 to be downloadable.
And as Leipzig’s Game Convention 2007 is ready to start next week, you can bet all of three rivals will have something new to announce.
But will Microsoft and Sony succeed to even represent a threat to Nintendo’s Wii? It’s obvious that this won’t happen till the end of 2007. Wii is still the most convenient video gaming console in price terms and thanks to some well-positioned game titles, Nintendo will keep on selling. Maybe, it won’t reach the same rhythm in sales, but its position on the market will obviously get consolidated.
This won’t mean, anyway, that Nintendo will be spared for the year to come. The company will need to come up with something new on the market, as the innovative controller and its low price will not be sufficient for facing the rivals’ attack.
Early 2008 will surely mean a new beginning in the video gaming consoles’ war. Will Nintendo succeed in remaining the leader or not? We shall just wait and see how the rival companies will keep on surprising us.

Read More :: www.efluxmedia.com

Game Review :: Mega Man Star Force: Dragon (DS)

Mega Man Star Force: Dragon (DS)

In Mega Man Star Force, players explore towns and interact with people in the real world while the action-packed battles take place in the virtual "Wave World." Enemy encounters take place on a three by five grid in a 3D perspective, where players use a portfolio of Battle Cards that each have distinct attributes and attack powers. As the story progresses, players will acquire additional cards to build an arsenal that reflects their personal strategy. Players can also connect wirelessly via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with friends to create a Brother Band network, where they can share cards and get status upgrades.

Release:08/07/2007

Game Review :: Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo HD Remix

While a title like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix might seem ridiculous, the actual art of puzzle fighting isn't all that different from other vs. modes in other puzzle games like Bejeweled or Tetris. Puzzle Fighter HD is actually a remake of the original Playstation classic. The game features updated visuals, sounds and brand

new tweaked gameplay modes. The game contains the original gameplay mode (X mode) as well as tweaked X mode called X' which has rebalanced some of the original characters' patterns. The game also introduces two new modes , Y and Z. which are radical takes on the classic gameplay, but also feel familiar as call backs to other traditional puzzlers.

So how does one "puzzle fight"? In X and X' mode the game works like this. You are given a 2 gem piece of 1 of 4 colors (green, red, blue, and yellow) that drop down to the game board. This can be rotate horizontally or vertically. Match up same color gems of 4 or more to build bigger gems. You can clear sets of colors by using a breaker gem, and this will send a drop pattern of gems to your opponent. The number of gems sent to your opponent is determined by the type of clear you get. Clear a huge solid block of same color gems and watch the pieces fly. Even chaining gem clears together gives you a modifier to your attack. During play you have two little anime style SF2 characters fighting it out mid screen, but really it's just for show and bragging rights. Your characters are chosen from 8 available, as well as 3 unlockable.

When you attack your opponent, gems are dumped into their playing area from the top of the screen in the form of blocks with colored numbers on them. These numbers represent the number of gem drops you must perform before these blocks are converted into their respectful colored blocks. It's good to mention that if a numbered block is adjacent to a block that's being broken, it will also shatter regardless of its color. It's not the most efficient way to remove numbered blocks, but can sometimes save you in a pinch.

Y mode is a call back to the Sega classic columns. Gems are presented in the 2 piece sets and are rotated the same way, but automatically break when three or more gems of the same color line up in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Another addition to Y mode is that breaking blocks fills a gauge above the characters' heads. When this gauge is filled, players can unleash a "special attack" which makes one of the next gems a colored diamond. What ever colored gem this diamond is placed on, all gems of that color are changed to the color of the diamond, which can unleash MASSIVE chains. The gameplay is a little slower in Y mode, but can get almost as intense as X mode. Setting up lengthy chains is key, as when your opponent goes to send you 50+ blocks, you want to not only clear your screen to make room, but have several chains to lighten the damage.

In Z mode fighters move a 2x2 cursor around the screen rotating the positions of the highlighted gems; more gems are added from below, moving all the current gems toward the top. It's sort of a reverse Tetris effect going on. Players can speed up the oncoming blocks by holding in the RB button instead of waiting for blocks to come up, but doing so can be treacherous. If any of your blocks touch the top of the screen, game over. To accommodate the new style of gameplay, attacks are handled slightly different. The numbered blocks are delivered underneath the opponent and the counter represents the number of gem breaks the player has to perform to turn them into solid blocks. Like Y mode, this style of gameplay is slower than X mode, but is slightly more furious than Y mode. I found myself building enormous blocks and frantically moving breaker blocks to save my skin time to time. It seems this mode is the opposite of the Y mode: chains are less common whereas building big blocks is almost unavoidable.

The controls on Z mode sketchy at times. Once blocks are built into bigger blocks (the minimum is a 2x2) they can not be moved. While this adds more welcome challenges to the mode, blocks that you attempt to rotate around the corners of the bigger blocks isn't very intuitive. They stop rotating, and instead swap 1 of the 3 blocks depending both on the location of the unmovable block, and whether you're attempting a clock-wise, or counter clock-wise rotation. It still remains a bit confusing which just adds, possibly unnecessarily, to the frantic pace.

While the single player experience is good enough, the multi-player is where it's at. Unlike the original, this version seems to lack a "Master Mode", which was near impossible to defeat, but gave the title a more lasting effect. The focus was definitely the online play in this version which master mode would surely have taken away from. At the same time the lasting effect of the game is preserved in online play. Hardcore players will have to find one another in ranked matches for some real challenges. I did experience some drops and connection issues when there was more than 2 people in a match. You can have up to 4 players in a match for an arcade style quarter battle.

Super Puzzle Fighter II: HD Remix really DOES feel like a fighting game. You can be at the brink of defeat and suddenly unleash a 3 or 4 chain combo on your opponent that defeats them in one shot.

Overall if there was a downside to the game, it's the character art. While the game and art looks gorgeous in menus, in the actual game the character art looks upscaled and blurry, in fact, it looks like it was ripped directly from the PS1 disk. While the original animations are great, when everything else is in HD, it just makes it look lazy. Capcom does have a history of ripping animations directly out of games and reusing them (Marvel vs. Capcom 2) even if they look off-key. While this is disappointing its certainly not that big of a deal as there is very little time during the fighting to look at your character.