Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
BlazBlue is the newest fighting game brought to you by the people behind the Guilty Gear series. You won't find the same characters, but you will find the same intricately detailed and stylized look. What is most remarkable about BlazBlue is the depth at which it is possible to learn the fighting mechanics.

What's Hot
You would have to be living underneath a rock to not notice the renewed interest in the fighting genre. Street Fighter IV might have reignited the pugilist spirit, but now other games are going off into their niche specialties to give a more diverse sampling of what the genre has to offer. BlazBlue is a perfect example of an extremely rich fighting mechanic that gives you back as much as you put into it. If you take the time to watch the tutorials and perfect the move sets of the fighting roster, you will be rewarded with a wealth of strategy that can put the screws to opponents offline and online.

There are the standard jabs, medium attacks and even strong attacks but that is where BlazBlue branches out into serious territory. All the moves can be countered and there seems to be a million and one ways to win in an impossible or disadvantaged situation. BlazBlue is one of the few games that relies completely on skill and gives button mashers the big middle finger. The most readily teachable example is when you are about to be thrown. You are given a few frames to press the throw button to reverse the move but if you spam the button in anticipation, you are penalized a few precious frames of animation. Not everything is about being disadvantaged, however. You are able to gain the upper hand with drive moves or the immensely powerful distortion drives. Drives are the equivalent of setting your phaser to kill. They are easy to perform and add more flashy visuals to the screen. Only describing just these handful of moves just only scratches the surface of the gameplay that is sure to guarantee a spot for BlazBlue in gaming tournaments.



If you aren't the kind to go out and participate in tournaments where you have to travel, you can always play online and get your human combatant fix that way. The online system is neat because it offers some flexibility in finding matches. When you are matched with another play, a screen pops up and displays some basic information about your opponent and the characters they pick most frequently. Throughout testing the online, I didn't experience noticeable lag or slowdown. The result is a smooth online experience where you can count your precious animation frames to your advantage.

What's Not
Trying to explain BlazBlue without getting extremely technical is hard to do. If a more turnkey approach to special moves and combo chains is something you are more comfortable with, BlazBlue might not be your fighter of choice. The paradox is that all the information and training videos are there for you to learn all you need to, and, in retrospect, watching them makes the mechanics seem like second nature. Those instructional videos are some of the most valuable pack-ins that a special edition game has seen yet. Without getting that valuable information it'll send uneducated players drowning in different gauges and flashy visuals. It is uncommon for a strength to also be a weakness in a game, but it is all a matter of how much time you want to invest.

Fighting games are usually tied together with a loose story that gives a reason for the fighters to thrown down. BlazBlue is no different but the manner in which the story is told is rather confusing. Between matches there is a lot of text to read. It might seem there was effort to make a deeper story but even with the amount of words on the screen it is impossibly hard to follow what is happening. All things considered, a meandering story isn't the worst possible problem to have.

Final Word
The renaissance of the fighting genre is a much welcome return. With BlazBlue, there is a huge wealth of rewarding gameplay if you decided to spend some time to learn the different move sets. Even through BlazBlue is an old concept most of the game feels new and fresh. If you are serious about getting serious with fighting games, BlazBlue is the first game you need to check out.