Blazblue
You’re looking at the Number One videogame in Japanese arcades. It’s coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 this summer. Will you understand any of it?
The most beautiful thing about Blazblue is that it is combines the sublime with the ridiculous so perfectly. It’s that iconic martial arts symbol of yin and yang incarnate. Several hours into our virgin voyage with Blazblue and we were still asking questions like “why is the pig in the background wearing a gas mask?” At least we’d moved on from questioning why there was a pig standing on its hind legs in the first place.
Giddiness is a much ignored component of 21st Century videogames. We’re happy keeping even the likes of Gears of War and inFamous within the realms of the believable: Men with guns versus humanoid foes carrying more decorative guns that might fire insects instead of bullets. Such limited scope doesn’t apply where Blazblue is concerned, other than its confinement to one-on-one brawl scenarios.
So, yes, basically, Blazblue is a fighting game. And maybe you’ve seen enough of these to last you a lifetime. And, true, Japanese gamers are more inclined to pump money into such things than their UK counterparts. But Blazblue is popular because it is both sensational and ultra, ultra deep. It has no history to speak of, yet it has knocked Capcom’s Street Fighter IV off its perch with an effervescent flourish.
Okay we’re not being entirely straight about Blazblue provenance here. It has emerged from a studio responsible for the Guilty Gear heavy-metal themed fighting games that have made regular appearances in the Japanese Top 10 of videogames. Ark System Works, or ‘Arksys’, almost single-handedly revived interest in 2D fighting games with the original Guilty Gear for PlayStation 11 years ago. It filled a gap while Capcom figured out where it was going next with Street Fighter. Meanwhile 3D fighters Tekken and Virtua Fighter occupied the headlines.
Blazblue is like the second-coming of Guilty Gear then, using the momentum of its forebear to slingshot into a whole new stratosphere, making pretty much every other 2D fighting game gone before it look as adventurous as an OAP’s afternoon tea.
Its 12 characters comprise a mixed bag of swordsmen, robot, cat girl, Gothic Lolita, glutinous blob and a little boy magician with a spooky mannequin as an assistant. They’re bizarre when not in motion, but as soon as the fight starts the sights and sounds resemble the grand finale of a stadium rock concert combined with the choice moments from the latest Harry Potter. There’s very little that’s straightforward about Blazblue. But you’ll soon find your favourite get-out-of-jail button that’ll keep you in a fight for a few more minutes while you figure out what becomes of the other three.
True, Blazblue is the kind of game that you should NEVER attempt to challenge an expert player if you value your pride. But if you’re a glutton for this kind of punishment the new PS3 and Xbox 360 versions let you play online in a superb six-player tournament arrangement, in which spectators can watch a fight in progress. The experience is lag-free, smoother even than Street Fighter IV. Incredibly the PS3 version offers more than Xbox 360 because you can also play Blazblue on your PSP via Remote Play. That’s actually pretty astonishing.
It’s very hard to predict what will become of Blazblue over here. On the one hand it’s so bizarre and evidently hardcore that casual gamers will immediately shy away. On the other, it gives you so much to enjoy visually and in terms of long-term depth that Street Fighter IV feels terribly straight-laced and even more demanding.
All we can really tell you at this stage is that time flies when you’re playing Blazblue, and that’s even when you’re not quite clear what the hell is going on. Assuming we’re all capable of picking up some kind of strategy over time, Blazblue could earn its place as the must-have overblown brawl that our high-powered consoles have to offer. It’s certainly one of a kind, despite emerging from such a tired old genre.
The recent US launch has attracted scores in the region of 9/10 from all the major specialist magazines and websites. We’re waiting very patiently for Arksys to confirm a UK release date.
