Here's my first problem with the game: I can't find any decent artwork for it. I tried a lot of them, and they either didn't load right or were too small and came out blurry as hell when I blew them up, so yea, you get no box art with this one. Now, when you look at Deadliest Warrior, your first instinct tells you that this is a quick cash grab, and no one would blame for thinking that, but you play the game, you realized that it's not as bad as you thought......but it's damn sure not as good as it should be.
The basic premise of the game is one on one realistic combat, emphasis on the word REALISTIC. You can't take too many hits. In fact only 4 hits unguarded will kill you. That's an interesting concept, isn't it? How many fighting games do you know where it doesn't take much to kill you? The only game that comes to mind is the Bushido Blade series on the PSX/PS1, and that was 12 years ago if I'm not mistaken. So, with damage levels this high, defense is THE most important aspect. If you can't protect yourself, you will die. That may be true with most fighting games, but in others you can sometimes get by on awesome offense and/or aggressiveness. You try that shit here and you'll lose an arm. Yea, this game doesn't fuck around. Sometimes, all it takes is one hit. I've won and loss so many fights with only one blow.
There are only 8 fighters in this game, and I know many people have a problem with this. Normally I wouldn't, but this time I do because I know for a fact (not really) that they're holding back for downloadable content. Even if they weren't, they have a large catalog to draw from because of the show. It's not like Blazblue where it's an all new experience and therefore a small roster is okay. We know they have more people because we've seen the show. Besides, this is suppose to pit some of history's greatest fighter in a 'what if' scenario. I'm pretty sure history produced more than 8! Sigh* I wanted to see a musketeer fight a samurai. Well, it's a small complaint really as 8 is good enough.
[Update]: There's a poll on their website asking fans what fighters they want to see as downloadables. I'm curious as to how much it will cost per fighter.
Combat is as basic as fighting games are allowed to be, but now in a bad way. Each fighter uses low, medium, and high attacks as well as projectiles, short range, and medium range weapons. You can parry attacks by holding block and guessing which attack he'll use. That's pretty much it. No wait. There's also a stamina meter, and when it's low your attacks will slow down your your guard will break. This helps prevent people from either hacking too much or blocking all damn day. No, it doesn't have many combos, but if you can kill in 4 hits, you really don't need that many. During fights, if you do it right, you can injure body parts and even amputate them. Some can still fights with a missing arm, but they'll slowly bleed out. My main problem with the combat is that it feels too loose. Warriors attack too fast, and attacks don't have any weight behind them. This leads to very unsatisfying endings to fights, unless the final blow cuts off a limb (or head). Another thing that bugs me is the load times. With only 8 characters, small combo list, few stages, and the fact that it's downloaded onto the hard drive, why in the holy hell does it take so long to load and why does it happen so often? You will spend more time watching the screen load than you will fighting, and that's not an exaggeration. To be fair, the loading is really long (15 seconds tops), but it happens so often if feels that way. Every time I tried to play online, the game would be choppy as hell, sometimes even disconnecting, and I know it's not my connection, so I don't know what's wrong. Maybe it's an isolated incident, but it's still worth mentioning.
I really can't recommend this game as a purchase, but it's interesting to try. If the combat was fine tuned, attacks had actually weight to them, and loading was cut down some, I'd say this would be a XBLA hit, but as it stands, it's just one of those games that just...exist. It neither good nor bad; it's just there.
Rating: Meh
NOTE: Bushido Blade....talk about obscured video game reference.
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