Guilty Gear Xx Accent Core Plus

Anyone who has spent time in a Japanese arcade would have found that Guilty Gear was an essential of the room. The 2D fighter amassed popularity among the joysticks in the big box - but now it has hit home screens and accessible everywhere. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is an absolute mouthful for a video game name but has seen some similar success on its consoles.

The game has seen some previous variations, with each name becoming more non-sensical as the last. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus aims to refine its predecessor Guilty Gear Accent Core. We suppose it must be better if there is a plus added, right? We dive in to find out.

What's A Guilty Gear, Anyway?

Guilty Gear was never made for a player to intricately follow the story - that is certain from its presence in arcades. No one wants to spend their loose change on a game to listen to the copious amount of dialogue. They want to bash the lights out of their opponents and watch all the pretty colors flash while they draw blood. As it turns out, Guilty Gear does that pretty well.

While we never may understand what a Guilty Gear is, the rendition Accent Core Plus is an extension of it's XX base. Expanding upon the franchise by adding new characters and features, the game doesn't change much. Guilty Gear plays as you would expect a fighter to function. It is fast-paced, varieties of techniques, fierce showdowns with your opponents, and all the gloating that comes with victory.

Accent Core Plus delivers all the fantastically drawn characters and captivating animations the franchise has always offered. This time around, the game offers a more fleshed out experience with a survival mode to fight until you drop. Further included are mission modes and a story mode. Without dedicating time to understanding the lore, however, one would find it hard to follow. Most of us just want to fight anyway.

The game's playable characters bear a resemblance to other fighting games. There only seems to be so many brawling personalities out there. All can be leveled up, garnering new skills this time around that make gameplay slightly more intriguing than previous versions. Otherwise, Guilty Gear can only be described as Arc System Works' take on a standard fighter - nothing unique about it, except for its small positives and criticisms.

Just Your Average Fighter

Guilty Gear seems to bring attention solely from its name - mainly from being a staple in arcades. It's argued that the franchise has given life to many popular games of its genre. That being said Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus offers nothing in the way of revolutionary.

The brawls are fun, the characters look great, and boss battles can be challenging. Nothing about it, however, immerses you into spending countless hours with the game. There is still no online mode to battle the world. The controls on various consoles can be a little obnoxious, and the arcade mode becomes a grind very quickly.

Beautiful as it is, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is just another Street Fighter - fun to play for limited bursts. One could find a fair bit of entertainment involving themselves in the other games modes, but they still don't stand up in a way that you could consider the game a 'must play.'

Pros

• Great visuals - environments and characters well rendered
• Variety of combos and fighting techniques fun to execute
• Music is excellent

Cons

• Annoying controls that hinder your performance
• Feels like an arcade port with limited playtime
• The game feels mechanical in approach