This is another one of those off the beaten path games that I love and play frequently that I think not enough people enjoy.

Click here for some gameplay footage.

So you've probably seen or at least heard of the show this game is based off of, disregard that if you aren't a fan, this is a very solid fighting game. I'm not normally a fan of this genre but this game is easy to learn though difficult to master, and while a veteran will have an easier time killing a new player than another veteran, the new player can still pull off a win if he tries, the game is well balanced in this regard. (My main problem with the majority of fighting games being endless combos that pros have memorized, making it hard for new players to learn the game.)



So, what makes this fighting game special? Battle damage. As the fight wears on, depending on your choice of high, medium, or low angle attacks, you can accomplish a good many injuries to your opponent, ranging from crippled or amputated limbs. ♥♥♥♥ up your opponents arm? He can't use his throwing or heavy weapons, and his shield (If he had one) will be dropped. In addition, should you remove the arm entirely, your opponent will begin to bleed to death, a death sentence that will force him to fight fast and hard to try and kill you before he dies. Aim for the legs? Your opponent now moves at a snails pace, and is unable to dodge or use lunging attacks against you. Throw high attacks? Your opponents head may well sail across the room. The effects of decapitation should be somewhat apparent.

All warriors come with their own set of weapons (6, to be exact, as there are unlockable variants earned through the single player arcade mode. You can pick and choose which ones you like, they have different characteristics.) that they take to the field, 3 at a time. A short range weapon, a medium range (Generally a spear, or an axe) weapon, and a long range projectile item. Projectiles are limited, so my other gripe with fighting games, that being endless haduokens, is disposed.

There are a few different archtypes for your characters:

Champions, like the Knight, Spartan, Rajput, and Centurion, are generally of a heavy/medium build and always come with a shield to aid in weathering a foes attacks.

Berserkers, like the Pirate, Samurai and Viking, generally forgo armor for more damaging weapons, especially projectiles. The pirate comes with disposable firearms and a grenado, while the Viking uses a very long shafted axe, and can hurl TWO spears at the same time, generally at head level. The samurai I hesitate to include in this class however, I consider him more of a Heavy Light or something, he's mostly his own character.

Aaaand I forgot what the game actually calls this class, so I'll just call them Lights, consist of the Apache, Ninja, Zande and Shaolin Monk, give up nearly all forms of armor for great speed and dodging skills. All of them can optionally use poisoned projectiles for hit and run attacks, at the cost of actual number of projectiles on hand (5 regular thrown weapons, or 2 poison ones?). Stick them with a poison dart, stay away from them, and then move in for the kill once the poison has done a fair bit of his health. (Poison cannot actually kill you anymore, this was just patched. You are now required to deliver a killing blow to finish off your foe.)

In addition, all warriors have their own signature, special, and finishing moves (Most of them are pretty cool, and it goes all cinematic like.).

So yeah if you wanna check this game out, please let me know, and I will gladly teach your ass some respect over Xbox Live on my next day off. The game currently sells for 800 MS points, while the Zande, Shaolin Monk, and Rajput character DLC costs an additional 400 points. I've put 15 dollars to this game, or 1200 MS points, and haven't regretted it yet. Oh, and a foot note, if you don't feel you want the extra characters, you can still play against them online, they have a free DLC patch for that.

Hope to see at least some of you online.

just play bushido blade

edit: also this is probably not the place for this and will probably derail the thread but your problem with fighting games is combos? Do you really think that is why less skilled players get beat by more skilled players?

I think he meant more experienced. A more skilled player can lose to a more experienced player without a chance of victory given a heavy reliance on combos.

I don't know about you but where I am from learning combos is like a part of learning the controls. Complaining about doing combos is like complaining a guy knows how to aim down his sights in an FPS.

Actually looking at the trailer for this game it actually looks pretty good. When I first saw gameplay it was in a review where a guy was showing how so many characters could insta kill others within the first few seconds. He was talking about how the spartan could just throw their spear right away and it was an unblockable 1 hit kill. I guess that was probably just incompetence on the reviewer's side. Is anyone getting this for PSN? I might give it a try if others are.

I, personally, think that combos are heavily reliant on skill, but I can see what Dauss means.

More skilled players.

Never forget hwoarang on teken 3. ♥♥♥♥ was so bad it was ridiculous.

Anyway, the lack of a pc version made me quite sad.

Oh ♥♥♥♥ bringing up the Tekken into this ♥♥♥♥. Goddamnit Tekken.

In all fairness basically every character can do that, or at least something close. Tekken is basically poke poke defensive maneuver and try to land your big combo. The better players won't get hit by this stupid ♥♥♥♥ as much as lesser players, but I see your point.

Mortal Kombat doesn't count- no one considers that a competitive fighting game anymore than Mario Kart a competitive racing simulator.

The SF one was because Akuma has extremely low health in every game to make up for his powerful tools and the chick had full bars to make it happen. Also, the chick had to hit him with an aerial while he was in the air at a certain height against the wall.

And I don't see what the problem with super long combos is. I play Super Smash Bros 64 a lot, in fact there's about 20 kids at my school who play it on the school computers, and the combos don't even matter. I can kill any character from 0 percent with Jigglypuff with any of several combo starters in a variety of situations. My friend can do similar with Falcon. When we play that matchup it's still balanced, fair, and interesting. When we play other characters who we can't combo as well with vs each other's mains it doesn't matter. I actually do about 5 times as well with Pikachu, who can do one decent juggle but its never used. And the second best character in the game, Kirby, can't combo for ♥♥♥♥.

Anyways the reason I'm writing a big paragraph is that I think people write off the who genre of fighting games as "just memorizing combos lol" or "just button mashing lol" when really it is, in my opinion, the essence of competitive games distilled. It is looking at space and spacing, it is reacting quickly to visual stimuli, and it is predicting what your opponent will do next and then dishing out the counter. But even more than that. I don't think any games are more fun than playing a fighting game on a high level, and it's well worth it despite the work it takes to get there.