Review: Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers (NDS)

The DS lacks fighting games, that's a fact. Yes, yes we know about Jump Superstars and Bleach DS, but we're talking about a proper 2D scrapper that fighting game purists will be able to sink their teeth into. Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers could've been that game, but instead Majesco saw fit to get rid of what has made the Guilty Gear series enjoyable and given us a game more similar to Super Smash Bros... correction: Super Smash Bros with all the fun, entertainment and other downright brilliant stuff taken out.

Gamestyle found playing Dust Strikers to be a deeply vacuous experience. Despite a number of moves at ones disposal, button bashing is a far simpler alternative and makes the fights end quicker. What gave us a headache, though, is the jumping from one screen to the other. A number of platforms can be traversed and most of the time you find yourself on each one purely by accident thanks to the game's awkward controls. It's not as if much thought has gone into these 'arenas' anyway; a simple backdrop with platforms that are no different from the old Super Mario Bros arcade game. Yes, we're comparing it to a game from the 80s - are the alarm bells ringing yet?

Not only can jumps be performed by accident, the down button is for blocking, which is idiotic in itself. Worst of all, because you can often face off with up to three other opponents (something that happens more often in the bewilderingly confusing and down right dumb story mode) you need to obviously turn from left to right to do battle. Something which could have been very simple is turned into a mess, many times finding your character punching and kicking in the wrong direction. Majesco have really dropped the ball with this one.

The bottom screen is being utilised as more than just an extended play arena though: if you pick up an item on the battlefield, then you get to use it simply by touching the screen. Alas, the time in which it takes for you to use your stylus (in case you don't want to get your touch screen dirty) can be enough for your character to take a severe hammering. So unless the item you want to use restores health then it's pointless to even bother, particularly when the other 'power-ups' are so hilariously useless (wow! A lightning bolt that misses 99% of the time. Awesome!). The bottom touch screen is also used for the mini-games that Majesco have been kind enough to add; all of which we only played once, and that was solely for review purposes.

Gain a place in the top three of each game and you earn some new moves for the Robo Ky Factory. Here you can create your own customised Robo Ky character who you can then control in arcade mode. Alas, this doesn't make the game play any better; though it is a nicely implemented idea in an otherwise awful title.

Is there anything at all good about Guilty Gear: DS? Not really; we're actually trying our hardest thinking of something positive to add. The only things we can come up with are the variety of characters and the music, most prominently the intro rock music sequence, which is excellent. It got us really pumped up and ready to unleash the pain. Only afterwards did we cry when we found such a broken mess.

We're left quite bewildered as to why the core gameplay has been changed quite so drastically for this release. Surely people only wanted a straight up 2D fighter, and instead we get one of the worst games for the handheld.

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver