Blazblue: Calamity Trigger

It doesn’t happen very often but now and then a game will be released that you will hear nothing of but is actually rather good.  That’s what seems to have happened with Blazblue.  To start with, I need to clear the air that I am not the best or most professional person at fighting games or ever have been but I do still enjoy them.  I’ve played pretty much ever fighting game there has been released for the Xbox 360 and have made my judgment about them all as well.

Fighters are at a point now where the games themselves are struggling to think of something new that will separate the title from the rest.  It used to be a case that sequels were being produced thick and fast adding more and more characters and giving you the ability to play as the previous title bosses.  Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter used to slug it out on the Megadrive and SNES in this manner.  Nowadays we have moved in the realm of 3D and to be honest its made fighters have a complete re think about the way they operate.  Mortal Kombat has never been able to find the same appeal it once did and it took a hell of along time for Capcom to decide what to do with street fighter.  Needless to say the idea of turning street fighter 3D but giving the 2D feel worked for them and received a satisfactory response from its fans.

The question is thought, what really was so wrong with 2D fighters in the first place?  Is there no way for them to evolve?  Well Blazblue answers both those questions very competently.  The first thing that strikes you playing the game is how awesome the backgrounds are.  With Anime films and TV series evolving themselves with the likes of Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, Blazblue has taken this and used it in the gaming environment.  The characters themselves are crystal clear and move like they would in a movie.  In fact, it would be quite easy to forget you are even playing a game altogether and just sit back – don’t though cause it is a game and you will lose if you do this, thanks.

The control system is both simple and advanced at the same time, which is good for someone like me really.  Its based around the principles of a punch, kick and “do something cool” button.  Unlike Street Fighter this allows the most inexperienced player to pull off at least some good looking moves.  For the more advanced player there are endless amounts of combos and devastating attacks to be pulled off after carrying out very complicated sequences.

There are 12 characters in total ALL completely different with their own unique style of fighting.  If i remember right, this would be the thing that attracted people to Street Fighter in the first place.  There are no clones in this game or to put it another way there are no “Ryu and Ken’s”.  So you need to think up a specific fighting style against every character.

Overall Blazblue: Calamity Trigger is a stunning and thoroughly enjoyable game, one that brings back the excitement we once had back from the initial days of 2D fighters.  Kind of the same way that Super Mario Bros Wii has shown that platformers can still be the same as they used to be.  We spend alot of time now playing retro games and reminiscing on the fun we once had but maybe its time to stop and think.  Before all games were in 3D we would spend hours still playing these games, maybe its time to start revisiting the ideas and making NEW games the way that we used too.