As a standalone fighter, Accent Core Plus lives up to many gamers expectations as a great fighting game.
This game was made available for the PS2 back in March of this year, but for those who wanted an update on the go, the company was nice enough to port the game to the PSP. Everything you find on the PS2 version, you'll find on here. What is it you ask? Read on.
For the most part, the battle system that was enhanced in the original Accent Core has been updated with some bug fixes but mostly unchanged. New features include the return of Mission Mode, Survival Mode (which includes leveling up mechanics) and a new gallery mode. This mode particularly will take some time to complete as there are many different tasks you have to perform in order to unlock it all.
As an added bonus, Kliff and Justice have been brought back, as they also play a crucial part to the game's new Story Mode (which continues the story from Guilty Gear XX.) Each character has a story which could be about the involvement of the gears, That Man and his plans, and the Post War Administration Bureau scientist Crow, who appears in the plot with a bunch of Justice clones. All in all they're are 350 different scenarios that can be unlocked through out the story, so playing it once for each character isn't enough.
The PSP version also introduces a Team Vs. CPU mode. Basically what this is, is simply taking a page out of the Capcom Vs. SNK book. You pick three characters and have them in a team against the computer. Once you or your opponent loses, the next fighter comes up and so forth until the team is fully defeated.
So how's the game play you might ask? Well it is a Guilty Gear, and you'll feel right at home playing it. The PSP port is nearly as good as the PS2 port. There are a few hiccups in the loading time, but all in all, the game's a fighting masterpiece. Guilty Gear has been well known for its bizarre cast of characters and sometimes strange sense of humor, but this is not your typical 2D fighter that Capcom normally makes. Each character has their own way of punishing their opponents and its almost crazy to actually perform various combos, mainly to beat up your opposer, but also to show off in front of the crowd. The soundtrack and re-done voice work is excellent and the game is as colorful as a rainbow. The sprites look so high-res for a PSP game that you'd be poised to wonder how the heck a game looks so good on a portable system?
The answer? Arc Systems put a lot of Work into their main franchise. Sadly, this might be last Guilty Gear Fighting game for awhile, especially since the company is now focusing on its supposed successor: BlazBlue for the next gen system. If this is the case, Arc System gave us one big hurrah for the PSP as this is definitely a recommendation for anyone who loves fighting games. If you're new to the game you might have a problem with the uprising difficulty but eventually you'll love the mechanics so much that you'll probably want to study a certain character and learn everything about them.
At the moment this game doesn't seem to coming the states, so if you want the update, you gotta port if from a site that sells Japanese games. You won't really need to know the language to get through the game or its mission mode, though you might hate it because you won't be able to understand the Story mode... that is if you can't read the language.
Overall Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is nice addition to the PSP's gaming library. Soon you'll be getting down to business with the mechanics and probably say in your head Heaven Or Hell as opposed to Round 1 or so. Simply put> go get the game!