Guilty Gear Judgment review

Blood, blades and weird humor never looked so good together

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The remaining arcade, versus, survival and Medal of Millionaire modes are little more no-nonsense, butany shortcomings are made up for by a flawless head-to-head ad-hoc mode.Be warned, though: two PSPs means four speakers, which makes squeaky characters like Jam twice as irritating.

The other game on the UMD, Judgment, is a side-scrolling brawler along the lines of Final Fight. It's pure button-mashing mayhem, with players wading through hordes of huge, beautifully drawn monsters and slashing them to pieces.

Judgment is the sort of thing that might normally be a throwaway extra, and while its story certainly is, the developers put a huge amount of care into everything else. Everything from the backgrounds to the gigantic, crazy-looking boss monsters is as meticulously drawn and animated as the main characters, and there's plenty of variety in the level design. The two-player co-op makes things even more chaotic and fun, and if that's not enough, consider that you'll also get to ride a robotic, laser-breathing dinosaur through a few of the later stages.

Only five characters are selectable at first - Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Amy, Millia Rage and I-No - but you can unlock up to 20 (Kliff, Justice and Robo Ky are missing) by playing through the story mode. In addition to said slew of characters, Judgment packs in a good chunk of their special moves, making this a lot deeper than your average brawler.

More info

GenreFighting
DescriptionHot-looking, awesome-playing slashfest that packs in a full-on brawler with its one-on-one fighting.
Franchise nameGuilty Gear
UK franchise nameGuilty Gear
Platform"PSP"
US censor rating"Teen"
UK censor rating""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.