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| - The basic premise of Rave Master: Special Attack Force!, a multiplayer brawler from the onetime king of action-arcade fighters, is that in comic books and anime all fights degenerate into the Rocky Effect: that is, regardless of how badly one person has been beaten, they can marshal their strength and come back thanks to a super powerful attack, or series of attacks, and win the day. That is stated as such in the manual, and that is how the fights are played out. And, as you might imagine, the game is about as sound as that premise. A roster of nine characters is immediately available from the start, with others being unlockable. Each one has four or five moves, as well as a number of Battle Cries that increase certain attributes like defense, attack power, and so on. There are also particularly effective special moves that require certain items to be on the person - incidentally, these items are knocked down when hit with a special attack and are picked up by walking over, which seems to happen, roughly, two dozen times a match. The moves are pulled off with the B button and vary depending on the direction and position of the character, which results in an incredibly limited move set; what's more, the characters aren't particularly balanced, with characters who have long-range projectiles faring much better than the rest. Still, even if a particular character strikes your fancy, the game's design robs gamers of the biggest reward of fighting games: practice bringing increased performance. That simply doesn't happen here. When you unload on an enemy, they will get a few seconds of invulnerability to recover, which means you will then have to try to outrun the inevitable counterattack that seems to find its way through your block. The game just isn't about taking an opponent's hit points to zero, though. Each round's default time is fairly short because the game encourages the use of duels and special moves. When fighting, a tension gauge builds up that, when full, allows for players to use special moves that truly finish off | |||||
| an opponent. To build up the gauge and to wear your opponent down, there are the rudimentary moves and the duels. Duels are when opponents lock arms and have to compete to see who can press the correct series of directional movements the fastest. The winner gets a Battle Cry supply increase, and they also knock back their opponent, who suffers a penalty via their gauge meter being depleted. Once someone has been beaten significantly, the winner can waltz up to their wounded opponent, press start, and then go crazy tapping the face, shoulder, and directional buttons to defeat their opponent, who is supposed to be doing the same thing to save themselves. The hectic fighting matches up well with the uneven battlefields, which include a ship during a storm, which slides the characters back and forth, and cliffs over water. The problem is that these environments also introduce the random 'whose hit matters' element when opponents attack from varying heights, which is never really resolved. Whenever a special move is performed, a still shot is shown with a few words, and the round ends. After six more, the game ends. If, however, you are beaten or time runs out, you lose, and you're presented with an ending sequence that features a bizarre scene of characters known as the Butt Bandits going on about being the ultimate evil and farting. Welcome to left field. Those who have GBA powwows may enjoy the game's multiplayer capabilities. With up to four players, it is entirely possible to squint your eyes and pretend you're having fun, and then maybe you'll get the feeling that you're playing a poor man's Smash Bros. Melee. That is, if you can find others wanting to play this. I couldn't. The only truly interesting portion of the game is a team battle mode. Here, you can climb the ranks by fighting other teams on a strange-looking quasi-polygonal 3D map in turn-based sessions that allow for the clever strategist to double-up on opponents by maneuvering their characters in such a way that the CPU falls into the trap. It also helps that you can see where the computer is and where they are moving, if they are far away. Once a team is defeated, money is banked, and more characters can be bought for the team. As you progress, new characters will be unlocked in the purchase menu, allowing for stronger teams. Defeated opponents can be defeated again to unlock cash, which will happen often as teams tend to include one or two characters more advanced than what you will have going in, and with a defeat in a round meaning one's gone for good, it's wise to have plenty in reserve so losing doesn't mean going back and repeating the last few fights. Additional
modes include Free Battle and Training. The former is a single or team-based round,
like a skirmish mode, and the latter is pretty useless; it's just you and a dummy
to pummel on. Free Battle, however, does have the possibility of adding a touch
more to the game's longevity. [ top ] |
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