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The attacks of the eight playable units vary so much it's beyond the scope of this review to describe them all, so just think fireworks. Your basic attack is normally a straight shot at a distance, but close ranks and it becomes a short melee combo. There's a sub attack that can be anything from homing rockets to an attack boosting charge, and a series of energy-draining barrage attacks, where the more complex the command inputs, the more screen-filling craziness results. On the defensive side, you can raise shields at any moment to reduce damage, or dash to avoid it altogether. Dashing also redirects your aim on your enemy, with dash canceling feeling a bit like jump canceling from Virtual On. Nearly every character has some unique form of attack, like Lilli's warping ability, or Emula's spin that does melee damage while guarding her from bullets. The various mecha also have four stats governing their attack, speed, and so forth, so if you mess around with them a bit you're sure to find a few that suit your style. As well as a few you'll never want to play again.
Extras are a bit sparse. The biggest deal is Xbox Live play, which is pretty great if you happen to have a fighter friend half a world away (local multiplayer is also included). Don't expect many strangers waiting for matches though. There's a score attack with online leader boards, but this is essentially the story mode stripped of its story. You can also play in the original arcade's story mode, but aside from the ending art there isn't much difference. If you really dig the art of the game, there's a series of unlockable galleries for each of the characters, plus the aforementioned encyclopedia to make sense of the story. The settings are fairly extensive, letting you remap any of the controls, adjust the screen settings in the most minute detail, but oddly no separate volume control for the slightly too loud music.
There's really two ways of looking at this release. To a casual gamer who is looking for a lengthy single player romp and extensive online modes, they're going to find this game too sparse, too strange, and too expensive. To importers and other niche gamers, they'll be thrilled for Ubisoft to take such a risk in releasing a game that seemed certain to remain behind in Japan, and other than renaming the game and providing a different cover, have been absolutely faithful to the original, maintaining its original art and voices. So I suppose depending on what camp you fall under, you know what to do.
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