Fighter has plenty for pros, novices

B6
LEISURE
January 8, 2015
www.FortHoodSentinel.com
Photos by courtesy of http://www.guiltygear.us/media
Fighter has plenty for pros, novices
BY CHRIS HAWKES
Commentary
For the longest time, I’ve been
searching for a fighting game to
play on my
PlayStaion 4.
Yes, most
of us know
about “Injustice:
Gods
Among Us,”
but that game
felt more like
a “Mortal Kombat” clone with
DC characters mixed into the fray.
And “Injustice” is available on all
systems, last-gen or current-gen.
Right before Christmas, a new
game, “Guilty Gear Xrd Sign,”
debuted.
On the surface, there’s the highly stylized anime-inspired graphics,
standout character designs, and
yes, even a long story that provides
a little feedback about the fighters
themselves.
Once you start playing, you
realize there is much more depth
to all the chaos you see on the
screen. Each character has its own
set of special moves, making it feel
more like “Street Fighter” than
“Mortal Kombat,” but it’s the
method behind the moves that sets
this game apart from others in the
genre. While I favored Sol Badguy
at first, because many of his moves
were familiar to me, I quickly
started learning Chipp Zanuff
because his move set resembled
that of a ninja.
Characters have their own set of
tactics. For instance, Zato-1 summons a shadow dog that moves
around the screen, can attack his
opponent or be transformed to an
overwhelming number of attacks.
On the other hand, Axl Low used
a pair of chain weapons to trap
his foes and fly across the screen.
The more I played “Guilty Gear,”
the more I found myself trying to learn all the characters. In
addition, every character has the
ability to launch the opponent
into the air and follow them up
to deliver a devastating combo.
Also, there are a variety of counters and complicated moves and
strategies for more serious gamers to uncover. Additionally, each
fighter has a finishing move, that,
if pulled off, rewards the player
with a short animation and an
instant end to the match. Landing these finishers are much harder than inputting the commands,
especially if you are up against a
veteran gamer.
Finally, “Guilty Gear” allows
PS4 and PS3 owners to battle
against each other. That’s right,
cross platforming is possible,
though there might be a slight difference in the graphics.
THURSDAY
The Penguins of Madagascar,
PG, 7 p.m., (2*)
FRIDAY
The Pyramid, R, 7 p.m., (2*)
SATURDAY
Big Hero 6, PG, 2 p.m., (1*)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, PG-13, 6 p.m.
(2*)
SUNDAY
The Penguins of Madagascar
3D, PG, 2 p.m., (1*)
Into the Woods, PG, 6 p.m.,
(3*)
WEDNESDAY
Dumb and Dumber to, PG-13,
7 p.m., $2 for adults, $1 for
Children