Metro 3D
It is the year 150 BC, and a new threat has emerged from the shadows. The evil Alperen has created a ferocious weapon called "Dual Blades" by merging his soul with the immortal sword. It is your task to defeat your foes and ultimately topple Alperen himself so that you may wield the Dual Blades and be immortal.
The only way you are going to get this far is by pulling off combos and special moves using a character of your choice. Most characters come equipped with sword of some kind, but some come with a staff. The standard fighting game setup is used here whereby you make your opponent lose all of their health and you receive a point. The first to three points wins the match. Lets see what the council thought of this game.
Features
- A cast of original characters to choose from
- large character sprites for clear visibility
- custom special move selection
Jason Nuyens: Enjoyable and flawed all at the same time, Dual Blades gives you a moderate portion of fun. For instance, on the one hand you have an interesting cast of characters to choose from, but on the other hand all of the characters move in slow motion. There are a number of reasons that make this game enjoyable and frustrating all at the same time. Let me begin:
The visuals are not bad. The sprites are adequately sized and are technically of high enough resolution. However, the art leaves much to be desired. In my humble opinion the art is very unappealing and bland. This is quite unfortunate, as it gives the game a very amateurish appearance in general. Even the backgrounds are not memorable and come across as bland. In terms of animation, it is decent enough for a handheld game. Enough frames are usually given so that you know what the on-screen action consists of. Once again though, there is a flip side. The characters move so slowly that it hinders the gameplay. All of the characters move as if they are underwater by slowly gliding through the air and pulling off moves in a sloth-like manner. This is where the comparisons to the Street Fighter series come in with a vengeance (you knew it was coming). After playing a Street Fighter game, you will scratch you head as to why they made the characters move so slowly. It makes you extremely vulnerable to do jump attacks, and brings adrenaline-rush style gameplay to a crawl. After many game sessions with this title I really cant help but wonder what drove the developer to purposely make the game move in a Matrix-like "bullet time".
The gameplay basically consists of using your characters abilities to try and best your opponent. Before you start a round you get a choice of custom attacks for your character. Here is where a bit of strategy can come in handy. Depending on your play style, you will find certain attacks to be more advantageous than others. For instance, perhaps you would rather have a projectile attack instead of a close-range one. This also would make multiplayer a little interesting since you could mix up the fights by trying to confuse your opponent with different attacks.
To pull these moves off, you usually have to do Street Fighter style d-pad rolls. Basically this means you would do something like roll your thumb from the down position to the forward position and then press a button. Depending on the power of the move the controls will vary. The problem here is that I didnt find the controls to be very generous. The timing and accuracy required for moves were a little too much for my liking. I would rather have a system that is "smart" and can interpret the action I attempted. Most recent games are very gracious in this area, so I expected a little more from this game as well. The only other problem with the games controls actually stems from the design of the GBA itself. The d-pad is small enough that you will accidentally jump when you didnt mean to. This sort of phenomena comes about when your thumb is too large for the pad. Though its not a game fault, its something you should consider before purchasing. Just hold your GBA and picture doing roll moves on it to see how you would feel.
The truth of the matter is that Dual Blades gives off the "been there, done that" vibe very strongly. After playing a good Street Fighter game, it really makes this title look like its hardly competing. Especially considering that you can purchase Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the same handheld system for either the same price point, or at the very least a very competitive one. I had fun with it for a while, but it just wasnt up to par with my expectations. Perhaps with a few more tweaks, a sequel could be something really special. As it stands, the game is mildly entertaining but is rife with flaws. The only feature I didnt get to test drive that could very well save the game is the multiplayer mode. Each player needs his or her own copy of the game so you can go head-to-head. Even still, there are other fighters out there (one of which I have already mentioned) that offer the same kind of features but with a better gameplay system. Its really a no-brainer here. So it all boils down to value, which is why I cant rightfully score this game as high. It just doesnt offer you, the reader, the same kind of value as the competing products.
Jason Nuyens