|
Wednesday 5 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY
For my second session, I battled some of my friends. They were much more experienced than I was, which meant that they knew how to utilize the individual characters and their modes and therefore won more often. The results of the game seemed somewhat random though, as I was able to just blindly press buttons and win some of the time, or at least beat someone up in an interesting way.
Part of the pleasure of the game is just watching the avatars beat each other up. There is enough variety in the characters and their moves to make rather entertaining battles. Another pleasure of the game is that it is drawn directly from an anime series; unfortunately, not being familiar with the series this aspect of the game had little to offer for me.
I learned the game just quickly enough not to fall too behind, but after playing I realized that I have a long way to go.
DESIGN
The graphics in the game are detailed enough not to look cheap, but sometimes rather simple. Though the gameworld is 3D, it is for the most part a 2D game. An avatar can move left or right, jump, and occasionally jump to another plane on which they can move in the same manner. The camera moves but does not change angles much, so that a battlefield is only viewed from one direction. The characters themselves have a number of different positions but are essentially flat and simply drawn, while the background is more detailed. Complex moves are shown with pre-animated clips.
As a game which is based on player-to-player interaction, the computer does not act as a challenging agent, but only as a template with very structured rules. In addition to this, there is no structured level design; rather, the players can choose their own backgrounds, avatars, and the dynamic of their battles. This allows for a different type of gameplay and challenge than any single-player game or game of progression.
Overall, the game felt pretty smooth, which was nice. Menus were good, graphics were good enough, and nothing felt particularly jerky or out of place. Furthermore, the graphics were interesting and made for a pretty visually entertaining game.
|
