Review: Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (PC)

Any fighting game that asks you to "Solve for R" is generally a video game that is a pantless hobo doing a jig on a piece of cardboard while strumming a handmade banjo and reciting recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (just volume 2). That is to say, entirely nuts but not without its own charm and sophistication. Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R is one of those pantless hobos. (The "Λ" is stands for "Accent" in case you're looking for this one on Steam.)

For the most part Λ Core Plus R hits the right level of crazy I for Japan-developed fighting games. Just reviewing the roster was enough to convince me of this. I-No, a female fighter that looks an awful lot like a "sexy" Orko wearing the Hogwart's Sorting Hat and swinging a guitar. Another female fighter who is chronologically three years old and fights with... at one point there might have been a whale penis involved. The hulking Potemkin, as big as a boat and about as powerful. There are more "traditional" fighters but the average fighter is just plain weird no matter the mode you choose. There are tentacles, puffs of smoke, robots, giant spectral things, and a lot more.

If you want to learn more details of these characters, there's plenty of information online, all of it mostly indecipherable. Not because it's in another language but because the words used are arranged in such an order that my brain could literally not comprehend what eyes were reading. The combinations of those words in that particular order... not even a million chimps typing Shakespeare all day could formulate the randomness of it all.

I'm seeing a whale penis. What're you seeing?

The game extends embraces its randomness in the Story mode, which is also relatively indescribable and almost total nonsense. Each character has their own vignettes to flip through and battles to win, but it's all just so weird. Even you want to steer clear of the Story there are enough other modes to offer various challenges, including online (Network). There is one mode that I haven't worked up the courage to try: M.O.M. I'm almost certain that playing this mode will add my name to some kind of registry and I will bring down the real estate prices in my neighbourhood.

The fighting is first rate and it's way less complicated than a lot of other fighting games. That doesn't make it easy to win but it does make playing Λ Core Plus R less of a chore than trying to memorize long-form combos that that can be flubbed usually at the very last moment. The game also has this retro charm (yes, 2012-13, is now consider retro -- so say, I!) working in its favour, complete with borders to create that 4:3 screen aspect ratio.

Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R might not be as bizarre as BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger but the appeal is about the same.  It'll round out the edges of your collection of weird and wonderful Japanese fighting games for around $15. You know what? What other recommendation do you need?

Go play now! Bask in the off-kilter absurdity of it all!

- Aaron Simmer
Follow @EmpireArmchair

The Good:
- Weirdness abounds!
- Good fighting; controls not over-complicated

The Bad:
- Can be even a little too weird for me. M.O.M. mode? I'm not nibbling that bait!
- Don't bother playing with a keyboard