Guilty Gear Xrd - SIGN Standard Edition for PlayStation 3 | Fighting Game for PS3 | Perfect for Competitive Gaming & Anime Fans

[Edit: May 27th- oh guess what, they just announced a new version of Xrd which will have Johnny and another, possibly new, character. WELP...]I may have grown up on Street Fighter 2, starting out with The World Warrior when it came out for the SNES way back in the early 90s, but when I first played a Guilty Gear game (#Reload on the Xbox), everything just clicked for me. I fell in love with the game and each update, no matter how many came out. When AC+ came out for ps3, I was happy to finally play against other people online…even if it was one of the worst online experiences for a fighting game. When the +R patch finally came out, I played the game even more. And when Xrd was announced? I think I yelled “FINALLY!” out loud. For me, the Guilty Gear series is as good as you can get with fighting games. My favorite things being the incredibly diverse cast of characters, where no two play alike, and the insanely good metal soundtrack. Xrd is a love letter to fans of the series, and something anyone new can appreciate as well.I don’t want to sound like a fanboy who’s going to ignore the game’s faults (I’ll get into those later), but man…there’s so much greatness here, it’s stupid. First, the tutorial mode is probably the best one ever seen in a fighting game. Everything from the absolute basics like movement to the advanced techniques and combos are covered here. No longer do you need to go online and look up a video or FAQ to figure out what a term means, or how to cancel a move into another one- you’ll learn it all right here in the game. This is a big deal, and if more fighting games had a tutorial even half as good as this one, more people would probably be supporting the genre instead of abandoning it after a few months, getting wasted by people who’ve put in the time. The character roster may be small compared to XX’s (and especially to Ultra Street Fighter 4, which was basically SF All-Stars by then), but that helps make the game more balanced and easier to learn match ups. The cast is still very diverse, and the new characters grew on me in no time. Sin Kiske is unlockable after you earn enough in-game money through beating Arcade mode, Challenges, Missions, etc. Leo and Elphelt need to be purchased on PSN (though you could have got Elphelt for free not long after the game’s release, even if you didn’t have the game).What surprised me was how I had to essentially learn a new game with Xrd. I played Faust from #Reload through +R, and trying to pull off some of his combos here led to a lot of failure. More than half of my tricks from the last installment doesn’t work now, and I was getting wasted by people online doing dumb, basic things. Trust me, if you thought you were decent in the last game, practice a lot here before taking on anyone of any skill level! There are some new mechanics like Hellfire and Danger Zone that change things up, yet don’t break the game like say X-Factor in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. They're more tacked on and annoying than they are bad. I also have to give recognition to the Story mode in this game. I loved the individual stories and different paths in XX; in Xrd, you’re basically going to watch a very long movie going over everything. If that wasn’t enough, there’s an extensive database in the menu that you can go through and look up terms, characters and more in case you’re rusty or new.What don’t I like about Xrd? Well, the biggest thing is the music. I don’t have any favorite tracks! There were so many that sounded the same to me that I couldn’t tell if I was listening to the same one over and over during matches. It turns out that they’re all very chord-heavy and lack the intensity of the tracks on the XX soundtrack. By the time XX was done getting new music, I had over 15 favorite tracks I’d go through when making matches online. Here, I just set it to random because it doesn’t matter to me. Luckily, a couple of tracks from the old games are unlockable, so you can listen to the awesomeness that is ‘Still in the Dark’. On the flip side, you can’t pick your music each time you start a match. You have to go to your character select screen in the sub-menu and set it if there’s a particular song you want to hear. Yeah, we can have our character set for online matches, making things faster, and the same applies for the music. This wouldn’t matter if the tracks were good! Most of the time, I ended up muting the tv and playing my own music instead. That hurts to say given that it’s one of the things the Guilty Gears series is known for.My only other big complaint is the game feels a lot slower than XX. Gorgeous animations and visuals, and yet it feels about 25% slower now. I noticed it as soon as I started playing, and even now I feel the same way. Half of my friends agree, half say it’s the same speed. Regarding online play, it’s a mixed bag. Things are definitely better than they were with the PSN and Xbox Live versions of AC+R, but sometimes when I select someone to play, it shows a white 4 bar connection (the best). As soon as the match starts, it’s obvious that it’s anything but good, and there’s even text at the top of the screen letting you know how many frames of delay there are. Just be ready for that. Even with that little complaint, it’s great getting right into a match. You setup a card of sorts, and have your character, stage and music set so when you find someone to play with, you go right into it without having to select anything. There are TONS of options and menus for fighting others online, with a pretty cool Player Match system involving 4 arcade stations where multiple people can wait at any station for their turn, just like you would in a real arcade (remember those??). This isn’t just a huge step up from online in AC+R, it’s like a flight of stairs up. Finally, yes, the gameplay is watered down from XX. The thing is, you can’t expect every game in a series to stay the same. It’s still Guilty Gear when it comes down to it. It’s just going to take some time to get used to everything.I could go on and on (more-so) but I think you get the point by now. Xrd is a must-have for any fighting game fan. It may be a bit dumbed down for new players, but longtime fans need to get off their high horses and realize that new players are needed to keep things fresh. Don’t wait to see if a new version of Xrd comes out in a year or two. Get Xrd now.