The Wheel of 2D Fighters Fate is Turning.

So, as anticipated, BlazBlue is pretty much as the kids say, “full of win.” The game is pretty much awesome and one of the most balanced fighting games ever. It’s easy to pick up and play for a newbie, yet absolutely difficult to master and a skilled player will cream you if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m sure I’ll give it the satisfaction of a full review sometime in the near (probably not so near) future. And I mean, a full review; not the usual write a 2 paragraph, hastily thrown together write up with a bad joke or two tossed in review either. Yeah, it’s that good. I’m willing to dedicate that much of my time to it.

But more importantly, BlazBlue is actually way more popular than I imagined it to be. Many gamers are actually curious about the game and want to try it. This is a very good thing. Between this, the soon to come King of Fighters XII, and yes, even the ultimately lame Street Fighter IV, I have to say that the 2D fighter is back. Glad to see you. We missed ya. Yeah, I know there was Guilty Gear to keep us fed for nearly a decade but that was pretty much it. It was so irritating to see game developers feel the need to try out some 3D format on franchises that simply work best in 2D. King of Fighters Maximum Impact for example, was a flat out embarrassment. Maybe with the growing popularity of BlazBlue and the sheer hype surrounding SF4, maybe now developers will start making more 2D fighting games. I think also part of it is the advent of online gaming becoming more and more common on the consoles. Unfortunately, in my area I know of no one that really plays any 2D fighting games so 99% of my Guilty Gear excursions were against the computer. Only on the rare occasion when I was able to visit my brother did I get to play another actual human being. The problem with playing the computer often times is it’s hard to find the right difficulty balance. Set it too low and the game is embarrassingly easy. Set it too high and you get destroyed by an A.I. that pulls off damn near impossible combos to input. But now with online gaming for consoles becoming more and more of a common thing, I’m able to go online and play tons of different players and actually interact with them kind of giving the sense of that old school arcade feel from the early 90s and I absolutely love it. 2D is not dead, we may just see a revival yet. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.