Street Fighter EX2 Plus is the follow-up to Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. Both games eschew the 2D style we've come to know from the Street Fighter series in favor of a polygonal approach, but the gameplay hasn't entered the third dimension whatsoever. While EX2 Plus adds a few features and some new characters to the mix, it doesn't really have the overall flair that made the first game stand out.

In addition to old favorites like Guile, Ken, and Chun Li and returning EX fighters such as Pullum, Darun and D.Dark, new fighters like Nanase, Area, and Vulcano Rosso have entered the fold. The new characters fit well into the EX universe and exhibit the game's altered form of Street Fighter magic. The gameplay is standard six-button Street Fighter. Everything from fireballs to dragon punches to spinning pile drivers have been implemented in polygonal form, and the timing of the moves haven't really changed, so moving from EX to EX2 or even from 2D to 3D isn't much of a change. The real differences in the EX series lie in its use of the super meter. In addition to the super cancels and guard cancels introduced in the first EX, there's a new excel move, which acts much like the custom combos from Street Fighter Alpha 2. While it's neat to watch, the standard super combos are usually a more effective use of one third of your super meter.

Graphically, EX2 has a more smoothed-over look than the first EX did. While it does look a bit better than EX did, some players will likely miss the jagged-yet-defined look of EX. The effects have been bumped up a notch or two, and super combos really explode off the screen as a result. The super combo finish is still every bit as insane as in the original, this time showing all sorts of meteorites streaking toward the earth. The music is a little generic, and you won't find any old Street Fighter favorites among the various tracks. The character voices are still reasonably good. A static screen and a few lines of text, however, have replaced the endings, a definite downgrade when compared with the animated endings in the original game.

The usual modes are here, including versus, the barrel bonus stage, and of course, the expert mode. The expert mode gives you 16 different combo challenges per character. The first few are simple things, like throwing a fireball. But near the end of each character's list lie some pretty difficult six- or seven-hit combos.

Overall, EX2 is more of an upgrade to the original game than it is an entirely new experience. It looks very good and plays well, but it doesn't add enough new features to interest anyone that has become bored with the original. If you're still interested in EX and you're looking for something to tide you over until EX3 comes out for the PlayStation 2, EX2 just might do the trick, but don't expect the originality and freshness that the first game provided.

Virtua Fighter 4 Review

The blocky, flat-shaded 3D fighters first seen in 1993's Virtua Fighter have sure come a long way. Nearly 10 years after the original arcade game was released, Sega's Virtua Fighter series now spans four games, not to mention a number of weird spin-offs like Virtua Fighter Kids and the outrageous Fighters Megamix. Virtua Fighter games have appeared on virtually every Sega system ever made. Last year, Sega bowed out of the hardware business, so the latest installment of Virtua Fighter is the first that isn't exclusive to Sega's own hardware. And PlayStation 2 owners couldn't be luckier, because Virtua Fighter 4 is the best fighting game to debut since Namco's superlative Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur back in 1999. Virtua Fighter 4 is also the best game in the series to date: It offers even more of the depth that fans of the series have enjoyed for years, yet it also quickens the pacing, streamlines the controls, and fixes the problems found in previous installments. Furthermore, the PS2 version of Virtua Fighter 4 packs some interesting bonus features and the best artificial intelligence hands down of any fighting game. Superficially, Virtua Fighter 4 may resemble any number of other graphically impressive 3D fighters. But the real beauty of it is definitely in the gameplay.

Virtua Fighter 4 has 13 characters you can choose from, two of which are new to the series. Only Virtua Fighter 3's conspicuous sumo wrestler Taka-Arashi didn't make the cut--all the other fighters from the series are back with new moves and new looks, including such favorites as the Japanese martial arts expert Akira, the massive Canadian pro wrestler Wolf, and the blonde-haired high-kicking siblings Jacky and Sarah Bryant. As in all previous Virtua Fighter games, the last bout in Virtua Fighter 4's arcade mode is against Dural, basically a very mean female mannequin made of metal (there's a way to unlock her as a playable character for use in the versus mode). The first of the game's new fighters is Lei Fei, a shaolin monk whose dizzying kung fu skills are as effective as they are spectacular. The second is Vanessa Lewis, who looks like X-Men's Storm and specializes in both defensive counterthrows and in kickboxing. Lei Fei looks better in action than Vanessa, though both of the new characters have dozens of interesting moves. Actually, the same can be said for all the characters, not just the new ones. Each returning fighter boasts a number of new abilities, many of which become important additions to their repertoires. Many of the new moves aren't just punches or kicks--they're complex techniques like deflections, reversals, and alternate fighting stances.

Virtua Fighter 4 isn't just for hard-core fighting-game fans--the game is only as complex as you want it to be. While it will definitely appeal to you if you enjoy poring over long-winded character FAQs or spending an evening just practicing the same tough move or combo over and over, you'll also enjoy it if you just want to play for fun. The majority of the game's playable characters are very easy to pick up--by the manual's own admission, more than half of them are well suited for beginners, even for those who've never played a fighting game before. All of the fighters are competitive, yet all of them are substantially different. There's much more differentiation now between some of the characters who seemed similar to each other in previous installments.

What all the characters do have in common is that they respond equally well to the game's flat-out perfect controls. Virtua Fighter 4 reverts back to the deceptively simple control scheme found in the first two games in the series: There's a punch button, a kick button, and a guard button. The evade button introduced in Virtua Fighter 3 is gone, yet lateral movement and evading attacks are still easily accomplished just by tapping up or down on the directional pad, to shift your character away from or toward the screen. You don't necessarily need to know that--using some of the characters, you can have a good time just mashing on buttons, watching as they perform various great-looking strings of attacks. But sooner or later you'll notice that Virtua Fighter 4 rewards skill and precision. The pacing of a typical match is just right--very fast and intense, but not frantic. Most of the moves in the game are easy to execute, but there's still a lot to remember if you want to get good. And some of the more advanced techniques and combos are as challenging, and rewarding, as fighting game moves get.

Def Jam: Icon Review

Hip-hop has always been a competitive form of music. Going back to the '70s and '80s, with such crews as Cold Crush or Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a big part of rapping has always been about telling the world how great you are, especially if it comes at the expense of a rival emcee. EA and hip-hop record label Def Jam teamed up a few years back to make hip-hop-themed fighting games, which made sense at the time. But the first two games took the nuts and bolts of a wrestling game, put it on the street instead of in the ring, and threw in a whole bunch of rappers. Unless you count Macho Man Randy Savage's 2003 rap album as a success, rap and wrestling just don't mix, even though the previous Def Jam games somehow managed to be pretty cool in spite of that. But EA also seems to have come to this conclusion because as the third game in the Def Jam series, Def Jam: Icon, trades in the wrestling for a unique fighting style, coming up with an even more ridiculous and fun story mode. All around, it's a good, if somewhat simple, time.

The game's roster of licensed rappers is deep and varied, representing the coasts and everywhere in between. The game includes Big Boi, Bun B, E-40, The Game, Ghostface Killah, Jim Jones, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Method Man, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Redman, Sean Paul, Sticky Fingaz, T.I., and Young Jeezy, among others. A few nonrappers make appearances as characters in the story mode, including actor Anthony Anderson, who's great as the seemingly evil record exec, Troy Dollar. Def Jam/Warner Music Group exec Kevin Liles also plays a character in the story, and there's a pretty good cameo from another hip-hop mogul as well. While there's plenty of people in the game, you'll probably come up with more than a few omissions if you think about it for very long. For example, such acts as LL Cool J and Run-DMC are still synonymous with the label's origins, but you won't find them here. These days, the label is better known for its president and CEO, Jay-Z, who's also missing in action. On top of that, there have been plenty of often-controversial wars in hip-hop over the years, and it's unfortunate that you can't re-create some of those rivalries here. Seeing Jay-Z and Nas, The Game and 50 Cent, or even Dr. Dre and Dee Barnes beat the heck out of each other at a gas station would have been worth the price of admission on its own. The game has a passable create-a-character mode that works just like every other EA game these days, which includes all the weird sliders you can use to make your characters have awful-looking foreheads and jaw shapes.

The atmosphere and over-the-top story mode is the best part about Def Jam: Icon. Called "build a label," this mode opens with your created character as a nobody. You defend Carver, a hotshot record exec and are quickly welcomed into the fold for, you know, keeping it real. From there, you rise up to become an A&R man, which in game terms means that you beat people up so that other people will sign to your label. You interact with characters via e-mail, which is often read aloud by the involved characters. As you sign artists, you'll use your income to set release budgets for their songs, which is an investment that can earn you even more money. Along the way, you'll get stuck with plenty of bills, including Mike Jones' phone bill, The Game's paternity tests, and Ghostface Killah dropping off of his tour so that he can go make "a video game with gorillas and ninjas and s***." You can opt out of making these payments, but that's no way to keep your artists happy.

As you rake in more money and purchase fly-looking clothes, you'll start to attract women, who also suck money out of you to stay happy. There are also plenty of twists and turns. For example, as the money coming in increases, things get very serious, very quickly; complete with dirty cops who love to plant evidence, rival record execs who want to steal your artists, and scandalous women. Things escalate so much that it becomes completely comical, almost like a so-bad-it's-good hood movie. All that's missing is Master P and a truckload of stolen cell phones. But even though it's all sort of silly, it still manages to feel authentic. If anything, the "white cop keeping you down" tale wraps up a little too abruptly.

It's got a rock-solid premise and a surprisingly compelling story. Unfortunately, the part where you have to actually fight is where Def Jam: Icon kind of breaks down. Overall, the switch from wrestling to fighting is an improvement, and Def Jam: Icon is unlike any traditional fighting game. The game was developed by the same team that handled Fight Night Round 3, and it shows. The fighting is methodical, to the point of feeling sluggish in spots. It's very focused on fooling your opponent by mixing up your high and low attacks, which can be stopped by blocks or counters, which can be stopped by grabs and throws, which can be stopped by those same high and low attacks. So there's balance to the basics of the fighting system, which are roughly the same regardless of which character you choose, even though differences in fighting styles mean that some characters are somewhat better at one aspect of combat than others. There's a second layer to the game that's a bit more stylish. The right analog stick is used for grabs and for your strongest strikes. As in Fight Night, making circular or tapping motions on the stick will unleash harder attacks, and you can go high or low with these too. What's more, if you taunt before unleashing those attacks, your attack will land even harder, often knocking down your opponent in the process.

Keeping your opponent down is key because you want to make sure your song is playing. Yes, the music in Def Jam: Icon also plays a role in the fighting. Before each fight, you select which song you want to have as "your" song. At any point during the fight, you can hold down L2, then rotate the two analog sticks to switch songs. Your character reacts to this motion by making turntable motions in thin air. If you're fighting while your song is playing, you'll get a damage bonus, so it's handy. You can counter song-switch attempts by hitting L2 while the other player is spinning, which makes you stomp the ground, knocking your foe down. The other turntable move rewinds the current song back to the beginning and causes the entire background to explode. OK, perhaps that requires a bit more explanation.

Last Blade, The (Import) Review

The Last Blade (aka Gekka No Kenshi, which translates to "Swordsmen of Moonlight") is a latecomer to the overpopulated lineup of Neo-Geo fighting games, but it is definitely one that should not be overlooked as it makes its transition to the PlayStation. With a deep and intricate fighting system, intuitive and responsive controls that are as comfortable and familiar as any you've ever known, and a smattering of innovation - not to mention subtle and attractive aesthetics - it's a nuanced, if late, entry by SNK.

The game's play will be almost immediately familiar to everyone. The main character, Kaede, is quite obviously a thinly veiled Ryu-clone; he comes equipped with a fireball-type move (which runs along the ground as is favored in the SNK universe), a rising uppercut, and a kick that propels him across the screen. Yuki, his partner in martial-arts training, has blonde hair and a similar set of moves. That's not to say this game borrows too heavily from Street Fighter; that's simply not so. The game does, however, use this fertile ground as a basis to build its own style of captivating gameplay. One thing that separates this game from being just another SF clone is the fact that the characters all brandish weapons. Immediately, the obvious comparison switches from SF to Samurai Shodown, but that's not completely accurate either. Let's just call this the happy marriage of Street Fighter Alpha and Samurai Shodown - and let's hope there's a long honeymoon ahead.

The two things that really set this game apart are the reflect button (which, when timed correctly, parries an opponent's attack and turns it against him) and your character's choice between power and speed, which fundamentally changes the way the character plays. This feature is not unlike the slash/bust system of Samurai Shodown 3 or the A/X/V-ism modes in Street Fighter Alpha 3. But bear in mind that The Last Blade's arcade release preceded SFA3's by a year. In power mode, each character is (obviously) more powerful, with moves doing more damage to the opponent. In speed mode, damage is decreased but the characters can chain combos together. Each mode also has unique moves.

As the PlayStation's port stands, it's nearly identical to the arcade; everything is fluid (barring slight slowdown on Yuki's stage) and utterly controllable. The biggest flaw is the sound effects. The game sounds as though the developers sampled the arcade unit with a microcassette recorder while standing in a wind tunnel. You'd be hard pressed to find a fighting game with lower-quality samples. It's really a shame because it makes the game feel the slightest bit cheap and tacky - and those are two words that would never ordinarily be applied to this game. It oozes precision, thoughtfulness, control, and achingly beautiful aesthetics. The transitions between stages are perhaps the most sublime and elegant ever to grace any fighting game for any system; it's this elegance that draws you to the game and the tight and enjoyable play that grabs hold, digs in, and keeps you interested. The PS port is just rough around the corners, with middling load times between every transition. Still, outside of a Neo-Geo cartridge system, an impractical choice for most consumers, there is no way to achieve a load-free version of this game, and the PS port more than suffices at keeping to the letter, if not necessarily the spirit, of the game.

Additions to the PlayStation version not present in the arcade are both multiple and mostly irrelevant. The game now opens with an attractive anime sequence. New modes are also abundant. A training mode is standard in all home versions of arcade fighters these days and is therefore not worth mentioning, except when it's absent; The Last Blade's training mode is just what you'd expect it to be. Story mode is the main arcade mode you're used to if you've played the coin-op; short mode offers a four-stage game for the player in need of a quick fix. Versus mode is added - again, an expectation but not a bonus. Sudden-death mode is a bizarre addition; your life ticks off as you fight, so that it's possible to die without ever suffering the blow of a foe. Finally, we have options (a standard complement) and omake (a "bonus"), which contains art galleries (both fan-drawn and professional, the latter being sepia-toned pencil sketches by the game's designers) and a character background information section - in Japanese, of course. Because most Neo-Geo carts come with a language option, it's a bit disappointing to see only Japanese text in this version.

All in all, this is a great game; if you enjoy a solid two-dimensional fighter, and you understand the nuances of the genre, you will really enjoy it. For casual players, it may seem like just another disc on the pile, but for enthusiasts it's an extremely deep and enjoyable game that really shouldn't be missed.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Review

Saturn owners should be pleased to know that Street Fighter Alpha 2's translation from coin-op to home is almost flawless. The graphics are solid and done in the same anime style as the first Alpha. The animation is topnotch, as are the sounds and music. The backgrounds are first rate, giving Alpha 2 some of the best scenery yet seen in a Street Fighter game.

The game features 18 fighters this time around - and for the first time Akuma is directly playable. Zangeif and Dhalsim, from Street Fighter 2, have returned. Some new fighters have also entered the fray, including a very cool old assassin named Gen who can switch fighting styles. Alpha 2, however, forgoes any semblance of a plot right from the start (the player doesn't find out what's going with his favorite character until the final fight). It also does away with the before-fight conversation, save for final the boss round. Moreover, the fighting engine has been tweaked to give the game some distinction from the previous Street Fighter games, including the original Street Fighter Alpha (which was a prequel to Street Fighter 2, making Street Fighter Alpha 2 the sequel to a prequel of a sequel to the original Street Fighter).

Control is, as usual, exceptional. Smooth, responsive, and intuitive, gameplay is dead-on. The most notable addition here is the custom combo technique: When the player hits three attack buttons while the combo bar is powered up, he can absolutely hammer the other fighter for a few seconds (racking up some awesome combos in the process). The super combo moves, and the plethora of special moves that players have come to know and love, are also present and accounted for. Capcom's 2-D fighters have always been among the best, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 is their best home conversion yet.

There's a perfectly good reason why Midway's 3-D fighting game WarGods was scarcely seen in arcades: It's lousy. That said, Eurocom (responsible for the noteworthy 1995 conversion of Capcom's Super Street Fighter II Turbo) did a commendable job converting this goofy title to the PC platform. WarGods fares much better as a PC game than it did amidst its quarter crunching competition, and in fact it's not a half-bad way to have yourself a half-hour fix of mindless action. If you can look beyond the preposterous cast of characters, you'll find WarGods to be a colorful and even attractive little fighting game.

WarGods is Midway's Mortal Kombat in 3-D. While Mortal Kombat's designers had nothing to do with it, WarGods' similarity to the violent series is unmistakable. Silly looking blood, ridiculous fatality moves, and plenty of weird special moves are all present and accounted for in Midway's first venture into 3-D fighting. The characters and backgrounds are fully polygonal, texture-mapped, and highly detailed, yet the game's frame rate remains acceptable on a Pentium 133 with everything on. Unfortunately, the ten fighters in the game are, at best, horrifically animated and move way too stiffly. Combine the poor animation with the digitized texture mapping (folks were filmed and their photos slapped on top of the polygonal characters), and the end result is gut wrenching.

WarGods sounds as ludicrous and over-the-top as it looks, with the ten fighters producing primal grunts and groans as the announcer laughs his head off and comments on the battle. One can't help but detect a little irony when the announcer exclaims, "Unbelievable!" after a big, dumb-looking punch connects. The characters, from the rock-man Tak to the toaster-headed centurion Maximus, are each quite different in appearance (though they're each perfectly despicable in their own right) - yet all of them play very much alike and rely on cheap special moves and lame combos to win their bouts.

There isn't much of a selection when it comes to fighting games on the PC. The fact that WarGods is one of the strongest titles of its kind to emerge on the PC is a testament to just how under-represented the genre has been thus far. But by this same token, WarGods is worth a look if only because it doesn't have a lot of competition. It runs great in a window and does offer a number of special moves and fatalities, as well as some slick background graphics. While WarGods is purely adolescent when measured against truly great polygonal fighting games like the Tekken or Virtua Fighter series, the fact remains that it's among the best of its kind on the PC. Admittedly, that's not saying much, but it's a playable and often, if inadvertently, amusing means of getting your daily dose of uppercuts and roundhouse kicks.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

If Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting tickled your quarter-popping nostalgia with its Xbox Live Arcade release in 2006, then Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will light it on fire with a fierce dragon punch. The arcade classic's fast and fun one-on-one fighting translates brilliantly into HD Remix, seamlessly blending with the beautifully redrawn and wonderfully balanced cast of classic Capcom characters. The challenging single-player story mode and refined online multiplayer are both playable with the classic Super Turbo rules or in the entirely revamped Remixed mode. By tweaking the attack damage and move sets of each character, Remixed makes for a wholly refreshing gameplay addition that changes the way you'll play the timeless 2D fighter.

The straightforward concept of punching and kicking people on a 2D plane is easy to grasp, but the addition of complex combos, special moves, and devastating super combos brings depth to the satisfying gameplay. Because longtime fans have already known the mechanics of Super Street Fighter II Turbo inside and out since 1994, the alterations to each of the 17 uniquely powered characters' move sets within the Remixed mode gives them a fresh feel almost 15 years later. For example, attack enhancements encourage you to use moves that you might have otherwise ignored: Chun Li's ground spinning bird kick has a new movement arc, allowing her to escape corner traps or fireballs. Similarly, Guile?s flash kick now travels forward rather than straight up. Other notables include E. Honda's ability to dive through energy attacks, as well as Ryu's fake fireball and M. Bison's psyche-out sliding kick, both of which can dupe an opponent into jumping or opening themselves up.

With superior gameplay comes advanced AI, and casual players will be obliterated by the professional-level computer opponents on any of the three difficulties above beginner. You'll have to learn the speed and specials of your favorite fighter if you're going to stand a chance against the brutally tough opposition. The challenge is worsened because the controls simply aren't precise enough with a control pad. Sure, you can use the D pad or analog stick to brawl, but neither--especially the Xbox 360's lousy directional pad--is preferable to an arcade stick. Remix attempts to compensate for this by simplifying many of the attack inputs; some complicated super combos have been reduced from frenetic arcade-stick waggling to painless analog arcs. This accommodation is something you'll appreciate if you're using a controller or are easing yourself into the series for the first time, but veterans will probably be irked by the ease of executing some of the bigger attacks.

But it's this batch of dedicated Street Fighter nuts that will absolutely adore the deeply customizable Dip Switch settings. These allow you to tune the game's minutiae to suit your personal preference by enabling or disabling a seemingly innumerable list of options, in addition to regulating variables. For example, if you don't like the idea of your opponent tossing you again after a throw-induced daze, you can restrict it. The Dip Switch settings even go as deep as letting you adjust the percentage that dictates whether or not the first frame of an attack can be blocked or not. Obviously, these thoroughly thought-out features won't serve you any purpose if you're not rooted in the game's core mechanics, but picky players will love tinkering with the finer points of Street Fighter's foundation.

Even the most hardcore purist can't deny the smoking-hot widescreen, high-definition visuals. Each character sprite has been crisply redrawn by comics publisher UDON, who manages to make them look terrific. The stage backgrounds were also subject to an artistic overhaul; the memorable Brazilian shanty huts, moonlit Japanese dojo, and chicken-choking merchant are all radically repurposed with vibrant colors and wonderfully painted textures. As an added bonus, you can disable the 1080p bliss of the anime-style fighters in favor of their old, pixelated sprites if you're looking for a blast from the past. Adding to the phenomenal visual delight is an energetically enhanced soundtrack. A fusion of heavy metal guitar riffs and groovy electronica will pump you up with retooled versions of classic jams in the menus and during fights. While the clear star of HD Remix is the audiovisual upgrade, the smaller touches give developer Backbone a reason to gloat about its attention to detail--the annoying announcer from Turbo been kindly redubbed; Guile's laughable Turbo voice has been replaced by an older, better version; and the training mode lets you look behind the curtain and scope out the hitboxes that accompany the collision detection.

The three online multiplayer modes--friendly/unranked fights, leaderboard ladder matches, and bracketed tournaments--are packed with potential opponents, so at the time of this review you'll have no problem finding somebody to play with. There's no way to get matched up against similarly skilled opponents online unfortunately, so depending on your skill level you might get destroyed or struggle to find challenging opponents. Mercifully, the lag that plagued Hyper Fighting is practically nonexistent in both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. You'll find yourself totally engaged during your buttery-smooth matches, and completely captivated as the rotating roster of up to eight players puts you in the spectator seat between bouts. In traditional arcade fashion, you'll be booted to the back of the line while the next player tests his or her mettle against the current champ, but you'll never be bored because Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play. The amazing combat makes for quick, entertaining matches that are filled with ecstatic cheering, intense comebacks, and shameful defeats.

It's hard to gauge whether the characters are as meticulously balanced in the Remixed variant as they are in Turbo, simply because there hasn't been enough time to test the tweaks. Still, the overload of edits are welcome additions to an already great game--and since you can drop back into the original Turbo at any time, you aren't forced to relearn your preferred fighter. The extensive alterations are wonderful, giving HD Remix the feel of a straightforward 2D brawler with all the sheen of a brand-new game that's capped off with Street Fighter's venerable depth and lavish presentation. Despite its minor issues, this is one of the finest iterations of Street Fighter to date, and one that any fan of fireballs and fisticuffs shouldn't miss.