Critical Blow (Playstation)

 I originally played this game just because of the graphics, which are amazing. It's got a lot of charm in its low-poly anime style. But not only did it actually turn out to be a fun game, but also an all-round aesthetic masterpiece that really captured the feel of a certain culture at a specific time. Maybe even more than Evil Zone/Eretzvaju, Critical Blow is like a time capsule of anime fandom in the late nineties!

 

The way all the characters look the world they inhabit, the high-quality animated FMV intro, and even the music will take you right back to that time. It even infiltrates the way the game plays to a certain extent! One of the modes on the main menu is "Theatre Mode", which I assumed would be just a menu where you can view unlocked cutscenes (as well as the intro, there's also an animatd ending for each character in Arcade Mode). What it actually is is a story mode in which you play as the game's main protagonist Ricky, and have the game's plot told to you via a mixture of still images with text captions, and yet more fully voiced, fully animated high quality FMV cutscenes! Of course, whenever a fight breaks out. that's when the actual game part kicks in. 

 

As well as Theatre and Arcade, there's also another single player mode, called Trading Mode. This is an instance of something that was very fashionable in console fighting games at the time: a mode where you take a character, fight lots of opponents, and gradually increase their stats and unlock new abilities. It was probably popularised by Street Fighter Alpha 3's famous World Tour mode, but I think it might have started in the Flash Hiders games on SNES and PC Engine. It's fine I guess, but I think it speaks to the quality of Arcade and Thatre modes that it's easily the least interesting part of this game, and that's coming from someone who can't even understand any of the text or dialogue in Theatre Mode. The art and FMV are really that charming!

 

There are some bad sides to the game, especially if you're hoping for a well-balanced, competitive fighter. Like how the super meter is filled by any blocked or connecting attacks, including super attacks. So one character in particular, who has a long range, multi-hit super, once they have one meter, they essentially have infinite supers as long as they either hit or get blocked (and the super in question does a not insignificant amount of damage even when blocked, too). There's also a possible issue with the camera: as the fighters get closer to one end of the stage or the other, the camera will tilt slightly to make a dramatic angle, which does look really cool, but might raise some questions regarding fairness, especially among the kind of players who insist on always fighting in plain training stages, or banning custom costumes in modern fighting games.

 

Mostly, though, Critical Blow is a game I strongly recommend, especially if you're nostalgic for the era in which it was originally released. I think the music especially is going to make a certain section of my audience lose their minds when they hear it! I learned only after already having played it for several hours that it's also the sequel to game from 1996 called Genei Tougi, so that might also be worth checking out too (though I haven't played it yet, so I can't say for sure).

Ace Driver Victory Lap (Arcade)

 Everyone knows about Namco's arcade racing series Ridge Racer, right? But long before that, there were the Pole Position games, and from them eventually came the Final Lap games, and from them came the first Ace Driver, and this, its sequel. I was going to review both Ace Driver games, but since the first one only has one track, a graphically enhanced version of which is included in this game, I decided not to bother with it.

 

Ace Driver Victory Lap was released in 1995, the same year as Rave Racer, so although Ace Driver seems to have been mostly forgotten by history, it was running alongside its more popular sibling at one time. I guess the difference is that interest in Formula 1-style racing games had waned by the mid-nineties in favour of the street and mountain racing seen in Ridge Racer? Maybe that's also why Ridge Racer got home ports, but Ace Driver never did?

 

Anyway, you know how racing games go: you race around tracks, both against other racers and against a time limit that gets extended every time you go trough a checkpoint. There aren't any special gimmicks on display here, it's just a great-looking, competent racing game that's fun to play. I guess the slightly futuristic setting could be considered a gimmick, but it doesn't affect gameplay at all. There's no boosts or power ups or anything like that. Just a great use of colours (with an emphasis on purple, brown, and silver/grey that works surprisingly well) and a kind of eco-technological world with giant skyscrapers and machinery alongside perfectly clear skies and seemingly untarnished nature.

 

Unfortunately, I don't hve a lot more to say about Ace Driver Victory Lap. It's good, you should play it if you see a cabinet somewhere, or if you have a good enough computer to run it in MAME (and if I do, you almost definitely will, too, to be honest).