Phantom Breaker: Battleground is a side-scrolling beat-em up
that I had never heard of before. I believe it began as an anime, that turned
into a fighting game, that became this. The Xbox Arcade exclusive has a
wonderful anime style with beautiful sprites and fluid combat. Let’s see if
it’s any good.
I
honestly don’t understand the story. It has something to do with you finding a
girl, and then you are trapped in some demon world. You fight a bunch of guys
to escape with your friend. All the dialog is in Japanese with English dialog
boxes.
The
gameplay is where this game shines. You start off with four playable
characters. Two are melee specialists, one a sword master, and the last a staff
master. I prefer the sword. You have a light, medium, and heavy attack with a
special attack that deals damage to all nearby enemies and an ability to
slow-down time.
You
travel through 8 levels and several bonus levels to complete this short game.
As I said before, it’s a beat-em up. You spend time beating up hundreds of bad
guys in every stage with a boss or two at the end of each stage. Once you enter
the demon world, you lose all of your powers and strength. Every enemy you
defeat leaves XP that you can pick up to level up and improve your character.
The
game has plenty of difficulty levels, should the game get too easy for
you. Nightmare is the best way to level
up, but Nightmare+ is impossible. Thankfully there is no XP in this difficulty,
but I couldn’t even beat the first boss.
This
game is incredibly fun, but where it shines is multiplayer! It has 4 player
co-op and even a V.S. mode where you can fight against each other and test your
skills. I played with my brother and both of us had a blast trying to level up
all the way to Lv. 99. The game can also be played online.
The
only bad thing about the game is that to level up your character completely,
you must buy DLC. Now for $5 you get the extra 50 levels and a new playable
character. It’s nice, but it really should have been included.
All-in-all,
if you enjoyed games like Golden Axe, Double Dragon, or Scott Pilgrim vs. the
World: The Game, then you will love this. I give Phantom Breaker: Battleground
for Xbox Arcade, a 9.5 out of 10. You can buy it for 800 MSP with the DLC for
400 MSP.
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