Cross-over fighting games are nearly always neat, so here’s a 2-D one with anime styled characters from BlazBlue, Persona, Under Night In-Birth, and even RWBY.  You can choose two characters at once and swap them out during fights, so it has more of a Marvel vs. Capcom feel to it.  But otherwise it plays like how you’d expect a 2-D one-on-one fighter would, and it’s available on PS4, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

The game has a variety of single player and online modes, but I really liked how you interface with the different selections.  You walk around a lobby area as a chibi version of one of the characters, and can talk to others and shop for goodies for the gallery mode.  You can also pull up a regular menu if you don’t feel like walking around.

In Episode Mode you play through the story of how all these characters got together to fight in the first place.  The nice thing about this mode is that, as opposed to BlazBlue, you don’t just wade through a bunch of text.  You’ll just have a couple of minutes of dialogue and then you’ll fight someone.  There is also a training mode where you can practice moves, a VS mode where you can challenge the CPU or another local player, a tactics mode where you take on missions, and a survival mode where you try and defeat as many fighters as you can with limited energy.  And of course there is an online lobby where you can challenge players from around the world.  It’s a pretty decent fighter but I think the ones who will enjoy it the most are those who are familiar with these franchises.

Kid Factor:

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence.  The battles are cartoony and over the top, so I don’t think the game is too gory, but characters do curse and some female fighters wear skimpy outfits, so the T rating is about right.

Tags: Game Reviews