Review: Rivals Schools United By Fate....*inhale*...two
First thing people should know about Project Justice is that it was originally part of the Rival Schools franchise in Japan. While events such as Columbine may have fanned the “violent videogame” fire again, the market for quality fighting games has never diminished. This is where CAPCOM comes in. Wanting to bring a popular franchise to America, but not taking heat for instigating further school violence. One name change later, and we have an American release of a quality Japanese game on our hands.
The plot revolves around some Batsu impersonator bullying other schools around, you need to figure out what is going on. But really, who cares? You gather two friends, and proceed to kick some tail feather. That’s what the game is about. The story mode has you picking a school, and the fighters are already pre-determined from there. It’s not until you start playing the free mode that you can pick your fighting team.
And what a team it’ll be. Even though the game is 2D (almost 2.5D), the game shows-off some of the most gorgeous combo visuals of late. The special attacks are wonderfully animated, and it’s a shame that this game didn’t get the full 3D treatment. Hopefully, this franchise will live to see another installment, with 3D environments.
While playing Project Justice, I was struck with a sense of sameness. While the premise may be slightly different, and the characters won’t necessarily be found elsewhere, the game could be almost any other fighting game wrapped up in prettier packaging. Although one of the features that seems to be missing in this game is the “tag” feature that has become almost commonplace in games of this sort nowadays. If you are able to control a team of three fighters, you would expect to be able to switch between them when necessary. This is one of the few things that detracts from enjoying the game.
This brings us to the actual fighting. This is not Soul Calibur, but then again, this is not Street Fighter 2, 47th edition either. This is a fun brawler. When it comes down to business, Project Justice truly gives you more bang for your buck. The game packs an Arcade Mode, Story Mode, Training Mode, Tournament Mode, and more. The fighting engine isn’t entirely original; but then again, show me 3 fighting engines that came out in the last year that were truly original. I play in more of a button-mashing style, rather than developing one of my own. That’s because I don’t play many of these types of games. But, my time with this one was enjoyable. This game will satisfy both the finesse-class and masher-class of fighting game buffs.
