I loved Street Fighter 2, but have had trouble getting into fighting games since. The character's moves didn't work together well and felt awkward, or you needed to press many buttons at once to perform a move, et cetera. Though there have been some other fighting games which I have liked, I'd mostly given up on the genre because of garbage like that. Guilty Gear X2 #Reload doesn't have any of those problems. Characters have many, but not a zillion, moves and do not feel significantly gimped. They also each have a few extra difficult moves to pull off. Instead of nonsense like making you press two punch buttons, one kick, and taunt all at once after a half circle, instead you must quickly input multiple directional movements and finally one (1) attack button. This has a difficult-yet-fair feel that reminds me trying to master the dragon punch as a child. The boss of arcade mode is rightfully infamous for being hard and cheap, yet has some unusual moves which go a long way toward preventing it from getting dull. I had more fun fighting that boss and losing for hours than I have had slogging through many games lately. My only significant gripe is the lack of online play. If not for that, I would give it five stars.
