BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend Review

Fighting games on pc are a rarity so it’s nice to see BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend on steam. But as we all know most PC ports are a disaster. Is this one any different let’s find out! In order to give a fair review I tracked down the first game BlazBlu Continuum to find out the differences between Shift Extend. Apart from the new characters which are available as a DLC before Shift was released I really couldn’t see any differences. All the menus options, storylines and general content were exactly the same.

First thing you will notice about BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend is the unique art style it has. It’s a traditional 2D fighter that sticks to the unique sprites from games such as Guilty Gear. I was however pleased to see my Xbox 360 afterglow controller worked straight away.

There are a number of problems with this port however. The fact the game only goes to 1080p and not the highest resolution settings like most PC games is disappointing and of course this means visually the game is not going to look as good as its console counterparts. It looks pixelated and stretched.

The characters in Blazblue are as unique as the art style. You have one character that has an umbrella that changes into a cat servant when she sits down and of course you have the characters that look badass and carry way over the top swords.

For those who are new to the series or fighting game genre there is a nice tutorial mode. However I found this pretty hard to follow as it didn’t take into account what controller I was using and the commands were listed A B D and D which is your weak, medium, heavy and drive attacks. This is a common problem in many games ported to the PC though. It made the game hard to just pick up and play and at times when on the brink of death I just button mashed my way to victory.

The online multiplayer is strange in the case it would not let me turn my microphone off and this goes for your opponent. I heard some strange things while getting my arse handed to me. I have no idea why this it but it is really annoying as I have my microphone constantly plugged in. The matchmaking is just 100% random. My first ever online game was against a player who won 990 games and lost 4 um yeah….. He got another win and two excellent ratings, I couldn’t touch him.

The story is exactly the same as the previous game without the DLC characters, so there is nothing new added for people who played the first game with the exception of one new character. This is really disappointing as it makes players basically just pay for all the DLC in the previous game just to get this one brand new character, not worth it really if you have already forked out once for the DLC. For those new to the story though there is branching storylines for each character and the story is pretty deep.

The many modes in BlazBlue are what give it long playability. You have a survival mode, reply theatre arcade mode and mastering all the attacks and specials for each individual character is going to take a lot of time and perseverance. Is it worth it? That depends on your stance on fighting games in general.

The fact the game feels very recycled from the last too is understandable, because it is. But when the sprites are hand drawn like they are which takes a lot of time and dedication you can understand why but they can surely only do this for so long before people feel like they are buying the same game over and over again. Not to say BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend isn’t fun because it is, once you master the controls.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.