BlazBlue Continuum Shift II

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless)

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Review:

BlazBlue is a Fighting Game series that dates back to 2010, with Continuum Shift being the second entry in that series. Continuum Shift II is the second of three versions of that second game, adding in new balance changes. In 2011, this version of the game was released as a free downloadable update to Continuum Shift on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and as a full release on PlayStation Portable and Nintendo 3DS a few weeks later that same year.

BlazBlue features imaginative, detailed 2D characters and backgrounds that seem to have gotten squished down to fit on the Nintendo 3DS. They still look great, but all that detail is much harder to see on the tiny screen. This is joined by some excellent voice acting, as well as a soundtrack that leans heavily into rock- and metal-inspired instrumental songs, along with some anime-style instrumental and metal-inspired music to go with it.

As for the gameplay, BlazBlue is a pretty technical 2D Fighter, and the gameplay has not been watered down at all on Nintendo 3DS. This is kinda’ both a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, there’s a ton of depth here for Fighting game aficionados who are looking for it. On the other hand, that means that this is not an especially accessible game for newcomers to the genre or more casual players (even if the game has a pretty good tutorial to guide new players through the game’s complex mechanics).

On its own, that would be fine – it just makes this a more niche Fighting game than some others on the market. However, it’s made a bit worse by the fact that the Nintendo 3DS feels kinda’ cramped and its buttons too tiny for the complex button combinations this game calls for. And it kinda’ lays bare just how absurd some of the controls for this series really are, such as the multiple commands that require you to hold down multiple buttons at once to activate them. This might be easy enough to do in an arcade with big buttons and an arcade stick, but with the tiny controls on the Nintendo 3DS, this seems like a big ask for players to do in the midst of a fast-paced combo.

Still, despite that it’s arguably ill-suited to the Nintendo 3DS and it’s one of the less accessible games in the genre, BlazBlue Continuum Shift II is still a solid Fighting game that should be a must-have for Fighting Game fans looking to play the genre on the Nintendo 3DS. This is a competent port of an excellent game, even if it’s not one that everyone will be able to appreciate.

tl;dr – BlazBlue is a Fighting Game that’s not very accessible and has controls that aren’t a great fit for the Nintendo 3DS, but despite these issues this is still a solid port of a very good Fighting game. If you’re a Fighting Game fan looking to play on Nintendo 3DS, this is a decent choice.

Grade: B-

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