Review: Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND (X360)

I left where fighting games were with my last review of Blazblue: Continuum Shift II for the Nintendo 3DS, and it seems the wheel of fate has turned, because I’ve come to see what Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND can do.

If everything about it feels familiar to players of the original, it should. Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND is the second revision of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, the second game in the Blazblue arcade fighting series.

You still pick from the same team of 19 fighters from the Continuum Shift game and DLC, with an all-new character, Relius Clover and put their (ie. your) skills to the test in the game’s several game modes, such as Arcade (10 battles), Versus (pick your opponent) and the new UnlimitedMars mode that takes on characters with no loss in their power gauges. Abyss mode from the portable versions of Continuum Shift II also makes its first appearance on console.

The ability to use the analog stick or the D-Pad is very much welcome. The usual “Technical” and “Stylish” controls are also available if you wish to have more control over your character and pick up all their moves or just have a solid round of button mashing. Tutorial mode is still as insulting, but still a place to start for newcomers.

Speaking of which, Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND also offers an extensive relook at the original Calamity Trigger story with new content and remastered scenes, which is worth a look for long-time fans of the series, especially with some cutscenes animated by the famed Production I.G. This is just a garble of text and would make the writers cry if you’re just in the game for the fighting and not the long, tedious story.

Taking from my experiences with Continuum Shift II on the Nintendo 3DS, the graphical feel is carried forward onto this Xbox 360 revision. The graphics, of course, look much sweeter on the bigger screen without “tacked on” 3D stereoscopy, which rids of the problems I had when fighting on the Nintendo 3DS. All cutscenes and dialogue are fully voiced, although I chose to stick with the voices of the original seiyuus.

Perhaps the lacklustre Nintendo 3DS version left a bad taste in the BlazBlue series for me, but Continuum Shift EXTEND seems to have rectified that. I’m still not a fighting games person, so the game hasn’t done that much.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND is an Aksys Games game developed by Arc System Works for the Xbox 360, as well as the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita. Online multiplayer modes were not tested. A copy of the X360 version was given to us by its distributor, New Era Entertainment, for this review.