Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax for the PS3 and PS Vita attempts to pull back fighting games from the heights reached in the recent Mortal Kombat X and keep them focused on what made the genre so appealing in the first place. Arcade-style, 2D brawls that puts the emphasis on the action (re: the fighting) and less on the spectacle. And for old-school fight fans, Fighting Climax works.
It’s a simple, pick-up-and-play fighting game that uses the soft, medium, hard, three-button attack system, with simple multi-press combos and quarter-roll joystick actions to pull off special moves. In short, you don’t have to be a zippy-fingered player — who can initiate several button presses in succession — to succeed.
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax feels like an arcade fighter, and that’s the point. And since it is a 2D fighter, there are move meters, here called Climax Gauges that fill up and allow characters to pull off amazingly devastating moves — tailored to the characters source material, and trump cards, which unlock random finisher-like moves, and many other fighting game staples.
Developer Kadokawa ASCII Media Works and publisher Sega have taken the core fighter and created an interesting game around it. They did this by including 14 characters/fighters from many popular anime programs and manga, including Sword Art Online, Accel World, and TORADORA! among many, many others. And then, those fighters are thrust into worlds from classic Sega games, like Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi, and more. But while this seems like a gimmick, each character has a story mode that is specific to their source. Playing as Asuna from SAO gives the player a story that is taken from the Sword Art Online franchise. And each character can team up with a sub-character, or support character, also from the core stories. There are 23 different support characters. So, I teamed up Asuna with Leifa, because I love SAO like nobody’s business.
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax has three modes of play: Arcade, Story, and Dream Mode, and has a veritable ton of cool unlockables, such as character art, soundtracks, histories, costumes and more. Players can challenge friends — or strangers — in local or online matches, making Fighting Climax a solid entry in the 2D arcade fighting game genre.
To put it simply, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is simple, yet refined. A throwback arcade fighter that puts the emphasis on the fight and not on the spectacle. There are tons of cool characters, mashed up fighters from some of the best anime/manga titles around, and then thrown against classic Sega game worlds to fight. On top of all of that, there are things to unlock and the whole presentation doesn’t skimp out. Best of all, Dengeki Bunko has full cross save between the PS3 and the PS Vita.
Sometimes, going backwards can be fun and rewarding, and for long-time fans of 2D arcade-style fighting games, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is the perfect way to revisit an era of one-on-one fighting that is seemingly being replaced by flash and big budgets and gruesome eviscerations. Sometimes, the fight is all it takes to make it great.
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is in stores now for the Playstation 3 and PS Vita. This review is based off a PS3 review code provided by the publisher.
