If 1998’s Guilty Gear had a fetish for panty shots, it would be equivalent to Nitroplus Blasterz. That’s the original Guilty Gear by the way, a game nearing drinking age. Time has left Guilty Gear plodding and lacking in the technical sophistication of its awkwardly named sequels. A lack of technical sophistication is why comparison to Nitroplus is fair.

Nitroplus is adequate. Sprites are darling. Animation excels. Color can be overwhelming. In terms of an outward appearance, Nitroplus conquers the lower budget, mid-tier origins of its development.

Letting Nitroplus down is the insignificant design of anime “babes,” with bodies made from jiggles and curves, culled from titillating visual novel source material. Awkward, showy high kicks are such for a lone reason no matter how the lengthy, fan fiction-esque dialog begs to legitimize the appearance. Those kicks feel flat, too.

Nitroplus comes from a world swollen with JRPGs designed to drive cosplay. In this case, costumes may well be a character’s lone identifying factor. Fighting in Nitroplus lacks drama, a B-level Marvel vs. Capcom with a plethora of flickering indicators and cameos, everything denied substantive weight. Hit a trigger, out pops a victorious mega strike. How dull.

Outside of internet corners where the Nitroplus community gathers, these characters offer nothing of substance – the collection of mystics, vampires, and devilish women are trite. Guilty Gear at least had a flash of character design. Nitroplus could be a collected cross-over from obscure RPGs and few would notice they were being duped.

2/5