Review: Skullgirls 2nd Encore – PS Vita (8.8/10)

Fighting games have always had a place in my heart, from Mortal Kombat to BlazBlue games, and now another one is tightly placed for a lot of reasons named Skullgirls 2nd Encore.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore is not a sequel even though this is the third game in the series but more of what people liked plus even more characters that started from seven and now includes fourteen characters that all play differently and yes every fighter in games play different.

But in this game that means a lot more than with punches and kicks. Some characters are built for throws or better suited for quick combos or one takes every wrestler and makes a long running joke about it but they sure look damn good kicking ass. Yes, all fighters are hand drawn and move ever so beautifuly through detailed enviroments and characters like Big Band or Fortune look great in motion even on the PS Vita.

There is a certain issue I need to address which is the blurry textures and blurry with an extra case of small font. Training is huge in the game and I feel like I’m sixty trying to adjust my eyes. Come on developers, we need to be able to read the stuff.

Now that is out of the way let me address what you get in Skullgirls 2nd Encore. You have your single player with a fully voiced and pretty good story mode which is 100 percent less confusing than Blazblue series. You have quick match and you can take one to three characters and battle it out with the CPU.

Now loading can be slow and it mainly centers around how many characters you have and how many you are facing. One on one loads the quickest while 3 on 3 loads the slowest. Training mode takes the cake with your basic training room but there is one of the most tutorials of tutorials included with you learning everything the game has to offer plus tutorials on each character specials and blockbusters.

Blockbusters are the ultimate moves and some have a certain amount each and requires the meter to be at a certain level to pull off. Now there is also a challenge mode where you fight characters under certain objectives like team count or health regeneration and more. There is a survival mode that is just an endless bouts with characters and trials with it’s sort of like challenge mode but more on pulling certain moves.

Online is short and sweet with ranked and unranked matches and inviting friends to play but they also have some option that if clearer I would write about it but blurryness is a factor just know online is lag free from what I played though it took forever finding someone and this just came out.

There is an art gallery showcasing posters in their movie poster like form and amazing art to the movies from story mode so for anime fight fans you may like the art.

Conclusion

The game is very solid and highly suggested you pick it up if you like fighting games. The fighters play different and some are good for just starting out to ones who are pros. The tutorials are really well though the font could be less blurry to see what I’m reading.

The game does take awhile to load at times but is worth it just to see the amazing artwork of the fighters in motion and even the voice acting is spot on. The 40’s era of jazz fits the game to a spot on T and will even have you moving your head to the end credits. Just get this game and start dueling.

The review was written and provided by Chris. All screenshots are taken from the PS Vita version.