It's a bit thrown together, yet stories have never been the strong point of fighting games. The backgrounds for most the 14 main characters aren't too interesting either. Jam, for instance, wants to use the prize money to open up a restaurant. Sol just hates Gears, and is surprised that one is still around. The bosses stories weren't too bad. Testament had become a shadow of his former self when he became a Gear. When freed from Justice's control, he hated himself for what he had done as a Gear so he began wandering aimlessly. It was then that he found Dizzy, an orphaned half human and half Gear girl. She was exiled from her home town despite her foster parent's protests, and lived alone in confinement. After telling Testament her life story, he decided to take it upon himself to protect 'his precious one'.

Storylines aside, the characters are well designed and have a heavy anime look to them. At a glance, the game might seem a little on the serious side, but once you take a close look at some of the characters, you'll realize it's not all that. While Sol Badguy (What a name) and Ky are the cool Ryu/Ken types, the others are a little more weird, but in a good way. One character stands out in my mind, and that's the 'doctor, gone mad', Faust. He wears a paper bag over his head, uses a giant scalpel, and standing straight, is easily twice the size of the average fighter. Fighting styles are of course varied, so that you'll most certainly find a character that suits your tastes. Potemkin is the slow and powerful giant, while Jam and Chipp are the quick and agile 'in your face' types. However, I've noticed that some characters, Sol being one of them, seem a bit more overpowered than others.

The gameplay is something like Samurai Showdown, and the moves are standard Street Fighter type quarter/half circles and charges...but feels nothing like a mere clone of either. It's very fast paced, as you rely on hard hitting combos, and flashy special moves to win matches. The controls are tight and very responsive, though it might take some practice to truly master the special moves, especially on a regular Dreamcast controller. I should point out that the analog stick doesn't work on this game...though I never use that for fighting games anyway. The Tension gauge at the bottom of the screen is the similar to the 'power bar' found in most 2D fighters nowadays...it fills as you make attacks and rush your opponent, rewarding aggressive players. When at least half a full Tension Gauge, you can to preform an Overdrive Attacks. Overdrive Attacks are the flashy and cool super moves. Some characters have more powerful overdrives than others though, creating some imabalance. Characters can double (some tripple) jump by pressing up twice. You can also dash in the air, as well as the ground. The A.I. in GGX is actually pretty though. Unless you actually practice your character and get used to how the game is played, you might have trouble. I've finished the game on all the difficulties, except 'Very Hard' which I'll admit is beyond even my skill.

Guilty Gear X has several moves all the characters can do. There's Dust Attacks that knock your opponent up into the air, and allow you to preform combos on their helpless asses. When you're knocked into the air, whether it be from a Dust Attack or something else, you can also preform a Recovery. By pressing any two buttons, you set your character to land on their feet...however, time this wrong and you could be in even more trouble than before. Faultless Defense, done by blocking and holding punch and kick, quickly drains your tension gauge, but allows you to become completely invulnerable. Dead Angle Attacks are a sort of counter move that while tricky to preform, allows you to knock your opponent on their back. I haven't quite gotten the hang of Roman Cancels, but supposedly they cancel your Overdrive Attack, whether it be for defensive reasons, or to chain another combo. Lastly, there's instant kills, that I'm sure you've guessed, kill your opponent instantly. These are very difficult to pull off, and your opponent knows it's coming when you charge up for it. While in Instant Kill mode, your Tension Gauge drains, and an unsuccessful attack causes your Tension Gauge to dissapear for the remainder of the round...An option only when you're desperate.

I'm sure no one has played EVERY 2D fighter ever made, but I'm also sure that Guilty Gear X has some of, if not the best graphics that've ever graced a 2D Fighter. We're talking hi-res here. Even though the backgrounds aren't 3D like Capcom vs. SNK 2, they're drawn very well. Though on some stages, the certain colors could have been toned down a little. There isn't a hint on blockiness on anything, and every character is sharp like they were just pulled out of an anime. They move super smoothly, and their moves are flashy and cool to watch. The bottom line is, the graphics are awesome.

While I suppose it's up to you whether you'll like the soundtrack or not, I for one think some of the coolest music in a videogame. GamePro actually claimed the soundtrack was one of the weak points. I quote, "Oppressive hard-rock pounds away in the background". The soundtrack is definately hard-rock though, mixed with a little jazz for a few. Personally, I like it alot better than the techno stuff you find in most fighting games, like Capcom vs SNK 2 for instance. It just seems to get me going better than the music in other games.

Moving on to sound, the announcers voice, while I believe was purposely distorted, is bad. It's a little hard to understand, despite him speaking English...sorta. "Are you ready? It's Cool! Let's enjoy a great show time.". A few of the character's voices sound a little funky...Chipp's voice sounds a little more whiney than his looks might suggest, and a few of Sol's lines sound like nothing more than grunts, but I'm just nitpicking. The sound effects are great. Each character even gets two or three taunts. Some are a little long, but well, they're taunts afterall.

While you can't ask for much more with gameplay itself, special modes would have been welcome. Since Soul Calibur, I'm sure everyone's become used to extra game modes, things to unlock, etc. There's a few things here...The two bosses and new costumes are unlockable via Survival mode (or a code). Aside from Survival, there's Arcade mode, Versus, Training...and that's pretty much it unfortunately. There's also an option that lets you record yourself playing, though I've never really found a use for that mode. Of course there's a score board that keeps track of overall high scores, and scores for individual characters too. I should mention too, that unless you finish arcade mode without using a continue, you don't see your character's ending. Considering the difficulty of the game, this is definately going to get some people all bitchy, seeing as how the game is pretty hard.