Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel

In the overly saturated world of fighting games, crossover titles are becoming, more and more, the norm. Most of us love a good crossover fighting game, such as Marvel vs. Capcom or J-Stars Victory Vs.; even franchise games have their very own guest characters to add to the notion of a crossover, like Halo’s Arbiter in the new Killer Instinct or the Xenomorph and the Predator in Mortal Kombat X. As you can predict, this is a crossover title, but not your regular one; instead, it features a plethora of characters from Nitroplus’s series, from obscure visual novels and animes, to obscure mangas and games and, as one might expect, it features female characters exclusively.

It is not necessary to be familiar with these series and characters, god knows I’m not and most of you are not either, because the game stands for itself as a decent fighting game. Its aesthetic appeal is an open invitation for fans of Nitroplus and niponophiles alike, but the game mechanics are so intuitive and manageable that it also serves as an invitation from fighting game veterans and newcomers as well.

With a core roster of 12 characters and 20 more for support, the game system allows an enormous amount of possible combinations, mainly, because each player can choose two supporting characters, with a variety of different moves, from mere boosts to minion spawning. In this sense, a veteran player would like to try different possible combinations in order to suit best his fighting needs, while newcomers will welcome the help these supporting characters allow.

Regarding the game system itself, it doesn’t have a heavy entry barrier, but, if you’d like to master it, won’t be an overly easy task. The combo system allows players to use a simplified version of it, with the Variable System; by using this, players will have easy access to a great number of possible combo attacks. For the more seasoned players, there are three attack buttons, an evade button and a heavy action button, as well as a special attack depending on meter.  A really remarkable thing about this special attack, called Lethal Blaze, is that every animation is completely different, depending on the character and they resemble more a cut scene, because of its hand drawn style. Lethal Blaze is a powerful move than can drastically alter the result of a battle and, also, has priority over other moves, which makes it a great option to break combos.

Aesthetics are an important part of the game, as one could expect, not only because of the visual resonance of the characters from Nitroplus, but because of the exclusively female characters, which result, inevitably, attractive to certain kind of fans, but also to anime and manga fans alike. In this sense, Nitroplus fans will be the ones who take the most out of the game, because of the continuous references and nods to the different works of the company. To those, like me, alien to that universe, story mode will leave them in the dark, because the game does not elaborate on narrative.

The game features a single player campaign, with a classic 8 battles system, and a secondary campaign, unlocked once the first one has been beaten. It also features online mode, multiplayer, training and a collection of artwork from all Nitroplus’s characters. This might not be a major attractive feature for most people, but Nitroplus’s followers will find it interesting, at least.

The game might not be an excelling fighting game or prepositive in any major sense; however, it’s a well-crafted piece which delivers. If you like fighting games, this one might probably suit you, but won’t dethrone any of your old time favourites and, if you’re not that into the genre, but would like to try something new, this might just be the best option for you. Probably, the best feature it possesses is the dynamic support system; whilst we have seen many similar options, the uniqueness of each support adds a very welcome layer of depth to a genre that has a very small window left to improve.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
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