I can fondly recall the first time I saw the trailer for the movie. I loved the concept, if not the male lead, and the effects caught my eye enough to be willing to fork over the dough to see it in the theater. Months go by in anticipation and I read the first five books released by Oni and I can’t wait to see how they butcher it. There was so much chaos, so many different things going on, a lot of which poorly explained or never explained at all. And to its credit I like to think it pulled off an entertaining story I felt not shame what so ever in paying good money for.

They movie, surprisingly enough, was totally worth it as well. Despite Cera’s role and the common storyline mangling most book to movie adaptations go. Considering the end scene in the movie I actually thought that was handled better than in the books. So I loaded up the ol’ PS3 wallet with digital dollars and got the game.

I definitely had mixed feelings about this title after playing. It was like some strange acid induced amalgam of movie, book, and old school brawler. Taking and leaving what ever it wanted from the continuity of either base source in equal shares. My inner fanboy was jumping for joy picking out the references as they popped up in pixilated nostalgia. While the Nit-pick in me groused at the lack of any real story telling outside of your standard “There bad guy. Whoop his ass. Save the girl.”

Even more confusing were some of the endings. Which were tailored to each character but only if they were player one. Which added a slightly uncomfortable confusing element, but an interesting take on the ending when you’re expecting the standard movie/book climax you usually get in adaptation games like this.

As far as game play goes, it was incredibly user friendly with multiple difficulty settings and the lack of a string-combo system. We had a few parties to play this one through and even light gamers or flat out folks ignorant to gaming all together had no trouble at all catching up to how to play in a stage or two. And I figure if I wanted to play Street Fighter instead of Rivercity Ransom then I’d be doing just that. But in the same vein it did take multiple attack formats, and elevations into account that the old school Nintendo games didn’t have the hardware or software to handle them. Some parts, especially the Dragon’s Den and the Chaos Theater with their platforming elements were teeth grindingly annoying as the side scrolling brawler with spastic character movements does not lend its self well to pit jumping and multiple threat dodging.

The bosses were unique, and no two (with obvious exception of the twins) being alike or simple recolors of previous foes. Folks who hadn’t read or watched either of the source materials found the foes engaging with their panic expressions or the devastation of their attacks. You didn’t get the feeling that you were fighting wave, after wave of faceless minions here. They often paired up foes with conflicting weaknesses to make you think about whom to take down first. I draw a similar style to Kingdom Hearts when fighting groups in an arena with multiple enemy types that requires a mote or two of strategy as well as good old fashioned button mashing.

The shop system was very confusing I’ll admit, in that you had to stumble upon them at random, and many of the really good ones completely hidden. But if you have a completionist compulsion like many gamers out there this is just another challenge to keep you interested in the long run. But the lag in between trying to purchase the items or even scrolling between items was a huge drag on keeping the party atmosphere going with a group of friends. The fact that you had to buy the object before even finding out what attributes it raises, or health/guts points it regenerates was also aggravating. Doubly so early on when money is tight and mistakes can cost you slower/less effective game play results. Though the little blurbs describing what each thing was to the developers was good for a laugh.

Characters weren’t washed out like in so many adaptation games. They actually had their core characteristics represented in how they fought, reacted to damage, and their endings especially tailored to who they are was a stroke of genius in my mind. My only slight gripe here is Knives, a DLC character has many of the same moves as Kim, and even her victory dance at the end of a stage was a shameless movement copy. Even Nega Scott, who is for all intents and purposes a black and white recolor of Scott, had original moves and character personality that Knives didn’t. And I let go the fact he looks so similar to his positive counter part because he DID look exactly like Scott only in black and white.

Having played every character through, maxed out their levels and generally fleshed them on in combat style. As well as all the DLC and achievements I easily logged 45 hours of good game play both solo and helping out my friends with their characters. So for about 35 cents an hour for the 15 bucks I plunked down for it I would more than say the Story mode is worth it.

Which is darn good considering the multiplayer function is absolutely worthless. As the original view stated, it is solely offline only, so the battles will only span your living room. Battle Royal was typically over in less than a minute as characters were either so strong a character with a human intelligence behind it could easily exploit your rival’s weaknesses with out reprisal or reversal. The lack of rounds, or even the fact that you have to reselect it after EVER MATCH and even rechoose characters was incredibly yawn inducing. Dodge ball was frankly an insult to the old school Rivercity Ransom games in it’s broken as hell hit detection or the fact that you lost half the fricken playing field any time the ball when to the opposite end. Boss rush was meh, as by then we had already beaten the crap out of them many times before in story mode and the zombie survival was so so as well, but I could have easily have done with out it.

But make no mistake, this game was great, and given the chance I would love to see more like it in the future. There is plenty of room and consumer dollars for neo-retro gaming like this for older gamers like myself that grew up on this type of game but wouldn’t mind seeing it repurposed to something new and more time relevant.

Final Score- 8 of 10