Japanese games tend to be rooted firmly in the realm of the completely absurd, and none of them embrace ridiculousness quite like BlazBlue. Every anime-riffic character — from Ragna, the slightly effeminate swordsman, to Taokaka, the obligatory catgirl — is beautifully drawn and totally bizarre. And while each future cosplay inspiration plays almost entirely differently, the controls feel amazingly natural and intuitive — and that’s even with the typical low-punch/highkick control scheme replaced by a more atypical four-button power-based scheme. After a couple of slightly confusing rounds with a new character, we were able to get a fairly decent handle on the gameplay, and as we gained more skill, it became just as rewarding as any Street Fighter mastery.

Unfortunately, the much-touted story mode leaves lots to be desired. The cutscenes are enormously long and static, and the plot is nigh incomprehensible. Fortunately, you can skip right past all of that and get to the meat of the game — its gorgeous duels.

On Xbox 360

+ The absolutely stunning anime visuals steal the show.

+ Fluid, intuitive controls with tons of room for mastery.

- Long, boring cutscenes in the story mode.

? Why do we even need a story for a fighting game?

8.0