PixlBit

 

Today marks the 10^th anniversary of the founding of anti-Capcom-list gaming company Platinum Games. I really enjoy Platinum and their games. A bit ironic considering only have 3 games in my collection by them and I have actually bothered to play one of them, Anarchy Reigns. Anarchy Reigns is an awkward game from Platinum. Its their closest thing they have done towards creating a fighting game yet in their pursuit to give it that “Platinum” touch, somehow makes the game a little too much “Platinum” for its own good.

 

The best way to describe Anarchy Reigns is today its the mutant child of Power Stone, Smash Bros, and Final Fight, stylized by artists from Heavy Metal. The combat of the game is really reminiscent of side scrolling beat-em ups, even having a panic attack to get rid of enemies that consumes a little of your health. However the heart of Anarchy Reigns' combat beats the tune of a proud fighting game. You have tons of combos still, most can be done simple directional inputs and holding down the button. Anarchy Reigns also has a unique system for stronger attacks that uses your character's skill, deadly weapon as the game calls it, to do stronger attacks and even super like attacks from combo strings. Now this would be already an action packed game but Anarchy Reigns ups the ante by including 15 other fighters to duke it out with you in unique environments full of stuff to use. If you are really into the pure combat of the game, the game also features 1 V 1 and 4 way free for all's without all of the randomness of the larger stages. In many ways Anarchy Reigns feels like the closest successor to Capcom's Power Stone in awhile. Yet, Anarchy Reigns has faults, many of which ironically live up to its name.

 

OK, let's do a mental exercise. Pretend for a minute that you are playing your favorite Smash Bros whatever game that maybe (and if you don't like Smash, pretend for a second you do). Think of your most hated stage, you know the one that is too random. Now image yourself fighting 15 other people in that stage, dealing with the random crap that stage throws at you, then have a cut scene straight up pause the action for a second to tell you that the area you standing is about to be hit by a airplane unless you find the safe zone.

 

In short, one of the main problems of Anarchy Reigns is that it lives up its name too well. The random chaos that a bulk of the main modes provide is too much at times and only gets provoked worse if your playing it online with people with poor connections. That's the other problem with this game, its basically an online only game. Yes there is a decent single player and you can play offline with bots with one player (although its strangely hidden in the training menu), the game has no offline split screen multiplayer not even LAN options. You can only play online with other people and its recommended you do it with a broadband connection, otherwise you'll be in for some choppy game play. However, even that might be hard because online is really devoid of much activity. Due having a terrible odd release schedule that Sega stalled the release of the game nearly one year after the Japanese version, despite it being ready at the same, the game had a real divided community and quickly dried up online activity. But even if you find an online game, with people featuring decent connections, the game most harshest reality rears its ugly head once you start playing with advance players. Anarchy Reigns' combat is seriously skewed towards more experienced players. People who know how this game works and what characters to use will wreck most new players. Thanks to only a few little patches to the game, there's no firm grip on character balance, and certain characters (specifically one Umbran Witch who is a $0.99 on the disk DLC character) are clearly favorite to win in most matches.

 

As long as the previous paragraphs complaints were, I do want to say that this favorite Platinum game. Its got a weird and interesting vibe to it that makes it almost an instant classic to me. However, the game's faults, especially the problems with online, make it such a hard recommendation. I've always held hope out that Platinum would patch this game, give it more content, or actually put this on Steam where it would be a much better fit than on consoles. But years have gone by and Platinum has seemed to move on. Its shame the guys who almost scream they would be a perfect fit as fighting game developers, tried it once and it didn't work out, then just left it a lone. It would be a shame if another 10 years past and Platinum didn't create more Anarchy in the realm of fighting games.