Imagine if you will a world where Dante of DMC and Kasumi of DoA had a love child that was raised in 1990s California and maybe dropped a few times as a baby. Now add a severe lack of clothing options requiring the use of chaps and a white bikini, got this picture in your head? Good, that's x-blade. Let's get serious here, x-blade tries to take what Dante and others of the genre made and kind of misses up. The game play is basically kill everything in a room, move on, kill everything. A little boring but mindless fun. Voice acting is bad, but funny bad so if you can enjoy that, it's a plus! Length, short, ten hours tops, maybe less. As far as graphics, the game looks good, a mix of high res backgrounds and so-so anime style characters. Controls are a little sloppy and you'll end up spamming some moves. All and all, if you can pick this up for under 5 you'll have a good time, just don't compare it to the big boy.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what I find so compelling about this game. It's not the greatest action game ever by any stretch, though I think it might have been better received had it not been released as a full-price retail release initially.

What it does have, though, is a ton of old-school beat-em-up charm with a very nice looking coat of paint. The game looks and plays amazing on a decent system, and there is a lot of care put into making the ruins where the game takes place feel like actual ancient ruins. However, because of the somewhat formulaic approach to the combat, you don't ever really get a true chance to explore.

When you enter a new area, you fight a bunch of things or a boss/miniboss, then move on. That's it. But in spite of this, I played through the game almost straight, then (after getting the "bad" ending) I immediately played it to completion a second time.

I think this is the greatest praise I can give a game - it was so much fun I didn't want to stop playing it after I beat it. Honestly, I think this is ten of the best gaming dollars I have ever spent, and I've picked up some pretty awesome stuff on the cheap.

Anyway, try the demo, and if you like what you see - check this out at once. It's a little rough around the edges in terms of variety and presentation, but the crazy amount of beatdown fun I had more than made up for it.

Its like devil may cry but with semi Dynasty warriors attacks. Finally I found a action RPG that doesn't involve a generic overly done point and click game play. Basically almost a clone of DMC with swordplay and guns but you have magical attacks as well which are awesome like the usual fireballs and the ability to set your blades on fire! The gun play is not as exciting or exploitative as DMC and the rate of fire is pretty slow but realistic being also limited to the pistol blades. The swordplay is also limited to the two blades and the same combos that give you a wide range of attack and speed to take on multiple enemies at once which is pretty cool seeing how much you do have to face on in the game. By themselves the different types of game play are boring but combined you can become a Blonde-Ganguro killing machine with the right combination of moves and tactics. If you love fast paced action with swords, guns and magic this is the game. However the Cel-shaded graphics are beautiful but stills needs some work but will only bother you during the cut scenes. Not the greatest game but a fun game to enjoy for quite a while.