2D fighters are games to easily enjoy, and they always have provided that authentic classic arcade feel in them. Battle High: San Bruno seems inspired by fighting games from the old SNK days. Fighting games don’t usually get the Indie game treatment, so this is a very surprising game to see.
San Bruno High School for The Elementally Advanced is a school for you to learn. It also is a school to harness and control your powerful abilities known as Elemental Chi. Take control of one of the eight characters who control different elements such as fire, ice, and lightning. These eight characters belong to a gang called ‘The Rivals’, who bully other students.
The games arcade mode could use a bit of work. After fights upon being victorious with which ever character you use, you’ll be directed to a screen to where the fighter will have a few words to say. The text for whatever the fighter is going to say, slowly scrolls and eventually will finish scrolling. It’s not even worth the time to just sit a wait to read. Not only does it happen there but also in occasional cut scenes. The writing for the characters just seem dull. You get no actual feel from the characters to actually understand their personalities. Arcade mode usually is something to just play through without paying attention to the story. For Battle High, its just better to skip through it.
All fighters always have their own interesting gameplay. Battle High’s fighting system is well done. Instead of 3 punches
and 3 kicks like in Street fighter, the game uses only light and heavy punches and kicks. These are pretty basic controls that provide players to pull off some easy combos. There’s a dash move that lets you cancel moves, similar to Street Fighter 4′s focus cancel system. Like Street Fighter 4, there is a challenge mode in which you pick a character and try to perform the combo given as they get difficult through completion of combos. As you get through challenge mode with characters, your progress is then recorded in the games journal along with beating the arcade with a character.
Graphic aren’t always pushed to the extreme with Indie games, but Battle High’s graphic work is impressive. Animation for all of the characters and stages is very smooth. Every character seems to have their own stage. That’s something most fighting games don’t do anymore. Some of the soundtrack in the game is fine but a lack of audio can be felt.
One thing to note on that’s missing and also one element that makes a fighting game, a fighting game is some type of an announcer for KOs or Perfects. Without someone announcing those accomplishments, it just makes a fight really dull. Just a big KO text to pop up at the end of a fight isn’t the same. Not to mention that there is no such thing as a perfect; the ultimate win in a fight. It is just simply ignored.
Battle High: San Bruno has some really good potential. It is worth trying if you are someone who usually avoids the indie marketplace. I think this game has a good possibility to be released as an arcade game if more ideas are put into it. A well made fighter on the indie service that is good but could do more.
Pros
- Basic controls for easy pick up and play.
- Classical SNK fighting style to it is a treat.
- Different type of move canceling
Cons
- A lack of audio put into it.
- Arcade mode is uneventful
- The Story it’s sounds okay but could really use work even though it’s a fighting game.
Score: 3/5
