Acceleration of SUGURI 2 Review

On the surface, Acceleration of SUGURI 2 may look a cheap and unthoughtful product. The cutesy anime art style will put off many potential players. Well, it’s time to put those inaccurate misconceptions to rest. Underneath the fun colours is a deep, rewarding bullet hell shooter.

Acceleration of SUGURI 2 is different from your typical bullet hell. Its gameplay style is 1 versus 1 duelling. The controls and feel of the game are similar to bullet hells. You still have to dodge all manners of lasers and rockets. While countering with your own.

The game is a dream to control. It responds to every input with perfect precision. The controls are never the cause of failure. It’s about pure player skill. You find feel frustration as you play through the stages on the harder difficulties. Such a luxury is all one can ask for from a game such as this.

You have two central modes of attack. The primary and secondary weapons. These are different for each of the characters. There doesn’t seem to be a common theme for the weapons either. The primary weapon may be lasers for one character. It could be a melee attack for another. Each weapon has its own energy bar, so you can’t string together infinite combos.

You can also enhance your attacks using the special command. For most characters, this results in a melee or close range attack. Although, that doesn’t always have to be the case. This adds another couple of attacks to your arsenal. The variety of combat maneuvers helps keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.

Finally, you have hyper attacks. You can use a basic hyper attack by inputting the Hyper button. Or, you can combine it with a primary or secondary weapon for a different hyper attack. These are devastating and powerful moves that can change the game. If you land the hit. To use hyper attacks you have to build up the hyper meter. It’s quite and simple and shown by three circles. A hyper attack uses a single circle.

Alternatively, you can save all three circles and use them at once. The result is the strongest attack for each character that takes up most of the arena. There’s an element of risk versus reward with these moves. You can use them all up at once for a powerful attack. However, that leaves you wide open as the hyper meter has another important use.

You have two main options for defence. The first is dodging via the dash mechanic. You do a quick dash by tapping the button or hold it down for a longer one. Using dash builds up your characters’ heat, shown by a percentage. If your heat is above 100%, you will take extra damage depending on high it is. Abusing the dash will only assure your quick defeat.

The other defensive move is the shield. You can use half of a hyper meter circle to create a temporary shield. While it makes you immune to attacks, it is possible for the shield to break. Also, you can activate an emergency shield while you are taking damage. This is useful as being taking a hit will stun you. However, the emergency shield takes a full circle of the hyper meter, not half.

So, Acceleration of SUGURI 2 has great bullet hell and 1v1 mechanics. Yet, good mechanics can go to waste if the characters play the same. There’s nothing to worry about here. Each character has their own style and strategy. With over 10 playable characters, there is one available to suit whatever play style you wish. There are aggressive fighters with a focus on closing the gap. Or you can hang back and annoy opponents with your insane range. Find a style a character that suits your playstyle.

Acceleration of SUGURI 2 has three game modes to hold your interest. First, you have a story mode, which has become a standard feature for these types of games. Every character has their unique story, but it isn’t as interesting as you would think. You get a few lines of dialogue for the first and last fights. That’s about it.

Also, this is a sequel so it references events from the previous game. There isn’t a recap of the previous story. To be fair, that’s not a feature any game owes, so it’s not a negative. It is worth being aware of it though, in case you wish to follow the plot.

Next is the arcade mode, which is nearly identical to the story mode. Minus the dialogue and no boss fight at the end. It feels redundant to have two modes so similar in design. They could add dialogue in the arcade mode and remove the story. It would make no difference.

Both modes have three levels of difficulty. You may want to start on the lowest difficulty and work your way up. Once you get familiar with a character, even the hardest difficulty should be no problem.

The real way to test your skills is the multiplayer, either local or online. The matchmaking is strange. You can either join a lobby or create your own. In a lobby, you can challenge other players. This is a solid idea, yet it doesn’t work as well as basic matchmaking. Many times you’ll see lobbies with an even number of players, so you can’t fight anyone. The result is a lot of waiting.

I like the idea of lobbies as it lets you interact with other players. There should be a quicker alternative to find more matches. Aside from that, there are no special rules to set. You can change the number of rounds and the time limit. The standard is 2 rounds at 3 minutes each. Ample time to finish a match without timeouts.

Acceleration of SUGURI 2 has basic graphics. It uses an anime style for the cute female characters. The design choice may not be for everyone, but it’s worth ignoring for the solid gameplay. The characters have a distinct look to them. At the least, you can appreciate the thought behind each character. They are more than cut-and-paste anime designs.

The soundtrack also has an anime feel to it. Most of the tracks are excellent. They are the perfect company for the fast-paced action of the game. There are some vocal songs too, but they’re in Japanese. Which is fine since it fits the theme.

Acceleration of SUGURI 2 has plenty to like about it. Tight and responsive controls with unique characters. Online play to improve your skills. The only downsides are the lacklustre story mode and inefficient matchmaking. The anime style may push someone away from this game, but it shouldn’t. Nothing here is any crazier than what you’ll find in games like Guilty Gear or Blazblue.

Acceleration of SUGURI 2 has enough to entice newcomers. It’s easy to recommend if you want to try something a little different. For fans of the series, this is a must-buy. A final tip. If you want to play online, look through the Steam discussion boards to find people to play with. The matchmaking will be much easier that way.

REVIEW CODE: A FREE PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.