Mascot fighting games are absolutely great in my opinion. Bringing together a huge pool of characters from a variety of sources, all tied together by a common thread and making use of easily recognised characters and locations to treat fans of the company to a thrilling and fun mash of references and interesting character interactions that normally wouldn’t come about otherwise. Whether it’s the manic style of Super Smash Bros or the flashiness of Marvel vs. Capcom, it’s a really hard concept to mess up for the fans of a developer. So, it may surprise nobody that I found Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel to be a fun and colourful romp that appealed strongly to my otaku sensibilities.
Developed by Examu and published by Marvelous and Nitroplus, Nitroplus Blasterz is an arcade style fighting game featuring characters and locations from anime, games, and visual novels owned by Nitroplus. Characters from Senran Kagura, Arcana Heart, Psycho-Pass, and more appear as both fighters and support characters; as well as each series providing an interesting backdrop for the fights to occur on.
Support characters are normally dull, but certain ones are over the top.
Regarding characters, there’s thirty-two of them split between fighters and support fighters. Similar to how Marvel vs Capcom works, the two supports can be called upon at any time to fire off a single attack and then leave; the difference here being that’s about the extent of supports. The fourteen playable characters who fight, however, have fully fleshed out move sets and unique special moves that feel fun to use on each character.
Especially noticeable on certain non-combatant characters who made it into the roster, such as Super Sonico; who’s the main mascot of Nitroplus, and was originally created for a music convention. Of course, we’d expect characters like Saber to be capable fighters, but the characters from series like Gekko no Carnevale or School-Live! Are well adapted to their otherwise unusual settings.
Speaking of settings, the setup for Nitroplus Blasterz is straight out bizarre, even by genre standards. Centered around Sonico and Al Azif, it’s about how handing out her company’s new “D-Phone†has started this chain reaction resulting in the end of the world by spreading negative emotions; which in turn powers up Al Azif into becoming a world destroying superhuman who believes there’s no point in anything, because we’ll all die someday anyways and you can’t take it with you. At least, that’s the impression I got from the game’s story mode.
The story mode is a standard arcade ladder presented in a style similar to BlazBlue, where after fighting an opponent you may be treated to a visual novel style cutscene between fighters. The difference here, however, is that the cutscenes may or may not happen depending on where you are in the arcade ladder. Also different from other games like Blazblue, these cutscenes are normally either serious or silly depending on who your character is and who she’s fighting. For instance, don’t expect a single serious scene to occur when you’re playing as Sonico; who fights by using her cats and summoning members of her band.
Super Moves can be the difference between a win and a loss if used properly.
If you think that either of those methods of attack sound fun to use, then Nitroplus Blasterz will give you plenty more where that came from. Character moves are varied and feel unique amongst all of the playable fighters, and are a treat to watch happen. Each attack is wonderfully animated, whether it’s the silly and zany nature of Sonico or the gruesome and fleshy attacks of Saya, players will almost definitely feel that each attack is tightly connected to the fighter that uses them.
Each support character is just as unique too. With two supports to each fighter, they act much like recharging super moves that fit situational niches to build off the moves and powers of the fighters you play as. There does seem to be a balancing issue, however, as some characters are much stronger than others. For example, a few of the supports only perform a basic strike, counter, or stun on the enemy. Meanwhile, you have others like Angela Balzac, who fires an artillery strike on the stage for massive damage.
There’s no indication as to what these powers are or what they’ll do before using them, but the game does provide a wonderful suggestion system, placing stars next to the supports that work well with your current fighter. It’s a nice mechanic that I wish more fighting games would implement to help new players adjust to a genre that can have a difficult barrier to entry.
Speaking of barriers to entry, this game has almost none. Aside from learning character moves, and how to activate your specials, Nitroplus Blasterz is an incredibly easy game to pick up and play. It’s not quite as complex as other fighters, combos are pretty basic by fighting game standards, and players aren’t likely going to feel the same level of accomplishment landing a super ability as in other games, but it all lends itself to a simple yet fun experience that can be enjoyed by almost anyone.
Overall, Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel is a fun title that does a lot to appeal to both fighting game noobs and fans of Nitroplus media, but doesn’t do too much to stand out from the fighting game crowd. It’s a pretty game, contains a bunch of somewhat obscure characters, and has plenty of flashy super moves to keep people entertained, so if any of those sound like a good time, then definitely check out Nitroplus Blasterz. Otherwise, I’d only really recommend this to people who enjoy Nitroplus in general, since you can find other fighting games with more complexity for the same 40$ price tag.