I recently got my hands on a copy of Psychic Force 2012, a Dreamcast game that many people probably don't even realize was released in the US. Just as they did with Darius Gaiden, Acclaim brought over Taito's latest Psychic Force title with no advertising, announcement or fanfare. The US PF2012 is essentially a quick and dirty localization job, as the game is literally the Japanese version with a few english subtitles. You would actually be hard pressed to even find Acclaim's name anywhere in the game.
I found Psychic Force 2012 to be a different, yet surprisingly enjoyable 3D fighter. Instead of dealing with that pesky thing they call "gravity", the combatants in PF2012 take to the skies (a la Dragon Ball Z). You and your opponent are not free to fly anywhere however, you are both restricted by a large transparent force cube. As with Dragon Ball Z, gameplay seems to revolve around massively powerful projectile attacks and flashy special moves. All the psychic special attacks in your repitoire are dependant on your psychic force meter. The higher your meter, the more powerful the special moves available to you. Each time one of these psychic moves are performed, you lose some force. When the meter is empty or extremely low, a few scaled down versions of the specials can be used. These moves may not be powerful, but it is certainly better than being defenseless. Thankfully, you can recharge your meter at anytime by holding down certain buttons, assuming of course your opponent gives you the opportunity.
The character designs are great, and totally anime. There are enough combatants available to keep most people happy, but there are certainly other fighters with many more. Each character has their own set of punches, kicks and throws, along with the aforementioned Psychic powers. Also of interest, are the interlocking storylines behind each individual. Whether good, bad or neutral, each character has some sort of relationship with the others. This can be seen in the brief exchanges before and after battles in the Arcade, and especially, Story mode.
The graphics are nice and clean, though not in the same league as Soul Calibur or Virtua Fighter 3tb. The soundtrack, which I assume is done by Taito's inhouse Zuntata, is pretty good, though typically strange. All the original Japanese voices are still there, and I applaud Acclaim for just adding subtitles and not destroying the great anime voice overs.
One of the best things about Psychic Force 2012, believe it or not, is its price. It seems that the average price of a brand new copy of the game, is only $29. For that price, you really can't go wrong in my opinion.
It's nice to see a publisher pick up a somewhat obscure Japanese game, localize it, and get it into stores quickly and for such a cheap price. I hope to see the trend continue.
-- Jim Cordeira
