The beginning options are familiar; you have the arcade mode, practice mode, and game options. But Sega decided to give us a couple of goodies in the form of a custom mode as well as net and link play. In the custom mode you can pick a mech, change it's colors, and even choose or create your own personal emblem to proudly show off as you blast the competition. Always wanted a Darth Maul mech since you saw Episode 1? Now you can make it happen! But don't go thinking that you can just jump right on the net and start reaping justice for the Sith just yet. Unfortunately the net option requires a lot of cash for long distance calls to Japan as well as the "net money" you have to spend to join in on a server; some of us will have to wait for the US version for that luxury. But, if you do have 2 TVs, 2 Dreamcasts, a link cable, and 2 copies of the game you can have your own version of the arcade right at home. The split screen mode is nice but the full screen experience is always better.

VOOT's graphics are top notch with only minimal changes to optimize it for the Dreamcast. The polygon count is lower than it's arcade counterpart but it does not take anything away from the beautiful eye candy that it is. As far as I can tell there has not been many changes to the stages except a few graphical marvels that the arcade had were obviously taken away due to possible slowdown issues. Everything else is intact.

Now comes the issue of control. Surprisingly, Sega came up with a great button setup; the analog stick lets you turn in place, the D-pad controls were you walk, run, or dash, the triggers fire your weapons, and the regular buttons are for your directional turbos, jumping, and blocking. The controls took a while to get used to but they were not impossible. If you wish to play in true arcade form you will just have to purchase the twin stick. You do have the option of changing button configurations but you can't customize them; you must pick from pre-made settings. Overall, the controls were well thought out and, after a little work, easy to use

The arcade gameplay is all there with all of your favorite bots from the first game as well as a few newcomers. Some of the tweaks that the second game was given were air dashing as well as the ability to change direction mid-dash. With this new ability for more control in the air, evading weapon fire becomes easier for you and your enemy, adding a little bit more difficulty and time to your matches. And you can match up against old favorites like Raiden (gotta love that killer twin beam), and newbies like the grim reaper-esque Specineff. I feel I must also give a warning, this game has an incredible amount of depth to it. The only game I can compare it to is Soul Calibur, both allow anyone to just jump in and play but learning all of the tiny nuisances and special moves creates an incredible battle experience. Each character has a large collection of moves, both short and long range attacks; and yes, if you know what you are doing you can even create a combo of sorts with the characters. The only real problem I had with the gameplay was that even though you can take away the time limit for the regular fights, you can't get rid of them for the mid and end boss. And if you have not destroyed them by the time limit, you die without a chance to continue. Otherwise there is no slowdown, on rare occasions the game seemed to sputter for a split second, but it never caused a problem. Lastly, the load times are only a few seconds long; what more could you want in a port?