Project X Zone – gloriously over the top

A team-up between three of Japan’s biggest publishers seems the stuff of fan dreams, but is the resulting game more of a nightmare?

Collaborations happen all the time in music and cinema, but video game companies aren’t usually ones for clubbing together, or at least not in the West. Japanese publishers tend to be a bit more open, at least in terms of creating crossover games, and this bizarre new 3DS title combines games and characters from three industry giants: Capcom, Sega, and Namco Bandai.

What this means in practise is characters like Jill Valentine from Resident Evil fighting alongside Dante (the old school version) from Devil May Cry, Akira from Virtua Fighter, and Jin Kazama from Tekken. Clearly there’s no sensible story that could ever rationalise that sort of mash-up so the game doesn’t even try to take itself too seriously. In fact it ends up with a surprisingly sharp script that pokes gentle fun at the more absurd characters and video game tropes in general.



One of the oddest elements of the game though is that it’s co-developed by Xenoblade Chronicles maker Monolith Soft – which also places it as a pseudo-sequel to 2005 PlayStation 2 title Namco X Capcom, which was never released in the West.


Project X Zone itself is a kind of tactical role-player, like a sort of super simplified version of Fire Emblem. That means characters move around on a grid-based map, either in pairs or as more powerful solo units. However, the strategies don’t get much more complicated than trying to surround a unit so that everyone can attack at once, with up to five allies able to dog pile onto one hapless enemy.

When an attack is initiated the game become more action-orientated and you have to manually attack like a fighting game – although again an extremely simplified one where button-mashing will do for most normal battles.

That’s fine to a degree though because the real fun is in watching the absurdly over-the-top animations, where even the most basic move involves more acrobatics, high calibre weapons, and magical energy beams than a dozen normal fighting games. It’s glorious stuff, especially to fans of 2D animation, and the developers clearly know it’s the central appeal as far as the gameplay goes.

There are some more advanced tactics required though, most revolving around the EX bar which slow builds up the more you land your attacks. This can be used to block enemies, initiate super moves, or to improve your range or heal allies on the map.

You still wouldn’t accuse the combat of being deep but there is enough substance to keep you interested and the wonderfully old school animation and constant stream of insider jokes will keeps fans perfectly entertained.

What is a let-down though is the scenarios for each stage, which become tiresomely repetitive as you simply trudge through armies of cannon fodder bad guys on the way to a boss. We’re fine with there being no proper story but the lack of effort in terms of the stage design stands in stark contrast to the amount of tender loving care put into the special moves.

Some will be upset about the choice of characters too, and although there are some enjoyably bizarre additions amongst the support units there’s too much emphasis on role-playing characters. That’s obviously a reflection of the game’s primary audience in Japan, but it means that Sega in particular gets the short end of the stick. Especially as nobody from Skies Of Arcadia or Panzer Dragoon is a playable character (and yet oddly Ulala from Space Channel 5 is).



Sega has obviously left Sonic The Hedgehog out on purpose, but with too little representation for its more famous arcade games the legendary publisher is left being represented by characters like Delinger out of Dynamite Cop and by backdrops from obscure coin-op Gain Ground.

Still, if that creates an excuse for a sequel we won’t mind. We’re not ones to usually defend mediocre gameplay for purely aesthetic reasons but this is more an interactive celebration of Japanese character design than it is a game. And that description should make it perfectly obvious as to whether you’ll enjoy playing it yourself.

And yet with a bit more variety and exploration this could have been a genuinely great game even without all the cameos. That ambition though doesn’t seem to have entered anyone’s head, which means that as enjoyable as the celebration is it’s also a rather superficial one.

In Short: Not a particularly good game in its own right, but an enjoyably outrageous mash-up between three of Japanese gaming’s most prolific publishers.

Pros: The fan service is off the charts and the 2D animation is fantastic, with some hilariously over-the-top attacks. Great music too and some surprisingly funny dialogue.

Cons: Both the strategy and action elements are extremely simplistic, a fact that the repetitive scenarios only further emphasise. Many of Sega’s most famous games get short shrift.

Score: 6/10

Formats: 3DS

Price: £29.99

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Developer: Monolith Soft and Banpresto

Release Date: 5th July 2013

Age Rating: 12

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