Arcana Heart

THE GOOD:
Arcade-perfect graphics and gameplay. Great anime-style graphics. Fairly deep gameplay with over 100 different character combinations. Multiple gameplay modes. All the playable characters are girls.

THE BAD:
Slightly sluggish controls. Not terribly different from most other fighting games.

SUMMARY:
A hugely popular game in arcades in Japan, Arcana Heart is one of the newest anime-style games to make it to the US and arrive on the PS2. Although not based on an anime series, the game's graphics and character designs are very heavily anime-inspired, which contributes partly to the game's huge popularity-the other factor being this game is the very rare fighting game to boast an all-girl lineup, all the fighters are female.

The graphics are impressive and fairly slick, as the game makes very good use of the anime-style illustrations between the impressive opening animation sequence, character designs, post-fight screens, and...