Ah fighting games. I remember being good at them in my pre-teen days. Well, against this one other kid I was good anyway. So that counts doesn’t it? To be honest, there are so many out there now that I can’t keep up. But I am always up for trying something new. So that is where Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe comes in.
Now this may cause purists to look at me in utter disgust, but I have never heard of Chaos Code. It has apparently been around since 2011 and had releases in arcades as well as PS3 and PS4 perviously. Well not it is on Switch so how is it for a crappy player?
I am a button masher of sorts in fighting games. In that I don’t have the control or reflexes to pull of the combos and moves needed to play at a decent level. So there is little to no point in my jumping online. A good single player mode is more than welcome.
Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe has a bounty of single player content with no online options at all in the Switch version. Whilst that may be disappointing to some. For those of us who are genuinely terrible at these games, it is a god send.
On offer are an Arcade Mode, VS Mode, Survival, Practice, Mission and Score Attack. There is loose story in the Arcade Mode, but it is very, very loose and can pretty much be ignored to just get into action.
I am probably doing it a bit of a disservice, but I really don’t care for story in fighters, if anything the single player in these games is a welcome release.
There is a nice range of characters but they do feel like they are a decade old in terms of design. Not full on fan service, but getting there. Playing with each one does feel different and you will soon pick a favourite or two.
The actual fighting does require a decent amount of dedication to learn the combos. As it doesn’t quite let you button mash your way through. I usually test this in the same way with most fighting games. By going into the first mode on offer and seeing how far I get without the tutorial / practice modes.
When I say button mash, I don’t mean randomly hitting buttons by the way. I do try to use distancing, understand the light and heavy punches, kicks, etc. Try the usual direction inputs for better moves, that kind of thing.
Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe feels very familiar in that regard. However, I felt like I couldn’t consistently pull off moves and couldn’t get the precise directional inputs required. So finding that I could get away with it a little was very welcome.
One thing that did stick out though, was the lack of a block button, even pressing back didn’t seem to block. It felt like avoiding attacks was the order of the day. It meant that each round felt very aggressive and that was really fun.
Taking to the practice mode I was able to get a better understanding of the moves on offer. I could get a slight improvement in consistency, but my tank hands still struggled in the main.
So I found I could get by on the default difficulty, with some trouble, but anything above that was a no go. If you are adept at fighters though, you should have no issues
This is one thing I really liked about Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe, was that I could play it in my own way. The lack of online play meant I could do what I want and not feel I was going to ruin my chances if I venture online.
The only thing I would need to worry about was some local multiplayer and that was against my son. I can happily report I am still the best in the world (in my home), so I’ll take that as a victory.
I’ve played better fighting games and still get on best with the likes of Mortal Kombat. Yet compared to others where you feel like you’d need a degree in fighting mechanics to even begin to get by, this is a welcome addition to the genre.
There is an easy enough point of entry with enough customisation options to tailor the game to your needs. It also has enough depth they fighting games veterans won’t feel left out.
