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"Battle High 2 A+" is an indie fighting game and the evolution of more than half a decade of work between "Battle High: San Bruno", "Battle High: Elemental Revolt" and "Battle High 2". A passion project for sure between PointFiveProjects and Mattrified Games, the game started out in the Game Maker program with characters having edgier art, some different names, different animation frames and a more consistent sense of scale, but as the game evolved and the need for HD assets became essential to move it to the more powerful platforms such as Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Battle High 2 (and A+) went under a large overhaul, ultimately moving to XNA Framework to Unity, adding six characters, character voices, additional gameplay tweaks and balances, a remixed soundtrack, a more cartoonish Western art style as opposed to the more Japanese style of the original, HD backgrounds (but no reworked character sprites, explaining the seemingly smaller scale of them), and other quality of life changes to present the game we have today, 2 A+.

With a variety of intertwining plots, the game at its core is about a group of elementally gifted students who go to a special school in San Bruno, where rival gangs are at war, love triangles are at play, deception is a foot, and an evil puppet master pulls many of the strings. The game has a smidgen more plot than your average fighter, and I'm okay with that. Moves are done in typical Street Fighter fashion and the game responds pretty well, though some super moves are harder to pull off than they should be. Characters fall into the usual categories such as rush-down / rekka, trap, zoning, etc., though not all characters are created equal. While the game IS more balanced than it was originally, certain characters have certain traits and it still has very broken characters like Michelle who can upgrade her abilities (going into her demonic state) and move at an absurdly high speed and do what is essentially an infinite combo (that was nerfed after a certain number of consecutive hits, but nonetheless deadly and super easy to connect), and some other characters have similar faults. Combos are also very limited without utilizing the cancel mechanic, but this consumes energy which can, fortunately, be filled up pretty easily (though Michelle barely needs any to thrash opponents).

The game looks and sounds decent for what it's worth, though the sprites don't always mesh well with the new backgrounds. Unfortunately, San Bruno / Elemental Revolt is no longer available for download due to the timeframe and digital nature of their release (the "best" way to play it would be to find a X360 with the game installed, which is slim) which causes a few discrepancies as far as following the plot, but overall, BH2A+ is the superior byproduct of their years of work. That's not to say that the game is amazing... while the game has a decent sized roster, I prefer quality over quantity in my games, and with each character having one super move and a few basic attacks with dash cancels and basic reversals being the highlight of an otherwise basic fighter, I'd be lying if I said there weren't plenty of better fighters. However, the game's very modest asking price ($2) and wealth of achievements and unlockables combined with its voiced characters and overall budget is well worth the asking price and nearly impossible not to recommend for those looking for cheap games, especially in the fighting sector.

This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/755590/Battle_High_2_A/
https://mattrified.itch.io/bh2
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/battle-high-2-a/bt02v75d21wg?activetab=pivot:overviewtab (It's $5 here)

Enjoy.

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