

Power attacks for each fighter spice up the action a bit, if almost to a fault-let your energy meter build up all the way, and you can unleash a devastating attack that downs most of your Chrysler Building-size opponents within seconds. Jaeger or Kaiju, you're limited to blocks and strong and light attacks that amount to little more than swiping or stomping whatever's in front of you, which occasionally has no effect thanks to Pacific Rim's poor collision detection. That's partly because the combo-free combat's so simple, to the point that its monotony outweighs its accessibility in the campaign. That's less true of the harder Survival mode, but even mastering its additional challenges amounts to little more than making smarter blocks and throwing well-timed punches. Without explanation, it soon pits you against other Jaegers instead of the monsters threatening human existence as we know it, and to make matters worse, each of the five combatants in the core release cling to patterns so predictable that it's not too much of a challenge to score a gold ranking after but one failed attempt. Pacific Rim wisely avoids any attempt to follow the film's storyline to the letter, but the repetition of playing as the same three Jaegers (or robots) and two Kaiju (or monsters) throughout its mere 12 stages sours the experience. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
