The first Gungrave made its U.S. debut to a bout of cricket noises followed by a drop to bargain bin prices by retailers everywhere. This all occurred despite the above average level of anticipation for the game in the enthusiast community, and the fact that the character designs were handled by the same team as the breakout anime hit of the day, Trigun. Perhaps the first game’s publisher, Sega, really is cursed. Stupid business decisions have knocked the once venerable development house into what even the most ardent fanboys can only refer to as the nadir of the corporation.

A game like Gungrave should have been able to sell itself; but I guess when a game has been localized by Sega, it is bound to run into some trouble. Was its retail failure due to Sega’s idiotic decision to forgo almost any level of promotion for the game whatsoever, ignoring the inherent marketability of a character as well designed as leading man Beyond the Grave? Or perhaps the obvious market, Trigun fanatics newly christened by the appearance of the show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, wanted the damned proper Trigun game Planet Gunsmoke to release one of these days, wanting the title so badly that to play a game with such a similar concept would be more torture than pleasure for the poor fanboys? Or, most likely, a combination of these two maladies? Either way, Gungrave did not sell, Sega refused to release the highly anticipated sequel, and fans of both the publisher and the game were left with nothing but an empty feeling (a feeling not uncommon for a fan of this publisher. The life of a Sega fan!).

Months after Sega should have buckled down and given the new Gungrave a go, perhaps with a little promotion this time, the staff of gaming heroes over at Mastiff came in to save the day. Gungrave: Overdose hit stores with a full English translation, dubbed voice acting, and fantastic eye-catching packaging (with the exception of the badly written screenshot descriptors on the back). This is the psychotic action game Rockstar wishes they could develop. Overdose is not without flaws, but the overall experience is something many developers have been trying for, but never achieved. It is something special for sure.

Gungrave: Overdose is the story of Beyond the Grave, a resurrected killer, and his battle against the spread of a dangerously addictive drug known as Seed. Brought back to life by the Necrolization Project, Grave may be ready for action, but this came at a steep price: The loss of all memory and emotion. Along with Grave are two new playable characters. Juji Kabane is a blind undead soldier with a strong aversion to Seed and not much else to his back story. Rocketbilly Redcadillac was originally a ghost haunting a guitar, later brought to physical being by Kabane. He’s happy-go-lucky, talkative, and doles out death with a spiritually-charged electric guitar. All three character designs are completely ridiculous, as is the storyline itself, but that’s where the charm in this game is! Overdose rarely takes itself too seriously, and the emotional moments present tend to be countered by an equally silly concept or event soon thereafter.

Overdose is a bit overwhelming for the first few minutes. After watching one of the slightly awkward anime-like CG sequences, players are thrown into a chaotic cacophony of cartoonish violence – the sort which hasn’t been seen since the first Gungrave saw release. The game sacrifices graphical quality for action. Lots and lots of action. Hordes of suited drug-pushing mafia-cum-goomba fools with a variety of weapons from swords to rocket launchers will charge Grave from all directions, their disastrous assault seemingly far from its end during most of the gameplay. To keep the waves of foes at bay, players can use a close-range attack (the classic coffin handles this for grave) to hit multiple foes at once, and of course guns akimbo to pop lead into far-off enemies.

This game is not just an all-out kill-‘em-all romp. There is some substance to be found here. Most action games seeing release these days tend to have a gimmick involving how efficiently the player eliminates his enemies. Gungrave: Overdose has a solid system involving an on-screen flame that serves as a countdown timer between dealing out some form of destruction, whether it is killing a brigade of drug-pushing fools or smashing up some poor guy’s couch. Each bit of destruction adds to a counter, which keeps going until the player allows the flame to go out. Depending on the number the counter has reached, the player may receive a special attack which can be used by pressing triangle (the importance of organizing when best to use these special attacks is immeasurable, especially during boss fights). But it’s not all about killing; the game rewards strong defensive tendencies, too.

Overdose’s innovative health system is the biggest push towards depth the game has. A shield bar keeps track of damage dealt to Grave. If the poor coffin-wielding deadman can avoid taking damage for even a few moments, the shield bar will refill itself. But if the layer cannot get Grave out of the fray in time (which is an extremely common occurrence in this game, believe me!), Grave’s health bar will deplete, and not regenerate for the rest of the stage. The trick is to withstand just as much enemy fire as you can and keep a proper exit strategy in mind. But don’t think any super-exact plans will work every time. This is not a memory game. As fun as I personally thought Capcom’s P.N.03 was, putting Gungrave in the same category as that game would be a sore mistake. Overdose takes the exciting strategic thought patterns required for memory-based action games and throws it into a blender with a copy of Smash T.V., giving gamers everywhere access to one of the best pick-up-and-play formulas out there today.

If only the controls were a bit better.

With such a great game surrounding it, it’s a shame developer Red Entertainment shipped Overdose with the stiff, somewhat inaccessible controls it has. For starters, the jump controls are awkward. To move forward while doing a high jump (instead of executing the forward roll move that pressing jump and forward usually activates), the jump button must be pressed first, followed by leaning the analog stick forward at a narrow point during the hop. It feels far too cumbersome and stiff for such a fast-moving game. The standard movement fairs a bit better, though backpedaling is a strange affair, again due to the unintuitive narrow space between backpedaling and turning. Stiff controls are something that I support to an extent (3d games have been far too loose in their controls for the most part), but Overdose goes too far with the concept, and not in a way that contains the same balanced tightness of the fantastic arcade shmups of the late eighties/early nineties.

Overdose is an action game at heart, and while much hype has tossed about over the character designs, graphics take a back seat to gameplay just as in the first Gungrave. In order to get as many enemies on screen at one time, Overdose looks like it should have come out at least three years ago. It sports a lack of any substantial anti-aliasing, excruciatingly blocky graphics, and some of the worst textures this side of the PSone. I cannot express enough gratitude to Red Entertainment for putting the focus on gameplay, but they could have tossed together a better engine than this, especially considering that this is a sequel. Some of these textures may have had their place in an AAA PSOne release, but their appearance in a Playstation 2 game is inexcusable. The Trigun creators put together a great setting for this game; it’s a shame they didn’t stretch their programming skills to the fullest in order to best communicate the vision of their artists.

The anime-esque CG sequences are a mixed bag when it comes to visual appearance. Their cel-shaded look is okay, but not really two-dimensional enough to avoid looking awkward, and at the same time not three-dimensional enough to look professional. Hand-drawn (with a little digital assistance, of course) sequences would have been much more appropriate for the crazy hair-styles and costumes sported by Gungrave’s lineup. Anime fans and gamers alike won’t find anything special in these sequences.

Gungrave: Overdose is also a mixed bag in terms of sound. Some of the voice acting is dynamic and enjoyable, but most is far too monotone and unexpressive that it falls flat. Since the game already has subtitles, I would have preferred to keep an English dub out of things altogether if the publisher couldn’t afford to get a better cast of voice actors. Still, the effort was a good one, and I applaud Mastiff for giving it the college try. The music is somewhat unexpectedly eclectic and sometimes inappropriate, but mostly sticks to an upbeat tempo that keeps the action going smooth. And the sound effects are perfect. Red Entertainment did the best they possibly could have in this regard.

Gungrave: Overdose is an amazing action/shoot-‘em-up of the sort that casual gamers everywhere seem to crave, yet never notice sitting on the shelves in front of them. Mastiff was kind enough to release this title at a budget price, so if you’re looking for an addictive shooter, waste no time and run over to your nearest gaming store right now, shell out fifteen or twenty dollars (depending on the store), and knock your Playstation 2 into submission with a marathon Overdose session on a harder difficulty. Despite its flaws and largely average visual appeal, this game is worth full price, so there is absolutely no excuse not to pick it up for as cheap as it is.

Score: 7.5/10