Kill la Kill: IF has done a lot of work to push the arena fighter genre forward, even if its story mode won’t build up new fans.

With TRIGGER’s involvement for the design and Kazuki Nakashima’s involvement for the story, they managed to help deliver the style, music and hype that fans of the anime – such as myself – loved while creating an all-new “what if” story that may have fans returning to the anime.

Arc System Works delivers a great combat system and a fun story mode, but 8 fighters and 6 levels are too few, even if you are a big fan of the anime.

KILL la KILL IF has all the visual prowess of an Arc System Works competitive fighter minus the substance that they are usually known for. It doesn’t necessarily handle badly control-wise, it’s just far too simplistic for even the most casual player to get any real longevity or satisfaction from it. Mix that with a horde survival mode tacked on as an afterthought, and you have an unrewarding button-masher masked behind the scribbled down blueprints of a fighting game.

For the fans of the Kill la Kill anime, this would be a great and fun game to have and play with friends. Its button mashy system and crazy action are well presented. But lack of playable characters and high price tag drag it down for now.

Kill la Kill The Game: IF is a unique title for sure. It lacks depth and breadth but makes up for it in wackiness and style. Fans of the anime will likely enjoy it, but fighting game fans in general will most likely pass this one by. There just isn’t enough here to make it stand out among the crowd. One thing I can say about it though is that nothing is ever likely to be as bonkers as far as fighting games go…oh who am I kidding?

Kill la Kill the Game: IF has fun gameplay and a very appealing visual style, but it is let down by its inaccessible story mode and lack of content to incentivise prolonged play. The small cast of characters is forgivable because of how unique and fun each one is to play, but it's difficult to justify buying this at the full retail price when it runs so light on content. Nevertheless, the fanservice and unmistakable Kill la Kill flair is likely to delight fans, but aside from a few amusing unlockables in the gallery mode, there is little to sustain them beyond playing online.