*SPOILER WARNING*
The next paragraph or two have spoilers on the endings in SG.

Background:
The manual reveals a rather involved background story for SG.  In the future, 
humans have spread across the galaxy, and as a result, has had many armed 
conflicts with alien races.  Doctor Edward Bilstein is doing research on 
plasma weapons, which are weapons that draw upon emotions and inner strength.  
These weapons are considered extremely powerful, and the news of their 
existence reduces the number of conflicts humans have with other races.  
However, it is discovered that Bilstein has been using human subjects  in his 
experiments, and he is imprisoned.  Bilstein easily breaks out, and forms an 
army he calls the "Fourth Empire" and starts conquering planets as he slowly 
moves towards earth.  On Earth, a program called "Star Gladiator" is begun to 
arm people with the plasma weapons, which are the only weapons that can stand 
up to Bilstein's Plasma power.  

With this departure from the typical "we want to see who's strongest lets have 
a tournament" storyline, I was expecting some pretty good endings in SG.  NOt 
so however;  All you get is a short text before the credits saying basically:  
"We defeated Bilstein, but his body disappeared."  Obviously, they're setting 
up for Episode 2, which is currently in development.  No animation, no 
pictures, not even replays of your winnings.  If you beat the game in under 6 
minutes, the text is a bit different, but not much better.  This is probably 
the most disappointing aspect of the game IMO (although better than the 
arcade, which just gave you a picture of Bilstein that said "Coming Soon."

Gameplay:
This game came out, I believe, one or two months after Soul Edge.  
Coincidentally, the two games have virtually the same, basic game engine.  
Draw your own conclusions.  The button layout consists of vertical slash (A), 
horizontal slash (B), Guard (G), and Kick (K).  Sound familiar?  The controls 
are in the typical Virtua Fighter style, with tapping the joypad and hitting 
buttons giving you variations on your attacks.  As this is Capcom, there is 
also a smattering of fireball and yoga flame motions. 

SG has a lot of special features in addition.  First there is the Plasma 
Revenge, which is essentially a move reversal.  Attacks are blocked and 
a counterattack is automatically performed.  To prevent abuse, there is a 
different motion for Plasma Revenges against vertical and horizontal slashes 
(kicks can't be reversed, I think).  There is also the Plasma Reflect, which 
is similar to the block stun found in Soul Edge.  Instead of automatically 
counterattacking, the opponent is left stunned momentarily, allowing you to do 
the combo of your choice (albeit very quickly).  Both these techniques are 
crucial for balance in SG when you consider its use of "combo trees."  
Essentially, each character has a ton of preprogrammed combos.  So many, that 
you almost feel like you are making them up yourselves as you play.  To 
prevent people from just mashing buttons and pushing opponents out of the 
ring, Plasma REvenges and Reflects allow you to take the offensive against 
overly aggressive players.  There are special preprogammed combos called 
Plasma Finals, which basically have a flashy ending move that does a lot of 
damage.  These combos can be performed at any time, although most are too slow 
to actually land.  Finally, there are Plasma Strikes.  This is basically a 
very powerful and flashy move that can be performed once per round.  They're 
much to slow to use except when your opponent has missed a very big attack.

Overall, the gameplay in SG is very well balanced and encourages a mix of both 
offensive and defensive play.  Plasma Revenge/Reflects keep people from 
flailing, while the variety of moves and combos lets people attack with a lot 
of freedom and variety.  The controls are mostly responsive, but 
unfortunately, joypad presses can't be done while holding down the block 
button for some moves.  This makes it hard to counterattack sometimes.  Also, 
dashing is not as responsive as it should be.  Dodges are not as strong as in 
other games, since horizontal slashes can usually hit a sidestepping opponent.

What SG really needs is true freedom of attack.  What I mean is, it needs real 
combos.  While there is undoubtedly a very large number of preprogrammed 
combos, you are still limited.  What made VF2 great was the great variety in 
juggles you could perform.  SG has limited juggling, mainly because most 
characters don't have many "juggle starters" to launch opponents into the air. 
Those moves that do launch opponents into the air usually push them back too 
far, making it very difficult to juggle.  Despite this one deficiency, SG has 
very solid gameplay.

Graphics:
SG characters have an interesting mix of effects on them.  Some parts of the 
characters may be completely flat-shaded, while other parts will be only 
Gouraud shaded, and still others will be Gouraud and texture mapped (all are 
light-sourced).  While one wonders why Capcom just didn't Gouraud shade the 
whole characters, the overall outcome is very good.  The characters look very 
sharp, and you don't really notice the edges much (except in winning poses).  
The backgrounds are impressive, and also sharp and good-looking.  The best is 
Bilstein's stage, which features a circular ring surrounded by to ring-shaped 
structures which spin about as you fight.  Other notable  stages include one 
floating out in space, and in the background space ships fly about shooting at 
each other.  In addition, the game is literally very flashy.  All hits result 
in a starburst type effect, and landing Plasma moves always gives you a lot of 
glowing and flashing.  This makes the game very interesting visually.  
Overall, the game has great graphics.

Sound Effects:
The sound is good.  Nothing notable, but its good.

Music:
Fortunately, Capcom didn't use its typical keyboard/synthesizer technopop 
music in SG.  They used orchestra arrangements instead, which result in a 
richer, more dramatic sound.  While some stages have very bland music, some 
have very moody, dark, almost cinematic sounding music.  I personally like it 
a lot, but for some it might be to slow to fit their tastes for a fighting 
game.  Overall, these pieces stand out enough to let me ignore the blander 
stages.

Characters:
IMO this is SG's biggest strength, although I know for some people the 
characters are a bit of a turn-off.  The characters are a bit strange, but 
they are all distinct from one another, and have their own playing styles.  
Furthermore, the moves each character has are often very unique and distinct.

Hayato:  This is the "Ryu" of the game.  Good speed and damage, with generic 
slashing moves.  He isn't trying to perfect his fighting skills or become a 
true warrior or anything though;  He wants the reward money to donate to an 
orphanage.  He uses a sword.
June:  Believe it or not, she looks a lot like Chun Li.  She has a lot of 
spinning and kicking attacks, as she is supposed to be a gymnast.  She has 
pitifully short reach, but is very fast and maneuverable.  She wants to get 
revenge because Bison, er, I mean Bilstein, killed her dad.  She uses a ring, 
similar to the hoops used in rhythmic gymnastics.  
Saturn:  This funky guy looks like the Mask in a clown outfit.  Very goofy and 
weird.  He has very long range and good speed.  He uses two yo yos.  Yes 
that's right, two yo yos.  He's doing it for fun.
Gamof:  Think Chewbacca but cuter.  This guy is slow and has powerful throws.  
He uses an axe.  He's in it for the money.
Gerelt:  This fencer has very fast attacks and decent ground speed, but his 
damage is relatively low.  His moves are very predictable though, since most 
of his attacks use the A button and are easy to reverse.  He uses a saber.  He 
was framed for a kidnapping, and thinks that Bilstein can help him clear his 
name.
Vector:  This robot is very cool looking.  He is slow, but has many long 
range moves.  He uses a rifle.  He is built by Bilstein as an assassin.
Rimgal:  This guy is a dinasaur with vaguely human shape.  He does a lot of 
damage, and has a lot of big stripes.  If you just want to pound people into 
the ground (literally), he's your man.  He was created by June's father, and 
incidentally has June's dad's personality and memory, but is under mind 
control from Bilstein.  He uses the "Death Bone," which is a skull on the end  
of a stick.
Zelkin:  This birdman has a lot of dashing attacks and a cool airthrow.  He 
was freed from prison by Bilstein, and joined the Fourth Empire to repay his 
debt.  He uses a kind of double-bladed sword.
Gore:  This is probably the weirdest and goofiest character, and I won't 
bother trying to describe him.  He is fast and maneuvarable, and has the 
ability to grow in size.  At max size, all you see are his legs taking up half 
the screen.  He uses a mace.
Bilstein:  He really reminds me of a new age Darth Vader.  He wears blue armor 
that has all kinds of weird, glowing symbols on it.  His helmet has a 
skull-face on it, and he uses a really big sword.  He is playable after 
inputting a code.

Overall:
I'd recommend this game to fighting game fans.  I played both SG and SE a lot 
in the arcades, and I always liked SG better then SE.  It has better graphics 
(I never liked the lo-res pixelization of SE), more interesting characters, 
and more variety in moves.  I admit though, that I haven't played much of 
version 2.  I'd say the games big drawback is that the characters are so 
strange, people might be turned off.

This is a good game that didn't get much attention standing next to games like 
Virtua Fighter 2 or even Soul Edge.  While it isn't up to the quality of 
Virtua Fighter 2, it is still a good game that is worth buying.  I admit 
though, that I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place if I didn't 
find it used for $30, but if I had paid $60 (which is what is normally sells 
for), I'd still be happy.

Whew, that was certainly long.  If you've read this far, and want to add 
something or just want to flame me, please do it on this newsgroup.  I don't 
check my email often enough to reply to emailed responses in a timely manner.

Van