Review #173: Fighting Force

 I liked it more than Dragon's Crown. Just sayin'.

 If one genre hasn't aged well, it's the beat'em up genre. To be honest, I can't exactly pin-point the reason, probably because I still like the genre. The genre bloomed in the Arcades, and then the SNES received its fair share of beat'em ups, but during the next generation of consoles it started dying down, and now a days it's mostly extinct. Fighting Force was one of the first 3D beat'em ups to be developed for the PS1, and it's a decent effort that could've used a bit more fleshing out.

 The game actually has a story, not that you'd know from playing the game, which offers no insight, cut-scene, flavor text or even hints at it. The game is set "years past the millennium"(I'm quoting the instruction booklet!), and this one guy named "Dr. Dex Zeng", a supposed former Government Agent, was really confident about the world ending in the year 2000. It didn't, and now he is so angry that he brings it upon himself to bring the world to an end. I couldn't be making this up if I tried. This private investigator named Mace(Female), contacts this vigilante named Hawke and Alana, a "raver" who likes to dance but was experiment upon by Zeng(What?) and then Hawk contacts Smasher, a prisoner of sorts, and they set out to stop Zeng. Best. Story. Ever. No game will ever top this story, and it's a shame none of it permeated the game itself.

 Notice how I named four characters? They are the playable heroes of the game, with up to two players at the same time. And it's better if you do get a partner-in-arms, as these games are at their best in co-op. All four characters are basically the same, they have a two kick combo, a three(four for Alana) punch combo, a jumping kick, a 360 degree attack that costs a bit of health, a slide and a running kick(Body slam for Smasher), a back punch, and they each get three different throws when grabbing an enemy. Yes, all four characters are pretty samey, even though Hawk and Mace are the "balanced" guys, Alana is the speedster and Smasher is the slow power-house. You, and your enemies, can also pick up various items, knives, pipes, barrels, guns and shotguns for added destructive power. Overall, it's pretty simple and brain dead, but I had fun plowing down enemy after enemy. While the game is rather short, you could probably clear it in under an hour if you know what you are doing, there are different routes that you can take, with different stages, and while all stages are basically the same: Punch/Kick all enemies to death, at least they provide different backdrops, and some routes have exclusive enemies... even if they are just reskins.

 As much as I liked it, the game has a couple of problems. The punch button doubles as the pick up button. I tend to favor punching, which means that I relied mostly on punches... when you are near items and you try to punch, your character will try to pick up whatever is next to him. Particularly annoying when you are mashing the X button, out of habit, and when they hit you out of the "pick up" animation... your character instantly tries to pick it back up. So, yeah, if you are near items, resort to Kicks. The Camera isn't the greatest either, they tried to alleviate it by giving you a "zoom out" button, but it still isn't enough to give you a clear view of where enemies can and are coming from. Lastly, the game is a bit of a liar... it prompts a Save Screen after each level, and you can save your game, and it names the file like "Hawk at Bridge Level", however, you can't continue from where you left off. You are supposed to beat the game in one sitting, and it's kinda short so it isn't such a big deal, but why let you save your game after every stage if it does NOTHING?!

 Graphics are pretty darn good, characters and environments alike are very detailed and look pretty nice. I also liked the variety in the stages, it's not the most colorful of games, but it has many different backdrops, from the Park, Zeng's Building, The Bronx, the Subway... all of the genre's must-have levels are accounted for in this one. Some animations are a bit rigid though, and you can tell since the animations for attacking with the pipe doen't even get close to the smoothness of Alana's flying kick. Music is fairly good as well, and the sound effects are fairly appropriate. Overall, it looks great and sound really good.

 Fighting Force doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's just another beat'em up to add to the pile, however, what it does, it does fairly well. It is what it is, which is why it's hard to recommend to anyone but fans of the genre. Plus, I liked it more than Dragon's Crown. Just putting it out there.
 6.0 out of 10.