Review #651: 64 Memories - Mace - The Dark Age

 The dark ages of early 3-D fighting games.

 Part 1: The Flashback
 Mace was another of the first few games I owned for the Nintendo 64. I'm pretty sure I rented it once before purchasing, and I do remember I got it close to when I got Chameleon Twist.

 Mace: The Dark Age was one of my favorite fighting games on the console. The spilled blood showing on the floor of the ridiculously large stages was something that no other fighter at the time had. The fighting was simple, and fun, and the Arcade ladder was tough, I think I might've only finished the game once as either the Executioner or the demon at the end would cut my run short. I'll admit I wasn't able to finish the Arcade course on my recent playthroughs, sheez!

 Part 2: The Review
 Well, the game has held up surprisingly well, unlike most fighting games from Midway. The combat is pretty fast and fun, with three attack buttons(Quick, Strong and Kick) that can be coupled with different directions to produce different attacks. The game employs a mix of preset attack strings as well as quarter-circle-forward motions for special attacks, giving each character a pretty decent set of attacks. An in-game movelist would've been nice. There's also a Dodge button, blocking is done by holding back on the joystick, and like any post-Mortal Kombat fighting game by Midway, there are fatalities.

 There are 12 different characters, as well as 5 secret characters, that have relatively basic and generic designs(A Ninja, a Samurai, a Knight, a Zombie Knight, a Viking, a Samurai) but I think a few characters, like Lord Deimos, featured on the game's cover, are quite good. The secret characters are a bit more fun, featuring a Ronin(That borrows a few moves from the Samurai), a chicken(Really), a Gargoyle, a Dwarf on a mecha and Ned, the Janitor(A costume-swap for the Monk). Each character also has a ton of alternate color schemes, which is something more fighting games should've had. There're also a bunch of secret stages in versus mode.

 Speaking of modes, here is where the game starts coming up a bit short... you've only got Arcade, VS Player and Training. That's all. I know at the time fighting games used to be pretty barebones, but a few extras like Survival or Team battles could've gone a long way. Also, while having ridiculously large arenas to fight in, this is not an arena-fighting game with free-run movement, instead both characters face each other at all times and take steps or step-dashes towards or against each other, so exploring them is but an amusing diversion. That said, I still applaud their designs, some feature stage-hazards, such as spiked floors, while others feature different floors you can jump on. A few levels can make the framerate take a few dips though, but nothing too bad. It's not like you'll be playing this game competitively anyways!

 When all's said and done, I still think that Mace the Dark Age is pretty dope and worth playing today. It's a bit rough in a few areas, but most of the game is pretty tight. Whenever someone claims that the N64 had no good traditional fighting games, you point them right towards Mace.
 8.0 out of 10