Developer: Core Design Publisher: Crave Release: 04/30/99 Genre: Beat em up
In the late 90s Eidos were the “it” publisher. While they had their successes Tomb Raider raised their stock significantly, figuratively and literally. This newfound attention meant every new title they released had a spotlight. They were keen to capitalize on this with an aggressive marketing campaign supposedly based on “character”. But if you go back and look at those ads it is all tits and ass, badly misshapen polygonal ass at that. But I digress. Core would attempt to bring the side scrolling beat em up in to 3d with Fighting Force. Lofty promises were made but the final product does not meet expectations.
Dr. Zeng has devised a new drug and unleashed it on the streets, creating scores of addicts in his bid for world domination. Among the victims left in the wake of his drug spree are the family and friends of 4 individuals, Hawk Manson, Ben Smasher, Alana McKendricks, and Mace Daniels. This quartet comes together to put a stop to Dr. Zeng and his ambitions and also for revenge.
There is a long history with Fighting Force. Originally Core Design pitched the game as a possible Streets of Rage 4. But their desire to release it on multiple platforms caused Sega to pull out of the deal. Core went back to the drawing board and created an original property instead. Ironically Fighting Force would ultimately not release on the Saturn due to a variety of factors. I am sure the waning market for the platform did not help. There was a lot of anticipation surrounding Fighting Force as it was one of the few beat em ups for the new platforms at the time. Whether it was due to its numerous delays or it was too ambitious the game was ultimately disappointing.
The four characters have differences that alter your approach to gameplay. Alana and Mace are fast but weak characters who must rely on finesse more than strength. Ben Smasher is the strong man and is able to kill most standard enemies in three or four hits. He can also lift the heaviest objects like cars. All characters share the same basic move set with slight differences and the controls are identical. This is one of the areas Fighting Force falls short, at least in the PlayStation version. The back fist attack and grab are mapped to the same button resulting in instances of pulling off the wrong move. It makes no sense as most of the buttons on the controller are unused. At least they fix this in the Nintendo 64 version. The overall controls feel sluggish which affects the flow of combat as it never feels “right”.
The main area that Fighting Force is lacking is in its move set. I was not kidding about the pre-release promises: according to the developers each character was supposed to have numerous Tekken style grapple moves and combos. That did not pan out. Fighting Force is about as deep as the original Final Fight. You have basic punch and kick combos, three throws, and a few running attacks. It gets repetitive quickly and unfortunately this game does not have enemies with personality like the greats to make up for it. Even if Core had not made such big promises this would still be disappointing. By the mid-90s the beat em up genre was on fire with games like Streets of Rage 3 and Denjin Makai taking the mechanics to a new level. This feels primitive in comparison. Ironically Sega would one up them with Die Hard Arcade the same year.
I have mixed feelings regarding the level design. Most levels consist of multiple smaller arenas in which you defeat waves of enemies before moving on. The larger ones like the mall feature multiple paths which is pretty cool. But some of the smaller stages are just one big block with so many repetitive waves it becomes tedious. The pacing is all over the place consequently. The enemy AI is not smart which does not help either. They almost all follow the beat em up template of boxing you in and cutting loose. Fighting groups of five or six loses its luster when half of them are practically standing around looking at their shoes. The lack of any target lock makes combat feel like you are flailing around and the stupid camera angles do not help. Considering how long the game was in the works these glaring flaws stand out.
I will give Fighting Force credit for its level of interactivity. Every level features a bevy of destructible objects that yield items or weapons. It is pretty cool to break a guard rail and use it as a weapon. Or smashing a car and using the engine as a bowling ball. This aspect takes the 2d beat em up staple of breaking trash cans for weapons to the next level and it is extremely cool. It also offers a glimpse of what could have been if Core Design were less ambitious with the game and focused on the aspects that worked.
In Closing
Fighting Force is disappointing, there is no sugar coating it. It had everything going for it, a cool concept, a hot developer, and tons of press. But the game ultimately does not live up to the hype. You can have fun despite the clumsy gameplay. But you are better served replaying an old 2d classic rather than a 3d has been.
