Fighting Force

Fighting Force
North American PlayStation cover art
Developer(s) Core Design
Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive (PS, Win)
Crave Entertainment (N64)
Platform(s) PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64
Release PlayStation
  • NA: 31 October 1997
  • PAL: November 1997
  • JP: 15 January 1998
Windows
Nintendo 64
  • NA: 30 April 1999
  • PAL: December 1999
PlayStation Network
  • NA: 25 November 2009
  • PAL: 21 September 2011
Genre(s) Beat 'em up
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Fighting Force is a 1997 3D beat 'em up developed by Core Design and published by Eidos. It was released for PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo 64.

The game was originally devised by Core Design as Streets of Rage 4 to be published by Sega exclusively for the Sega Saturn. Sega pulled the Streets of Rage name during development after a disagreement with Core about porting it to rival formats.

Gameplay

Players control one of four characters as they move through urban and science fiction environments, battling waves of oncoming enemies with weapons including soda cans, knives, cars, and guns.[2] The player can make some choices as to which territory to travel through.[2]

Story

The four characters have various reasons for taking on Dr. Dex Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command who predicted that the world would end in the year 2000. After New Year's Eve 1999, Dr Zeng believed that there was an error preventing the apocalypse, so decides to correct it by destroying the world himself. The action starts with a police cordon around Zeng's office skyscraper, moving to such locales as a shopping mall, subway and Coast Guard base before finally ending at the top of Zeng's island headquarters.

Characters

A screenshot of Ben "Smasher" Jackson punching a generic enemy

Players choose from a selection of four characters: Hawk Manson, Ben "Smasher" Jackson, Mace Daniels, and Alana McKendricks. Hawk Manson and Mace Daniels are two all-around characters. Hawk is somewhat stronger than Mace who is in turn faster than Hawk. Ben "Smasher" Jackson is a large and slow bruiser capable of lifting and throwing the engines of cars at enemies. Alana McKendricks is a fast but soft-hitting teenager with an effective jump-kick. All four characters have a special move that can be performed with the loss of a portion of health.

Development

Core Design collaborated with ten coders from EA Japan in making the game.[3]

Reception

Upon the game's release, it received mixed reviews.

Ports and sequels

A Nintendo 64 version of the game titled Fighting Force 64 and published by Crave Entertainment was released in North America and Europe in 1999. Differences include partially improved graphics[5] and changes in the available number of player lives.

A Sega Saturn version was still developed and eventually completed after the Streets of Rage 4 pull-out , but it was never released because of publishing issues with Eidos first and with Sega Europe later, the latter securing publishing rights of the Sega Saturn version after Eidos dismissed them and stating to release it in Europe in November 1997,[6] a release that never happened. An early prototype, with older character designs, was leaked in November 2008.[7]

A sequel, titled Fighting Force 2, was released in 1999 for the PlayStation and Dreamcast. Unlike the first title, Fighting Force 2 focuses on the character of Hawk Manson exclusively, and rewards a more stealthy approach.

A second sequel, Fighting Force 3 was also in development for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but was cancelled during development, though a video tech demo of it exists on the internet.

References

  1. ↑ "Fighting Force for PC". MobyGames. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Fighting Force: A 3-D Final Fight Done Right". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 94. Ziff Davis. May 1997. p. 107.
  3. ↑ Rider, David; Semrad, Ed (April 1997). "Core". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 93. Ziff Davis. p. 75.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Fighting Force for PlayStation". GameRankings. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  5. ↑ Mac, Ryan (30 April 1999). "Fighting Force 64 on GameSpot". GameSpot. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  6. ↑ "Fighting Force (preview) on Sega Saturn Magazine, November 1997". Retrieved 4 June 2010.
  7. ↑ "Fighting Force Sega Saturn prototype on Satakore". Satakore.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.