Fighting Force is a cult classic video game in the days of the first PlayStation console, and was originally going to be titled Streets of Rage 4 and to be published by Sega for the Saturn, but it was scrapped. However, this game is a decent beat-em-up game but it's very hard at times. The more you progress depending on your difficulty, your skills will be tested and take you for a long roller coaster ride.
Plot. Dr. Dex Zeng is a criminal mastermind who plots to destroy the world, after most of his predictions of the worlds demise fall flat. A group of fighters set out to stop him. Their names are: Hawk Manson (age 26), Mace Daniels (age 21), Ben "Smasher" Jackson (age 29), and Alana McKendricks (age 17). Together, they are a team known as the Fighting Force. Their mission; to stop the evil Dr. Zeng from destroying the world.
Like any other beat-em-up game like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, and Final Fight, you can fight with melee attacks, and also attack enemies with weapons such as knives, pipes, bats, and even guns, which are the most powerful ones in the game.
Concept. You start in the streets, where the police are raiding the Zeng building. Then you fight in the building, but Zeng makes his escape. You then fight your way in the streets, the mall, subway, and Coast Guard base before facing against Zeng himself in his laboratory, on his island headquarters.
Design. Most beat-em-up games were always 2D but this one is different. Taking cues from games such as Final Fight and Double Dragon, the game takes the beat-em-up genre to 3D, and characters are rendered in polygonal shapes. For the first time, you can interact in different areas within your surroundings.
Memories. Back in 1999, I played this game during a summer vacation in New York with my cousin's PS1. He knew some cheats such as stage select and many others. We usually got bored of how repetitive the game is, and instead we played other games on the N64 such as NFL Blitz and GoldenEye. As for PS1 games, we would play MTV Sports, Resident Evil 2, Driver, and Crash Bandicoot. Oh memories.
History. Fighting Force met with mixed reviews upon it's release, some reasons I will tell you in the next part of this review. In 1999, Fighting Force was re-released on the Nintendo 64, and on that same year it had a sequel for both the PlayStation and the final console for Sega, the Dreamcast. Fighting Force 2 met with very bad reviews however. Another sequel was planned, but it was cancelled, and the survival of Fighting Force was gone, and now it was a series faded into obscurity. Still, there is a video tech demo that exists on YouTube.
Good Aspects. The game's replay value is mediocre, but still it's decent. Mace and Hawk were two of my best fighters, but to me Mace is the best. She totally kicks ass and she's fast.
Overall. Fighting Force gets a 5 out of 10.
God Bless and Play Hard Gamers!