Fight For Life

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Fighting for a Second Chance
by Jess LaFleur

February 7, 2002

Fight for Life is THE Jaguars 3D Fighting title. When I had some money I wanted to spend it on my Atari Jaguar. I had been looking for the games that made the Jag look like the powerful system it is. I wanted a game with texture-mapping in full 3D graphics and that REALLY looked good. At that point of time the ONLY game I had for my beloved Jaguar was Club Drive, one of THE worst games for the Jag. (Sure its ok, but meh.) I had purchased Iron Soldier, Tempest 2000 and Fight for Life. They cost me 60 Canadian which I feel was a good 60 dollars spent. The first game I played was the one game I really wanted to get: Fight For Life.

The Story
Eight people are living their normal lives, doing what they do best, fighting. Some of them are crazy, some are rich, and some are just normal people who live their lives one day at a time. Until January 22nd 1995. something happens in each of their lives that are unrelated but are all equal in greatness. They all die in one way or another each and every one of them were killed. They all arrive in "The Specter Zone," a place where the undead live. A place between heaven and hell guarded by the "Gatekeeper," an evil being that can change his shape and is always seeking amusement. The Gatekeeper also has a special powers. He is able to return someone to the land of the living, giving them a second chance... But, to get it, they must earn it and fight one another until a victor is worthy to receive his or her ultimate prize...

Graphics
The characters are all texture mapped. Maybe not fully on some characters but certainly most of them they are (actually only one isn't fully texture mapped.) They characters are top notch quality in their design, the frame rate is very smooth and all movements are done very well. All of the backgrounds are a wonderful picture, but the floors are just 30x30 or so pixel squares making the ground design look quite horrible.

When playing the game, you'll see it looks rather much like Tekken and has quite superb graphics. The feet do look a tad like blocks but are still texture mapped and look good enough to do its job.

Sound
The sound department is most likely its weak point. While it does have some good songs and some good sounds it is all very repeating. For example, when some one gets pushed, they make a "whoa whoa whoa!" sound and fall down. It's repetitive and all the male characters have the same male voice and all the female characters have the same female voice. All the hit sounds are also the same.

Control
The control is pretty good. If you have a ProController, you can make use of it and use the sidestepping technique much easier than having to press the number keys on the number pad. I find the length of battles quite tiring and they make my hands somewhat cramped. But when playing in beginner mode, moves are very easy to pull off and you are even told what they are in the instruction manual.

Gameplay
This game is fun to play, although the weak hits cause the fights to last some time to win or lose. Special moves (or signature moves) do, however, take a good amount of life away from your opponent. But they are hard to pull of because you must be near your opponent to pull them off.

There are some interesting things in this game. For example, when you defeat a character, you can select two non signature moves to use as your own. But if you also defeat another character, the other possible moves you could have taken are still available. Near the end, you will have quite a large amount of skills and moves available to your characters use.

Another good thing are passwords. They allow you to save your character in the way that all the additional moves you have earned are saved and you won't even have to remember them as it is saved on the game cartridge.

All in all Fight For Life is a solid game. Good graphics, ok sound, good control but not  the greatest storyline. Unfortunately, even when you beat the game you will not exactly feel like you have really accomplished anything.

To have the best fun in this game, I suggest that you acquire a second controller. If you have not yet already and then find another friend, (or fool one into playing your jag ;P) And play a two player match.

If you like fighting games, especially Tekken like 3D fighters, this is a good game to get for your Jaguar. If you don't like fighting games, well the story won't pull you towards it.