Fight For Life

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The struggle continues...
by Gregory D. George

October 7, 1996

It seems like all new game systems are judged by its 3D fighting game. The Saturn had Virtua Fighter, the PSX had Toshinden, and the Dreamcast had Soul Calibur. But what does the Jaguar have as a 3D fighter? Fight For Life. A tedious 3D fighting game for two players.

Fight For Life is the story of eight people trapped in hell who have been given the chance at reincarnation. After winning the tournament and defeating the devil's son, you will be returned to life.

The game does have some good looking graphics. The polygon characters are somewhat blocky, but the tex-mapping is well done. Background graphics are nicely done, but the floor definitely leaves something to be desired. Thankfully, the animation moves along at a brisk pace, and the special moves are fun to watch. And all I'm going to say about the sounds are that... They're very corny.

Gameplay, to be blunt, is boring. Some matches last longer than 6 minutes because of the minimal damage each hit causes. Long matches are different, but makes the game dull. I personally spend most of my time toying with the replay mode. After pausing the game, you can rewind the last few seconds, move around the ring, and even zoom in on the characters. This is truly something unique about a game that certainly needs the help.

Almost two years were spent working on this game's playability. Which makes me wonder, what happened? Simply shortening the round length would have helped considerably. Unless you're looking for a cart to show off the Jag's polygon and tex-mapping abilities, stay away from Fight For Life.