Retro Gaming 90’s- Fighting Force: (1997)

The Fighting Force game from ‘97 is one that is well known by gamers especially considering the fact that it was originally supposed a Streets Of Rage title. Fighting Force was developed by Core Design and the PS1 version of the game was published by Eidos Interactive while the N64 port had Crave Entertainment. The reason why Fighting Force stood out as much as it did was mainly because it was one of the first major 3D beat em up titles ever. Even though, the gameplay for Fighting Force was repetitive and the storyline could have been better; it was pretty cool to see a game similar to Final Fight or Streets Of Rage in 3D back then. The plot of Fighting Force revolved around four people trying to stop a high profile criminal from destroying the world. The most intriguing thing about the plot for Fighting Force was the fact that it was shaped by the premonitions that people around the world had regarding Y2K. In Fighting Force the main antagonist Dr. Dex Zeng had predicted that the world would end in the year 2000. However, following New Years Eve in ‘99 Dr. Zeng discovers an error that prevented the apocalypse from happening; so Dr. Zeng takes it upon himself to destroy the world himself.

Players have the option of choosing one of four characters who have their own set of strengths and weaknesses that distinguishes them from each other. The main protagonists consisted of Mace Daniels, Hawk Manson, Ben Jackson and Alana McKendricks. Even though, the N64 version Fighting Force looked better quality-wise the game unfortunately did not support four player gameplay. In both versions of Fighting Force there could be up to only two players as the ventures throughout various fictional locations to stop Dr. Zeng. For the most part Fighting Force felt like a generic beat em up title aside from the fact that it was in 3D. Fighting Force meant to be more dark & realistic opposed to campy and colorful arcade classics like Streets Of Rage II and Final Fight. While Fighting Force is far from being the greatest beat em up game ever it was definitely not the worst. Fighting Force is a game that would appeal to casual fans of 3D beat em up titles; but the last appeal would most likely be lost after a short period of time.