Fighting Force 64 Review

Gamers old enough to remember Final Fight, Double Dragon or Sega's Streets of Rage series will find Fighting Force 64 a throwback to the old days of the side scrolling beat-em-up. This time out you can move in a limited 3D space, but sadly the game play never goes beyond simple button mashing. And just like in the old days, this game gets old fast.

Highs:

Fun For Awhile

25 Levels

Updated Final Fight (Like We Need One)

Lows:

Repetitive Gameplay

Poor Two-Player Mode

Slowdown and Camera Problems

Those who have played the PlayStation version already know what to expect from Fighting Force 64. The graphics are a little cleaner on the Nintendo version but ultimately things remain the same, and that goes for the ultra-repetitive gameplay.

Pick one out of four selectable players (or pick two if playing with a friend). You can choose from: Hawk Mason, Ben "Smasher" Jackson, Mace Daniels or Alana McKendrick (the latter two being female characters). Each have over dozens of different moves and can also pick up tons of weapons lying around the ground. Sounds great so far, doesn't it? Along with the vast number of moves, there are also over 25 levels in the game which will have you button-mashing for quite awhile.

The problem with side-scrolling fighting games has always been the repetitive enemies and the repetitive gameplay and FF64 is no different. You will fight the same enemies over and over and even though each character has a lot of moves, you will end up relying on about a half dozen that really do the job. After 5 levels you've pretty much seen what this game has to offer and yet you are only 1/5 of the way finished. If you aren't gonna say it, I am: B-O-R-I-N-G.

The control is decent enough until you play a two-player game. Then the camera goes spastic and the slowdown kicks in, making this game barely playable. That is too bad because playing with a buddy makes this game tolerable because you can at least chat with somebody while mindlessly pressing "punch" a billion times.

After Core (the same team responsible for Tomb Raider) recognized the limitations of this genre, Fighting Force 2 looks to be a whole different animal, more along the lines of Metal Gear Solid. I played an early version of Fighting Force 2 at E3 and it showed a lot of potential. The gameplay is far removed from the drab repetition of this outing. In the end, this game might amuse you for a night or two, but ultimately will gather dust. Rent at your own risk.