| Fighting Force | |
|---|---|
 North American PlayStation cover art | |
| Developer | Core Design |
| Publishers | Eidos Interactive (PS, Win) Crave Entertainment (N64) |
| Producer | Ken Lockley |
| Programmer | Sarah Avory |
| Artist | Roberto Cirillo |
| Composer | Martin Iveson |
| Platforms | PlayStation,Windows,Nintendo 64 |
| Release | PlayStation Windows Nintendo 64 |
| Genre | Beat 'em up |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Fighting Force is abeat 'em upvideo game developed byCore Design and published in 1997 byEidos Interactive forPlayStation andWindows. ANintendo 64 version was published byCrave Entertainment in 1999. Announced by Core shortly after the success ofTomb Raider,Fighting Force was highly anticipated but met with mixed reviews. It was followed byFighting Force 2.
Players control one of four characters as they move through urban and science fiction environments, battling waves of oncoming enemies with weapons including soda cans, knives, cars, and guns.[4] The player can make some choices as to which territory to travel through.[4]
The four characters have various reasons for taking on Dr. Dex Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command who predicted that the world would end in the year 2000. After New Year's Eve 1999, Dr. Zeng believed that there was an error preventing the apocalypse, so decides to correct it by destroying the world himself.[5] The action starts with a police cordon around Zeng's office skyscraper, moving to such locales as a shopping mall, subway and Coast Guard base before finally ending at the top of Zeng's island headquarters.
Players choose from a selection of four characters: Hawk Manson, Mace Daniels, Alana McKendricks and Ben "Smasher" Jackson.[6] Hawk Manson and Mace Daniels are two all-around characters. Hawk is somewhat stronger than Mace who is in turn faster than Hawk. Ben "Smasher" Jackson is a large and slow bruiser capable of lifting and throwing the engines of cars at enemies. Alana McKendricks is a fast but soft-hitting teenager with an effective jump-kick. All four characters have a special move that can be performed with the loss of a portion of health.
Core Design originally pitched the game toSega as a potential fourth entry in Sega'sStreets of Rage series. Sega declined; according to Core, Sega explained that it had its own plans for continuing the series.[5] Core opted to go ahead with the game as a standalone, multi-platform title, and started work on it.[5] Core Design collaborated with ten coders fromEA Japan in making the game.[7]
The story line and character designs were done byMarc Silvestri.[6] The character of Dr. Zeng was inspired byHeaven's Gate.[6]
A "Battle Arena" mode was added to the game during development, but it was cut from the final version.[8]
In addition to the PlayStation, Windows, and Nintendo 64 versions, aSega Saturn version was developed and eventually completed. After Eidos decided against publishing this version,Sega Europe secured the publishing rights and announced a European release date of November 1997,[9] but ultimately cancelled the release.[10] An early prototype, with older character designs, wasleaked in November 2008.[11] In February 2024, the released Core running demo disc (which provided a real-time demo of multiple Core Design Saturn titles), which post-dates the leaked beta, was hacked to be playable.[12][13]
Eidos demonstrated a playable Nintendo 64 version at the 1998E3.[14] Eidos later cancelled this version of the game, but in February 1999 publisherCrave Entertainment purchased the rights from Eidos and put the game into its release schedule.[15] The Nintendo 64 version was released in North America and Europe in 1999, under the titleFighting Force 64. Differences include partially improved graphics[16] and changes in the available number of player lives.
In June 2024,Limited Run Games announced that they are working with copyright ownerSquare Enix to release the game and its sequel inFighting Force Collection for thePlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Nintendo Switch and Windows (viaSteam) platforms with an estimated release for 2025.[17]
| Aggregator | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| N64 | PS | |
| GameRankings | 55%[18] | 64%[19] |
| Publication | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| N64 | PS | |
| Edge | N/A | 6/10[20] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 3.25/10[21] | 7.625/10[22] |
| Famitsu | N/A | 25/40[23] |
| Game Informer | 6.75/10[24] | 6.5/10[25] |
| GameFan | 58%[26][a] | 71%[27][b] |
| GameRevolution | D[28] | N/A |
| GameSpot | 4/10[16] | 5.3/10[29] |
| Hyper | 65%[30] | 65%[31] |
| IGN | 6.4/10[32] | 5.5/10[33] |
| N64 Magazine | 26%[34] | N/A |
| Next Generation | N/A |   [35] |
| Nintendo Power | 6.7/10[36] | N/A |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | N/A | [37] |
The original PlayStation release received mostly mixed reviews. Critics overwhelmingly commented that the game has a satisfyingly large amount of interactive scenery to destroy or collect weapons from,[22][33][35][38] but agreed that despite the transition to 3D, the gameplay was not meaningfully different from the 2D beat 'em ups of earlier console generations.[22][29][33][35][38]GameSpot summed it up as "basically a 3D version of Capcom's classic,Final Fight, except the characters and enemies lack the personality that madeFinal Fight exciting."[29] Some, however, looked on the game's lack of innovation as a virtue rather than a liability; Shawn Smith commented inElectronic Gaming Monthly, "What's cool aboutFighting Force is that it plays like the old side-scrolling games of the same nature. Then you might ask, why not just make a 2-D one. Well, when the 3-D works, why not go with it?"[22]Next Generation took more of a middle ground, stating that "despite its derivative nature,Fighting Force is a very fun game. Yet, it's just not the same huge leap forward for theFinal Fight genre that we might have expected from the creators ofTomb Raider."[35]
Besides a lack of originality, some critics criticized it for repetitiveness[22][33] and took issue with how the control configuration assigns multiple actions to the same button while leaving other buttons on the controller unused, saying this often results in the character performing a different action than intended and leaving them open to enemy attacks.[29][38]GamePro nonetheless opined, "Despite its few flaws,Fighting Force delivers the fierce fun and beat-fools-silly action that PlayStation gamers are looking for."[38][c]IGN, while contradictingGamePro by actually praising the game's controls, offered a somewhat more pessimistic overall take: "With solid graphics, impeccable control, yet almost zero innovation or variety,Fighting Force is a mixed bag. If in doubt, rent before you buy."[33]AllGame gave the game three stars out of five, saying, "All in all,Fighting Force isn't a bad game. Just some problems that lie in the gameplay department and some graphical glitches that keep this title from achieving the status of the games it was modeled after."[39] In Japan, where the game was ported and published byElectronic Arts Victor under the nameMetal Fist (メタルフィスト,Metaru Fisuto) on 15 January 1998,Famitsu gave it a score of 25 out of 40.[23]
PC Zone gave the PC version 88%, calling it "a computer game in which a lot of people get hurt in a variety of entertaining ways, with excellent 3D visuals and a surprising amount of detail."[2] However,PC Gamer UK gave it 62%, calling it "A middle class game without fire in its belly that refuses to strive for better things."[40]
GamePro andNintendo Power gave the Nintendo 64 average reviews while the game was still in development under Eidos, months before the company handed its development rights over to Crave.[d][41][36]
The game was a commercial success, selling1 million units worldwide and satisfying a demand for aStreets of Rage like 3D beat 'em up experience in the industry at the time.[42] In the United States, the game sold 596,404 units.[43]
A sequel,Fighting Force 2, was released on December 13, 1999 for thePlayStation andDreamcast. Unlike the first title,Fighting Force 2 focuses on the character of Hawk Manson exclusively, and rewards a more stealthy approach.
A second sequel,Fighting Force 3 was also in development for theXbox andPlayStation 2, but was cancelled during development.[citation needed]
!["Fighting Force [64]"](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nintendo64ever.com%2fscans%2fmags%2fScan-Magazine-512-83.jpg){kind=link}
!["Fighting Force [64]"](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nintendo64ever.com%2fscans%2fmags%2fScan-Magazine-786-112.jpg){kind=link}
