Fighters Month: Series Review: Dead Or Alive

Game: Dead Or Alive
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Team Ninja
Release Date: 31st March 1998

Released fairly late in the original Playstation's lifespan, Dead or Alive is somewhat to Tekken in terms of gameplay and visual style, though there are distinct differences between the two also. Players can choose from 11 fighters, none of whom have any of their motives for fighting explained as instead of ending sequences for each character, new costumes and/or options are unlocked once Tournament Mode is completed. While this is nice, many games feature both storylines in addition to unlockables, putting DoA at a disadvantage.

Controlwise the game is simple with only three attack types; punches, kicks and grabs. There's no real block move, instead a sort of counter system is featured but it's fiddly and difficult to make work. Consequently, most battles are spent attempting to hit opponents before they can hit you, with whatever combination of moves seems to work best, rather than waiting for an opportune moment to counter/developing an actual strategy for beating opponents.

The speed of fights is satisfactory and compares favourably to many other titles of the era. Where other Playstation games would feature slower movements an animations, Dead or Alive certainly attempts to keep the game flowing quickly. One of the game's main focal points was the large number of revealing outfits available for female fighters, with later spin-off games based almost solely on this concept. While it's nice to unlock many different outfits for fighters, 14 outfits for a single character seems a little excessive.

Other modes included in the game are pretty standard fighter fare, and though there's a good range of things to do (much like in Tekken), Tournament mode has the most appeal in terms of depth and unlockables, with 10 fights of two rounds each while most other modes are simply variants of an exhibition style gameplay and have little more to offer.

Graphically Dead or Alive looks pretty good for its time, with much less blockiness than Tekken and other early fighting games on the Playstation. Backgrounds are nicely detailed, and animations are smooth and realistic also. The music that plays behind the game is fairly standard for fighter-style titles, but suits the action well nonetheless. Some of the fighters vocal noises can become annoying if the same attacks are used over and over, but other than this the in game sound effects are generally good.

Overall Dead Or Alive doesn't play as well as some fighting games of its time, but show promise in fast gameplay and animation as well as a range of unlockable outfits and options. The lack of real depth in modes and storyline lets the game down somewhat, but it's still fairly enjoyable overall, especially in multiplayer modes.

Rating: 71/100
Grade: C

Game: Dead Or Alive 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Team Ninja
Release Date: 30th March 2000

Unlike many video game sequels, Dead or Alive 2 had the benefit of being on a new console with more power than the last to enhance the experience and feeling of the series moving forward. In addition to this, some changes were made to the overall gameplay experience. Tournament mode now features 7 fights of a single round each, meaning that less time is required to complete the mode. The controls have also been changed slightly, with the throw button remapped to X instead of Square, and Square taking on a new role as the "free" button, with different uses depending on the situation.

An attempt has been made to add an element of story to tournament mode, with various cutscenes playing before fights, and once the mode has been cleared, but there's hardly any dialogue and no consistent plot outlined in the scenes. Thanks to this, players can only guess at what's going on, rendering the story fairly useless as a narrative device. It doesn't provide an incentive to continue with tournament mode any more than wanting to get to the end.

Fighting seems to have generally improved since the last instalment of the series; it's smoother, more responsive and easier to pull off combos and counters. Additionally when counters are made, the animations are much clearer as to exactly how the attack was countered. Strangely the fights have been reduced to a single round, which makes Tournament Mode a lot shorter, but that could be seen as improvement as players will need to play through many times to unlock all outfits and characters.

As for the game's other modes, there's more than in the original Dead Or Alive, since Tag Battle mode acts like another Tournament mode, and Survival and Time Attack modes are also fairly enjoyable. As for the option to simply spectate on a CPU fight, I'm not completely sure when this'd be helpful, but there's no harm in having it there, I suppose. The game's overall difficulty is strange; sometimes it's pretty easy, as in Tournament Mode on the Normal difficulty setting (I beat the final boss first time, without any practice), and at other times it's out to destroy players without any mercy (as in Time Attack mode on Normal difficulty).

Graphically the game is pretty impressive, especially for a game which came along so early in the Playstation 2's lifespan. There's a wide range of outfits available for each character, and an interesting set of arenas in which to fight. The game runs just as fast as the original Dead Or Alive, if not faster and there's no noticeable slowdown anywhere. Musically some of the game's impact and general mood comes from its soundtrack, which is pretty enjoyable.

Overall Dead Or Alive 2 has many features that make it a good sequel; improved graphics, gameplay and controls mean that it is a distinct step up from the original, but without more story in its Tournament Mode, a wider selection of meaningful game modes and other options it still feels somewhat limited. Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore was released shortly after the original version, possibly fixing all or some of these issues though.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Game: Dead Or Alive 3
Console: Microsoft Xbox
Developer: Team Ninja
Release Date: 14th November 2001

As a launch game in all regions for the original Xbox, Dead or Alive 3 came out pretty soon after Dead or Alive 2 and its Hardcore edition. Thanks to this, the game is very similar to the last instalment as the controls and most movesets have hardly changed. The AI difficulty has been lessened slightly between the two games, and 4 new fighters have been added.

Story mode still features very few details of any coherant plot, opting instead for short cutscenes without much dialogue. Even the final boss goes unexplained for players who haven't read the Prologue to the game in the manual. Once again Story mode fights last only one round, with 7 fights needed to reach the final boss.

On the whole, Dead or Alive 3 plays like a slightly improved Dead or Alive 2. The gameplay is a little faster and smoother, with less issues surrounding counters. The arenas too seem to have become more detailed, with greater variety of terrain and location. Sometimes the use of ice and water on levels feels like the developers were attempting to show off the power of the Xbox graphically, but they're interesting effects nonetheless.

Another fun feature of the series is the ability to knock opponents down one or more levels of the arena. Many of the arenas feature breakable barriers which lead to sheer drops, which will damage fighters who fall, but not those who jump. There add an interesting tactical side to some battles, as 3D-axis rotation is unlimited in DOA3.

Graphically the game is the best yet in the series, which is unsurprising considering the game's exclusivity to the Xbox. Characters and locations are well defined and detailed, with impressive lighting effects and movements. The visual impact of the games has always been a big part of the Dead or Alive series and this game is no exception. Musically too the game works well, with exciting and engaging accompaniment to gameplay.

Overall even though Dead or Alive 3 is essentially an improved version of Dead or Alive 2 without any extra modes or real improvements to gameplay, it makes for a fun and engaging fighting game that features a host of familiar characters (if you've played the previous instalments, at least). With the difficulty issues fixed too, it continues the series' upwards trend in quality.

Rating: 75/100
Grade: B

Fighters Month: Shrek Super Slam

Game: Shrek Super Slam
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Shaba Games
Release Date: 25th October 2005

Movie tie-in games generally tend to be pretty awful. Movie tie-in games that seemingly have very little to do with the films on the other hand, tend either to be pretty good or absolutely awful. Shrek Super Slam is a 3D fighting game based on the Shrek series of films, with Story and Challenge modes as well as two player options. Story mode is a series of fights with different characters which are being told as bedtime stories by Shrek and friends to the 'Dronkeys', in order to put them to sleep and is the main arcade mode of the game.

Challenge mode gives players objectives to complete in different battles, allowing them to choose which character to play as, as well as tournaments which are interspersed between the objective based battles. This mode takes place in a board game like setting, and challenges players to make their way across the board, with the challenges and tournaments increasing in difficulty as the mode continues.

Fighting takes place in 3D environments from the Shrek universe and players are allowed to roam as they like. Many items placed around the level can be picked up and thrown to damage opponents in addition to the fast and heavy attacks featured. To do a combo move, any combination of fast and heavy attacks can be pressed. Any move which hits an opponent fills up the SLAM meter which once full can unleash a devastating slam attack on each opponent currently being faced.

Bouts are scored by counting the number of slam moves successfully performed on opponents and subtracting it from the number of slam moves that players have been subjected to. In this way there are no health bars in the game, and every bout lasts a standard amount of time (2 minutes). On the whole fights are pretty easy, at least until players reach the 1-on-3 bouts, which seem a little unfair to me.

Graphically the game is constrained by the limits of the Playstation 2, but that doesn't mean to say that it's particularly bad. Apart from a few character close-ups, the game is generally acceptable visually, especially so for fans of the Shrek franchise as they'll recognise the battle locations. Characters appear to be voiced by their movie counterparts, which is a bonus, but the game's soundtrack is particularly bland.

Overall Shrek Super Slam is predictably a game mostly for fans of the Shrek series, targeted towards younger gamers. This doesn't mean that it's particularly bad; in fact the SLAM scoring system is pretty inventive and there's quite a bit to do in Challenge mode, but the main story mode only takes around half an hour, past which point players have seen most of what the game has to offer. For a Shrek game though, it's not as bad as it could have been.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Fighters Month: Fighters Destiny

Game: Fighters Destiny
Console: Nintendo 64
Developer: Opus
Release Date: 31st January 1998

Fighters Destiny was released almost 17 years ago to the day and although we've advanced in terms of technology, there's still some fun and innovative elements to the game. In the main mode, players fight through 10 stages, earning enough stars in each battle to progress to the next. Stars are earned by knocking the opponent out of the ring (1), throwing the opponent (2), knocking them down completely (3), performing a special move (4) and winning a judges decision after a fixed amount of time (1).

The default values of stars given for each of these are given in brackets, but can also be changed in the options menu, as well as the number of stars needed to win a bout (which is set at 7 initially). This system of awarding stars means that battles aren't limited to 2 rounds as in normal fighting games, but can swing back and forth between opponents as points are gained. Both fighters health bars are reset after each point scored.

One disadvantage of the points system however, is that most of the time winning matches becomes a formula which can be used for all 10 rounds, stopping players from experimenting and trying new strategies. Personally I attempted to get 2 knockdowns and a throw or ringout in each battle, to earn 7 stars. The computer seems to mostly attempt knockdowns to earn its stars, with very few instances of throws or special moves in Easy or Normal difficulty modes. The overall difficulty of the game seems to be pretty low, until the final round of the main mode which is set at a challenging, but not impossible level.

Other modes offered by the game include Survival mode, featuring 1 star battles against 100 opponents, Fastest mode, where opponents must be defeated in under a minute, Rodeo mode where players fight an opponent in a cow suit in an attempt to knock him out of the room, and Master mode where players acquire new skills and attempt to keep hold of them in battles against 'Joker', a particularly difficult opponent.

Graphically the game is blocky with fairly undetailed backgrounds and textures, but somehow it manages to average out to a bearable visual experience. The character animations and fighting aren't bad for the era, and there's a choice of outfits for each fighter to choose from. The voice of the narrator can become somewhat annoying as he announces each point scored and various other things, but the audio in general isn't too bad.

Overall Fighters Destiny attempted a different spin on fighting games, with 2D style fighting on 3D platforms in the middle of nowhere, a points scoring system with plenty of options on how to score, and plenty of supplementary modes. The N64 controller lets it down a little, with just 2 attack buttons, and none of the game modes are particularly deep in terms of progression or story. For me its a nice little oddity that plays fairly well, but has no real lasting value in terms of interest.

Rating: 65/100
Grade: C

Fighters Month: Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

Game: Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: SNK Playmore
Release Date: 17th December 2007

For those of you unfamiliar with the Neo Geo as a home console, it was made by SNK and released in 1990. Sporting a number of excellent arcade conversions and more power than most, if not all systems at the time, the system was let down by its high price tag and weaker advertising presence when compared to Sega and Nintendo. Nonetheless there are plenty of fans of SNK's game series as they have received ports to many systems, and Neo Geo games are now highly collectible items.

Neo Geo Battle Coliseum brings together fighters from many of SNK's best known franchises including Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug and World Heroes. With 40 characters to choose from (once all are unlocked), it can be a daunting choice for those unfamiliar with SNK franchises. Most characters have interesting play styles however, and even new players will find a favourite quickly.

Except for boss battles, each battle takes place with two fighters on each side. In Arcade mode, a fight is won when one fighter from either team is defeated. In Tag Battle mode, a fight is won when both characters from either team are defeated. Other than this, the two modes play almost identically. Time counts down as players continue to face opponents; after every 3 opponents players are given a choice of bonus; more health, a power upgrade or more time. When time runs out players are whisked away to face a boss. Which boss is faced depends on how players have performed in the preceding battles, and if certain conditions aren't met, a default boss will be faced.

While this system seems to work generally, it can be difficult to face any other boss than the default. Some of the conditions are fairly difficult to meet, and can stop players from fighting battles the way they'd like to. Another issue is that the default boss is incredibly spammy and difficult to defeat, even on the lowest difficulty level. When players lose a battle, they're given a choice of services once they continue, to make the next battle easier. These include 1/4 opponent health in the next fight, maxing out of the special move gauge and more time.

Even having chosen 1/4 health for the default boss battle, it was still difficult to get a hit in at all, thanks to relentless spamming of ranged attacks, and his regenerating health. It has been said that it's a staple of SNK fighting games, to have incredibly powerful bosses, but the real problem with this inclusion is the effect it has on the game's difficulty; watering down the boss battle by choosing a low overall difficulty setting makes the rest of the battles far too easy. I could deal with the regular battles on difficulty level 4, but the final boss battle only at level 2, thus forcing me to play through the game at level 2.

The controls are tight and responsive and definitely contribute towards the enjoyability of the game. The general movesets of all characters as well as special moves and combos are easy to understand, and switching between characters poses little to no problem in terms of getting used to fighting techniques. The range of characters is good, and fairly well balanced; there are very few characters who are seemingly useless and only a small number who are overpowered (bosses, I'm looking at you!)

Graphically the game is presented excellently with great animation, detailed backgrounds and sprites, vibrant attack effects and an easy to understand layout. Even for a late PS2 game, the visuals are impressive and aren't truly done justice by the images in this review. Musically the game is also excellent, with high-octane tunes to match the action, with voice acting and sound effects of very high quality giving the game a highly polished feel.

Overall Neo Geo Battle Coliseum is a fighting game with varying levels of appeal depending on whether or not players have played other SNK titles, their opinion on the rather different rules of arcade/tag battle mode to most fighting games, and the overall difficulty issues with boss battles and fighting the boss you'd like to. For me the novelty of arcade/tag battle mode wasn't much of an issue, but the difficulty gap between regular and boss battles took some enjoyment out of the game.

Rating: 76/100
Grade: B

Fighters Month: Battle Arena Toshinden 2

Game: Battle Arena Toshinden 2
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Tamsoft
Release Date: May 1996

As a launch game for the Playstation in America and Europe, Battle Arena Toshinden managed to reach a fairly wide audience at a time when there weren't too many games out for the console. Its sequel, Battle Arena Toshinden 2 was released less than a year later with various improvements and new features. The game features 4 modes technically, but essentially there are only two; Arcade Mode (in a regular, extended a single battle form) and versus Mode.

The regular version of arcade mode features 8 battles against any of the game's 11 fighters, while the extended version features 10. The final battle is against an unlockable boss, and a wall of plot based text with an accompanying cutscene appears once they have been beaten. Most of the endings are fairly simple, so it's not really worth completing arcade mode with every character just to see one paragraph of text.

The fighting action featured in the game feels incredibly slow as lethargic movement and attacks combine with a poorly executed dodging and targeting system. Players can use L1 and L2 to change 'lanes' around their opponent, as well as controlling their characters movement in the 2D plane with the D-pad. Much of the time players will find their character facing the wrong way to hit the opponent, or being attacked from behind whilst attempting to turn and face the opponent.

Attacks are also poorly programmed, with an almost random chance of hitting opponents, and the best attacks mapped to R1 and R2. There's hardly any point in using the attacks mapped to the face buttons, as they do far less damage and don't reach as far across the arena. As fights take place on a floating square of land, players are also able to fall out of the battle arena, which will result in a 'ring out'. On a few occasions, the AI managed to fall out of the arena of its own accord, and even at the best of times it wasn't particularly impressive.

Another frustrating feature is the fact that there are moves in the game which are able to take away almost half of a life bar. AI opponents often use these, especially towards the end of fights and it leaves players with little chance of winning. The best way to describe the fighting action in the game would be 'the gaming equivalent of swinging your arms around in a dark room, hoping to hit something'.

Graphically the game's characters look good, if a little polygonal. Backgrounds and arena floors seem to have much lower quality textures however, and individual pixels are visible. Animations are sluggish and basic, and contribute to the overall vibe of low quality in the fighting experience. The music featured behind gameplay is enjoyable and perhaps one of the best parts of the game, it seems to fit well with battles and set the mood nicely.

Overall Battle Arena Toshinden 2 has many flaws which stop it from being a classic fighter. The general frustration of trying to hit opponents with the targeting system combined with the narrow selection of moves and slow gameplay means that players will have a hard time getting their character to do the things they'd like them to, when they need to be done. Progressing through arcade mode seems to be a matter of random chance, and there's little reward for it anyway. Soul Blade is a far better alternative on the PS1.

Rating: 44/100
Grade: E

Fighters Month: Pit Fighter

Game: Pit Fighter
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Atari
Release Date: 1991

With early use of digitized graphics and the inventive inclusion of various weapons and fighting techniques, you'd think that Pit Fighter might stand the test of time as a pioneer of the fighting games genre. Unfortunately the graphics aren't even comparable to that of Mortal Kombat, which doesn't look all that good itself, and the three fighting techniques included in the game are almost indistinguishable from one another.

Players are given the role of a Pit Fighter, facing off one-on-one against opponents whilst surrounded by spectators. Every three rounds there's a grudge match where fighters attempt to be the first to knock the other down three times, which makes a change from the regular matches but doesn't seem to contribute much to the overall experience.

Fighting is tedious at best; hit detection is poor and often hitting your opponent seems to be a matter of random chance. Button mashing seems to be the best strategy as some fighters have special moves, though there's no indication of what should be done to access them. As for the different styles of each fighter, I couldn't tell much of a difference between each of their punches and kicks. I'm aware that this is a pretty early game in the fighting genre, but it's completely unenjoyable on many levels.

As players advance through the game, they'll face 8 different opponents in total (provided that they haven't lost their 3 lives to the high level of difficulty) and earn money for beating each round of the game. Once the game over screen is reached, the amount of money earned acts as the player's score, and the game begins again from the intro screen.

Graphically the game is presented in very low quality, thanks to its pioneering digitized approach and often it's hard to tell quite what's happening on screen, especially when the fighters make their way into the crowd. Musically the game's soundtrack seems to vary between fitting the action and seeming completely unrelated; sometimes it's quite funky and others it's almost relaxed.

Overall I didn't enjoy Pit Fighter as a game at all. I can appreciate that it used some new techniques for the time it was released, and the inclusion of weapons and various fighting moves must have seemed quite exciting for players new to the game, but with so many advances in fighting games since then, nowadays the game seems like somewhat of a broken relic.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: E

Fighters Month: Arcana Heart 3

Game: Arcana Heart 3
Console: Sony Playstation 3
Developer: Examu
Release Date: 19th April 2011

Arcana Heart 3 can reasonably be described as a fighting game which is very typically Japanese in concept, design and visuals. For those used to such games it's just another entry in the genre, but to
outsiders it may look like a fresh and exciting experience. Personally I find myself in the middle of these two reactions, as I'm aware of such games existence but not experienced with playing them.

Players have a choice of 23 female characters, and 23 Guardian Arcana spirits which can be combined in any number of waysto support various strategies and movesets, although each character has their own default pairing with a guardian spirit. In Story Mode, players move through the plot from the view of their selected character, attempting to investigate strange happenings, collect celestial stones and ultimately foil a plot to destroy Japan.

The action in Arcana Heart 3 is an odd mix of slow movement and attacks with a homing mechanic that speeds gameplay up considerably. While it's possible to use a fast paced style by constantly making use of the homing mechanic, this does end up feeling as if you're abusing it somewhat.
There's a good variety of basic and advanced tactics that can be used, in terms of movesets, and combinations of characters/guardian spirits.

The game's controls are fairly similar to many other fighting games, with a few key changes; X serves as the homing button, moving players toward their opponent, and R1 serves as the Arcana button, enhancing attacks to do more damage while pressed down. Using this drains the Arcana meter, which is refilled by doing damage to your opponent.

One of the best parts of the game is the boss battle at the end of arcade mode, which requires players to hit five specific areas on the "secret weapon" which is poised to destroy Japan. Although a simple concept, it's presented excellently and gives a real sense of closure to the main mode's story. Graphically, the game is similar to other cartoon style fighters but has its own flair, expressed in the locations and backgrounds featured in the game. 

Overall Arcana Heart 3 is a fun, if slightly flawed fighting game which has some good mechanics and a good selection of characters and guardian spirits to pair with one another. Unfortunately the speed of fighting and variation of plots between characters means that the game seems decidedly average when it could have been so much more. The end result is a very playable fighting game, a couple of playthroughs of which will give enough of an impression to satisfy players that they've experienced all the game has to offer.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 12/Fighters Month - Spectral vs Generation

Game: Spectral vs Generation
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Idea Factory
Release Date: 30th March 2007

There seems to be very little information available regarding what this particular game is based on. Certainly there's influence from anime and other video games produced by Idea Factory, apparently two series in particular; Spectral Force and Generation of Chaos, which are part of a label called Neverland. There are also various other game releases which range from fighting games to RPGs and strategy titles featuring characters from this crossover.

From what's revealed of the story in cutscenes, each fighter has different reasons for wanting to eliminate the others, most of which involve thinking that other fighters are using "demon swords". The boss fight once all other characters have been defeated seems to always be against an incredibly powerful godlike creature called Earth, who is strangely a selectable character from the start of the game.

The gameplay seems to be a mix of  different games, resembling Street Fighter games most closely in the 2D cartoon style and controls, with elements of Soul Calibur (most characters have some sort of weapon), and perhaps other anime based fighting games. Fighting is fairly fast and responsive, with each of the face buttons controlling a different type of move, and quarter turns used for special moves and combos.

The difficulty is generally good, with no real challenge in getting to the boss fight. The fight itself however can be tricky, as Earth is overpowered and has many health-draining special moves. It's certainly less tricky than most Street Fighter games, though. On the whole the action is somewhat tedious, with no real flow or skill to moves and combos, but the combat does at least work as you'd expect it to.

Graphically the game is good; both by the PSP's standards and in general; characters are well drawn and animated, and you'd have a hard time convincing me that this was actually published by Midas in the UK. The music is a pretty generic rock accompaniment to fights, but it fits well enough and doesn't get repetitive enough to grate on players.

Overall Spectral vs Generation is a mediocre fighting game at best, giving players a sense of playing Street Fighter, without the speed customisation options, wide choice of characters or interesting character motivations. It's by far one of the best games Midas has ever had a hand in publishing, and I could recommend it without feeling too sorry for whoever had to play it, but it's nowhere near classic as a fighter.

Rating: 63/100
Grade: C

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 11/Fighters Month: Fighting Fury

Game: Fighting Fury
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Tomy
Release Date: 23rd May 2003

Fighting Fury is a more traditional tournament fighter, with arcade, versus, practice and sudden death modes, with a choice of 14 fighters, and 5 stages to fight across. The game was originally based on an anime, called Baki The Grappler when released in Japan, but this isn't evident in the PAL release, unless players are aware of the anime's existence. The only feature which suggests this is the fact that most fighters have unique pre-match phrases which change, based on who they're about to fight.

The game's basic controls are simple; the square button is used to punch, X for kick and triangle for a heavier strike. The circle button is used to block attacks, and R1 is assigned to taunting, which lowers the opponent's "Endorphin" gauge, preventing them from using certain special attacks or regaining energy, if the bar is full. Special attacks can be pulled off via combinations of button inputs, but many of these are far too complex to pull off consistently.

Fights against computer opponents are usually very easy to win, as the AI doesn't seem to be able to defend against the same attack many times in a row, jumping, grabs, or any form of decent strategy. Although there's a fair range of attacks used by different fighters the game seems pretty unbalanced, with certain characters possessing far stronger attacks than others, and even ranged ones which can easily be abused.

The "story" from the anime has either been changed in translation or was incredibly boring, as once players have won, there's a very short and halfhearted attempt at a character ending before the game cycles back to the title screen. Even in the tournament modes, there's no discernable final boss or reason for fighting except to win the "Fighting Fury" tournament.

Graphically the game isn't impressive at all; neither the character models (which seem to have far too many bumps and bulges), fighter designs (somehow they all look the same), nor the stages (which are all low detail) feel as if they need to be on the Playstation 2. The music behind the game is passable at best, but I can't say that it really stood out at all.

Overall Fighting Fury is a pretty poor attempt at a fighting game, the controls aren't bad on the whole, but their sluggishness combined with the lack of easy to pull off special moves means that players don't have many attack options. I highly doubt that most people playing Fighting Fury, at least in Europe, will have seen the anime it's based on, meaning that the characters also hold little interest for them. While it's not completely broken, the best way to describe the game is playable, at best.

Rating: 33/100
Grade: E

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 10/Fighters Month: Battle Construction Vehicles

BCV: Battle Construction Vehicles
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Artdink
Release Date: 28th November 2003

While strange game concepts and budget Japanese developers are nothing new to Midas's publishing library, I draw the line at a fighting game for construction vehicles. With a 16 stage story mode, 15 playable characters, and 20 special attacks, Battle Construction vehicles seems to have a lot to offer. The characters featured in the game are drawn in an anime style, with both animations and still pictures used in cutscenes.

The plot itself is pretty contrived and pads itself out with ridiculous attempts at humour, irrelevant events and any other excuses it can make for a 'Construction Vehicle Battle' to occur. The dubbed voice acting in story sequences is of very low quality, and the faux British accents only serve to make things worse. Every now and then there are even grammatical errors in the large sequences of text between battles.

Battles always take place inside of a fairly small (compared to the vehicles themselves) construction site arena, with many obstacles which only serve to get in the way whenever they can. The turning circle of almost every vehicle is absurdly large, making it hard to execute any real strategy. After almost completing the game I'm still unaware of what the controls exactly are; the d-pad is used for movement, but sometimes stops working and seems to boost at random. The X button is used for a defensive move which brings girders out of the ground, and the remaining face buttons are supposedly used for attacks, although I can't say they ever seemed to work for me.

Special attacks can be used sometimes, but they seem to be available randomly as I pulled one off once without even touching the controller. These special attacks darken the screen so that only the vehicles are visible before pulling off all manner of strangely themed moves which seem to do less damage than you'd anticipate. Every now and then, enemies are also able to regain some of their health, which can be annoying. All in all, battles are won almost randomly as very little strategy can be used; especially towards the end of the game.

Graphically the game is fairly poor for PS2 standards, despite the fact that it comes on a DVD-ROM, unlike most Midas games. The cutscenes and animated parts do look decent, however. There's nothing of note musically to accompany battles, and even if there was, the sounds of crunching metal and badly dubbed Japanese men would soon drown it out.

Overall Battle Construction Vehicles has a badly thought out plot, poor core gameplay, horrific controls and an almost laughable concept. The most enjoyable part of the game is being amused at its utter absurdity, but past this I can see no reason why it should have ever been released. This has to be a candidate for worst game idea ever.

Rating: 21/100
Grade: F

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 9 - Super Slammin' Dodgeball

Game; Super Slammin' Dodgeball
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Access
Release Date: 2001

As the only entry in the 12 Days of Midas to be from the Simple Series, you might expect Super Slammin Dodgeball to be slightly worse than even the most hideous budget games featured so far. At first glance that definitely appears to be the case, with mediocre cartoon images featured on the box art and menus, and a choice of Single Game, Tournament and Tutorial modes available from the main menu.

As tutorial mode is literally a slideshow of images detailing the game's controls, and Single Game mode is essentially playing just the first round of a Tournament mode game, it's safe to say that there's not a great deal of content included. Even the options menu has a pitiful amount of things to fiddle with, difficulty being the only one that affects gameplay in any way.

Gameplay follows the general rules of Dodgeball in that any player hit by the ball without catching it is out of the game. Catching a throw doesn't result in elimination, however and players often cross the centre line of the court without consequence. The strangest change to the rules is the inclusion of three players from each team along the sides of the court who are also able to eliminate opposing players with their throws, but don't need to be eliminated in order to win a match. I can only assume these players were included in order to speed up gameplay and eliminate the need for rules regarding out of bounds throws.

The controls are simple and allow for anyone to quickly master the game, but this also means that there's no advanced strategies to use. Beating the game is fairly straightforward; players must win 6 games to become champions and then play a final game against "The Elementals" who appear to be a race of alien Dodgeball players, to become the best team in the world. Once the game has been beaten once, players can play as The Elementals.

Graphically the game uses 2D sprites which while more primitive than other games of the time is probably a good decision as budget games never really got the hang of good looking 3D graphics. The art style is bearable, and although there's a lot of reused sprites throughout the game, there's a strange Mega Drive era feel to the visuals. The music behind gameplay doesn't really fit the action in any way, but its better than complete silence.

Overall while the Dodgeball action is generally enjoyable in a flash game sort of way, the lack of depth and unlockable content cripples the game's replayability. I felt like I'd experienced everything the game had to offer after 20 minutes or so, in which time I'd completed Tournament mode twice. Perhaps with a little more to do, and some deeper strategy, this could have been a hidden gem, but that's a lot to expect from a Midas published title.

Rating: 38/100
Grade: E