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