Author Archive: Andrea "Jens" Demetrio

Punch Planet – Footsies IN SPACE!

Posted on by

Punch Planet is one of those names that are hard to forget for those madmen like me, who develop fighting games either as a job or as a hobby. This is because it is one of those few fighting games that popped up on PC in 2017, when the Western representation in this genre was still lacking in the indie scene. It’s fair to say Punch Planet was not only one of the most promising indie titles in this time frame, but also the first indie fighting game after Skullgirls to feature one very important quality of life upgrade: rollback netcode.

While Street Fighter V was still struggling with its one-sided rollback woes and Tekken was 3, Punch Planet was already flying on the wings of GGPO. This game deserves a spot of honor in the indie fighting game scene and it’s high time I covered it for my weekly column!

Deep Doujin Dive – Phantom Breaker: Omnia (Demo)

Posted on by

Finally, a new article for the Deep Doujin Dive series, in which we delve into obscure, rare, non-mainstream or not very well known Japanese fighting games and review their mechanics, aesthetic, and appeal. This time, we are talking about a limited time demo of an upcoming remake, Phantom Breaker: Omnia, developed by MAGES Inc. and published by Rocket Panda Games!

Now on Kickstarter! Blazing Worldstars and Drag Her!

Posted on by

Crowdfunding is a harsh mistress, and many projects come and go without being able to see the light of the day. However, developers are rightfully trying to get their ideas out, sometimes giving us some rough alpha versions worth checking out. This week we talk about not one, but two demos, fresh out of a rocky Kickstarter campaign: the drag queen antics of the crazy “Drag Her!” and the ambitious “Blazing Worldstars”!

MerFight — Something fishy this way comes

Posted on by

When I think about mermaids, the first thing that comes to mind is a girl with a sea-shell bra and a fishtail, accompanied by an obnoxious red crab, who sings about the beauty of living under the sea. Well, thanks, uncle Walt, but today I’m not here to talk about THAT kind of mermaids. Today, we are here to discuss the ACTUAL merfolk, of the hybrid, semi-monstrous type, and about a fighting game roster exclusively made up of them!So, with the blessing of Rikuo from Darkstalkers (who may or may not have been an inspiration for the game’s theme), let’s dive together into the world of “MerFight: Curse of the Arctic Prince”, developed by Mattrified Games!

Two Strikes — samurai, honor and death

Posted on by

Ready your katana, polish your kunais, because we are riding to feudal Japan to meet our fate at the hand of one of six different assassins: Welcome to the merciless world of Two Strikes, a game made by the three-men development studio Retro Reactor and currently available in early access on Steam!

Etehfowr Against – a charming, simultaneous 2v2 chaos

Posted on by

In my boundless trip to the darkest depths of indie fighting game development (which culminated in some pretty cursed discoveries, like the infamous Chinese bootleg arcade machine), I tend to stumble upon games that are almost unplayable, games whose development was abandoned after a first tech demo, and games that — despite suffering from glaring issues — show a great deal of originality and make me wonder “what if the developer had more time/money/resources to materialize their vision”? This week’s game belongs to this last category. While playing it, I constantly asked myself what this game could have become, if there had been more interest around it. Because, let me put it straight: Etehfowr Against answers the question “what if you could control two characters at the same time while juggling your resources?”

Mega Knockdown — taking “it’s my turn, now!” too literally

Posted on by

If some of you watched one of the most recent videos by Stumblebee about creativity in indie fighting games, you might have caught wind of a quirky, work-in progress game, which played on a grid, with digitized actors placeholder graphics. At that point of the video, you might have asked yourself “what is this game”? Well, fret not, my fellow indie fighting game connoisseur, because this Thursday I’m taking you for a ride in the bizarre world of Mega Knockndown, a turn-based fighting game developed by the small studio Mega Memecast!

Fight’N’Jokes — rolling back, 25 years later

Posted on by

An “Italian MS-DOS cartoon fighting game re-released with planned rollback”. There is a lot to unpack in this short sentence. First, because I haven’t lived the MS-DOS era myself, I was born at its sunset — My first operating system was Windows 98. Secondly, because we are talking rollback, and, specifically, retrofitting rollback netcode into a 25 years old game. Third, because I’m Italian, like the developers.
So, today, join me and Antonio Lattanzio while we talk about the re-release of Fight’N’Jokes, a hidden gem from a forgotten past coming back with rollback netcode!

Fighting Game Mysteries – D██t███rg█

Posted on by

It’s hard to talk about D██t███rg█ or to find any precise information about it on the internet. This game has been called “vaporwave” or “a scam” or even an “urban legend”, due its cryptic history. There are people enthusiastically saying that this game doesn’t even exist, while other would swear they have seen a copy of it on a shady ███████ eBay account registered as [NAME EXPUNGED], only for said account to disappear into nothingness one day before the end of the auction. However, despite all rumors, I can offer you evidence that not only D██t███rg█ exists, but it is also — somewhat — playable. Buck up and get ready to sate your curiosity, thanks to this deep dive into a game so cursed that I cannot even write its name without facing repercussions!

TMNT X JL Turbo — the impossible made possible

Posted on by

Welcome back, folks! Time for a new episode of Indie Fighting Game Thursday! Today, we go back to traditional fighting games (after, you know, my deep dive in learning the noble art of CARate and in investigating certain indescribable cursed knock-offs), but with a little twist: we will talk about a fan game that combines character from the DC Comics Justice League and the NES/SNES classic TMNT: Tournament Fighters: the bold, daring and technically impressive “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Justice League Turbo”!