This article is part of my ongoing “Indie Fighting Game Thursday” review/retrospective series, now on supercombo.gg! This week we talk about the first open beta of Fight of Steel: Infinity Warrior, the newest game by Digital Crafter —a full-metal robotic gem with customizable movesets that could fill a very specific niche. Artificial Life I like—no wait—I LOVE robots. One of my favorite movies of all times is Pacific Rim (yes, I know it sounds cheesy, but whatever), I used to binge Robot Wars, and every single one of my released fighting games has at least one robot as a playable character. Robot-centric fighting games aren’t that rare (see Zero Divide and Rising Thunder only to cite a few), but modern ones are. For a while, I played an early beta of Metal Revolution, but the feeling was kind of “off”: The mechs were too human-like and not robotic enough for my […]
Category Archives: Reviews
Head 2 Head – smashing skulls with style
For those who are familiar with the indie fighting game scene, ArcForged might be a household name. This small, independent development team has gained prominence thanks to their fan game Sonic Smackdown — a tribute to the Marvel Vs Capcom series that featured Sonic characters. ArcForged decided to test their new toy with a smaller project, all substance and straight to the point: The chaotical, fast paced, skull-twisting Head 2 Head!
Tiger Tournament – we have Mortal Kombat at home
Tiger Tournament is a tribute to the original Mortal Kombat games, with HD digitized actor sprites and a familiar gameplay. Its current bugs and issues do not detract to the exquisite nature of this one-man experiment.
2D Fighter Maker 2002 — Eulogy to a dinosaur engine that refuses to die
Making a fighting game is not easy, for a variety of reasons that range from making them completely deterministic, to underestimating their complexity, to the amount of graphical assets needed, to the balancing and fine tuning required to produce something worth playing. So, it’s natural that we would all be grateful if there existed some engines that could ease the pain and allow for starting development with the smallest overhead possible.
On this side of the pond, in the late ’90s, M.U.G.E.N. made the rounds and became the go to tool for creative fighting game makers. In Japan, however, another engine stole its spot, a program published in 2001 by a company that is mostly known for creating RPG Maker: ladies and gentlemen, say welcome to 2D Fighter Maker 2002, published by Enterbrain!
HYPERFIGHT — or how I learned to stop blocking and love a frog
HYPERFIGHT is an atypical fighting game. As every hit which connects with the opponent is an instant round win, you could call it “dive kick on steroids”, and you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Except, you would be, but for all the wrong reasons. Join this deep dive into this bizarre pixel art fighter and learn how to survive among time stops, drunken Japanese employees and frogs in a lab coat!
Who Was Atrativa? A Deep Dive Into The Developer Behind The Infamous Jingi Storm
On September 20th, 2006, a 3D fighter called Jingi Storm: The Arcade was officially released for the Sega NAOMI arcade board in Japan. Typically the release of a game is the beginning of the story, but for Jingi Storm it might as well be the end, because leading up to that is a tale of a canceled game, asset purchasing, and supposed involvement of the Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association. What happened to make Jingi Storm the game it is and who is the developer Atrativa?
Schwarzerblitz (March 2017 Alpha) – A beautiful disaster
As of March 2022, my own indie fighting game Schwarzerblitz has been downloaded and installed more than 30’000 times, between GameJolt, itch.io and Steam, and was even featured as a mystery game at Frosty Faustings XIV. However, the story starts way back in the past, precisely on 21 March 2017, when the first public build of this low-poly 3D fighting game was uploaded to GameJolt and itch.io. But how did exactly play, that March 2017 first public version? Was it really a good game?
Follow me on this trip down memory lane, while I dissect and comment on the good and the bad of the very first Schwarzerblitz Alpha build, as a part of the celebrations for the game’s fifth year of life!
Input Chaos – a twin stick ragdoll neon nightmare
Non-conventional fighting games are uncharted territory, but something very much worth exploring. After all, after having concluded that the car is a shoto in “Buck Up and Drive!” and that one can make an engaging turn-based fighting game, I have become open to analyze every game that has the spirit of a fighting game, if not the letter.
Thus, when I have randomly stumbled upon Input Chaos my curiosity was immediately piqued. Neon vibes? Check. Tron lines? Check. De-rezzed robotic enemies and physics-based movement? Check!
Get ready for a brutal twin stick, ragdoll physics based action!
Punch Planet – Footsies IN SPACE!
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!
The King of Fighters XV Review
The King of Fighters XV is for global online competition first & foremost. While the package carries unnecessary friction in offline modes, the execution of gameplay & online punches with the best of them. K.O.F. is here again. Read our review.