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Cyberplay: Spring video game crop falls short
July 11, 1997
Web posted at: 7:12 p.m. EDT (2312 GMT)By Steven L. Kent
Spring is generally a pitiful season for video games, because most game manufacturers release their best titles around the winter holidays. Even so, with Sony and Nintendo wrestling for supremacy in a nip-and-tuck market, you would expect some A-plus games appearing throughout the year.
Of course, if you had expected any A-plus games this past spring, you would have been wrong.
This spring's crop of fighting games was actually a bit disappointing.
The Sega Saturn has been out for two years now, and the PlayStation has been out for a year and a half, and programmers still haven't learned how to harvest all of the power in their 32-bit processors. It's been less than a year since Nintendo introduced the N64 in the United States, and it also remains lacking in the area of fighting games.
However, several new fighting games have come out over the last few months. Here's how they stack up:
'Soul Blade'
Grade: A, Namco Hometeck, $49.99 Sony PlayStation
"Soul Blade," for the Sony PlayStation, is not only the best fighting games out this year, it's one of the best games of the year.
A demonic pirate named Cervantes possesses a terrible sword called the Soul Edge that is said to be able to "cut the heavens asunder." Whether or not it can cut the heavens, it does a lot of damage to the nine warriors who have gathered to strip Cervantes of his sword.
You play this game by selecting either Cervantes or one of his challengers, and controlling them as they fight opponents. "Soul Blade" is a 3-D combat game with weapons.
Seung Mi Na, a female warrior from Korea, has a staff with a long blade; Mitsurugi, the Japanese swordsman, has a traditional samurai sword; Sophita, the vestal virgin from Greece, has a short sword and a shield; and there are other characters with other weapons.
Several features make "Soul Blade" stand out. It has a wonderful cinematic introduction, great graphics, extremely precise and responsive controls, fast action and interesting characters. Like most fighting games, it's rather simple to beat in the one-player mode, and fun to play against others, assuming they're not too much better than you are.
'Fighters Megamix'
Grade: B-minus, Sega, $59.99 Sega Saturn
"Virtua Fighter 2" is the finest fighting game for the home market. "Fighting Vipers" is rather tasteless but further demonstrates Sega's ability to create exciting martial arts action and great characters. "Fighters Megamix" has all 11 of the fighters from "Virtua Fighter 2" and all 11 combatants from "Fighting Vipers." How could this game score anything lower than an A-plus rating?
Sega found a way.
But first, the good news. "Fighters Megamix" contains all of the fast action and easy-to-learn controls that have distinguished Sega games in the past. The game also boasts beautiful backgrounds.
Magamix's 32 fighters range from realistic warriors to scantily clad supermodels whose clothes fall off as they get hurt. (Their undergarments always remain intact). Or you can fight with a giant teddy bear or a car.
Unfortunately, "Fighters Megamix" is also hugely flawed. Walls, background objects and even fighters' limbs sometimes disappear from the screen as the Saturn's overtaxed processors struggle to keep the game going. The game slows too, making it appear as though you are fighting underwater.
As a one-player game, "Fighters Megamix" is way too easy. I beat 12 consecutive fighters using one move: a cartwheel kick that none of the other fighters ever bothered to block.
On the other hand, the game's easy special moves make it an exceptionally good game to play with friends. It won't take long for your friends to learn how to defend themselves, and the two-player matches are quite satisfying.
'War Gods'
Grade: C-minus, Midway Home Entertainment, $79.99 ($59.99 for PlayStation) PlayStation, Nintendo 64
Crude? Who could ever call a fighting game like "War Gods" crude? Just because it features such stereotypical elements as a voodoo-practicing African priest and a human-sacrificing Aztec doesn't make it crude. OK, maybe it does have an Amazon in a bikini, but what does that prove?
Maybe one of the combatants finishes his opponents by pulling out and then eating their hearts. So? "Eat your heart out" is an accepted taunt in civilized society.
The game's problems go deeper than its unduly grotesque, overly gory, sexist, bigoted, superficially occult content. Its fighting controls are difficult and mildly unresponsive, and its inadequate instruction booklet offers little information to help master the game.
Even with all of these strikes against it, "War Gods" has some cool features. The dark arenas in which the fights take place are eerie, the music is great and the combat sequences make good use of 3-D space. Best of all, "War Gods" will prove, once and for all, that it takes more than violence to make a hit video game.
You can, by the way, turn the blood and fatalities off, if you choose. The game does not, however, feature an option that allows you to turn off the bigoted stereotyping, occult images and sexist characters. But your television does, it's called the on/off switch.
'K-1 The Arena Fighters'
Grade: C-minus, T--HQ, $54.99 Sony PlayStation
As a longtime fan of the martial arts, I have patiently waited for a realistic fighting game in which combatants use authentic techniques, obey the law of gravity and do not shoot fireballs at one another. I am disappointed to say that my wait is over.
"K-1 The Arena Fighters" is a true-to-life game that proves that authenticity seldom equals playability.
The programmers that created K-1 did everything they could to make this game realistic. They based it on eight real fighters, made the matches take place in a 3-D environment, set the fights in boxing rings and more.
But, sadly, realistic kick boxing restricted by the laws of physics is not nearly as exciting to watch as the exaggerated styles and moves in other games.
(c) 1997, Steven L. Kent. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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