Review: The King of Fighters '97 (iPad)

Review by Andrew M. 

The king of the arcade games was the fighting games. There was always something appealing about going into a local arcade, whacking a dollar into the machine and button mashing your way to a victory. When fighters made the jump onto the console, they got a fresh lick of paint, but they held onto that brawling, button mashing goodness that made kids flock to the arcade.

However, the experience when playing these fighters at home was also different. I loved playing on the arcade machines. Perhaps because I was fighting for the most value out of my money as possible, but there was something different about the console experience, and I do think fighters lost something core to the experience as the arcades died away.

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Review: Fighter Within (Xbox One)

Review by Nick H.

The decision to keep the Xbox One at at higher price tag in order to include the Kinect 2.0 with the system was a controversial point for Microsoft. On the one hand, it makes sense that Microsoft would want to ensure that this device, which it has heavily invested in, has a 100 per cent install base with its consoles so developers know it is going to be there.

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Review: Soulcalibur 2 HD Online (PS3)

Review by Matt S. 

Of the many HD remakes we've seen this generation this one I don't quite get, though I'm certainly not complaining of its existence. While Soulcalibur 2 is arguably the finest game in the franchise, it's impossible to argue that the current generation's Soulcalibur 5 is a lesser game; it has more characters, more gameplay options, and more a more complex art direction.

Soulcalibur 2 in HD looks great thanks to its timeless art direction, but like most HD remakes there's small details that are missing here - environments look and feel more basic, for instance, and character models might be HD, but they are low on the detail that would mark them out as next gen character designs. They look like mannequin models, in other words. Other than the online combat there isn't anything that has been added to the package either. By modern fighting game standards it's quite the minimalist package.

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Review: Girl Fight (PS3)

Review by Matt S. 

Exhibit A: Dead or Alive. A game that features rather lovely ladies (and men, but no one really pays any attention to them, do they?) wearing rather... lovely... costumes beating the living bejeebus out of one another.

Dead or Alive is a popular franchise. I get that. It sells well and I can certainly appreciate another developer looking at the success of Dead or Alive, figuring out that it's the women that makes people buy this game over the likes of Street Fighter or Tekken, and deciding to build a game to capitalise on that popularity.

So enter exhibit B: Girl Fight. A game that features random ladies (and no men, removing the stuff from Dead or Alive that no one cared about) wearing random costumes and beating the living bejeebus out of one another.

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Review: Rage Warriors (iPad)

Review by Andrew M. 

I grew up on console gaming, especially loving the fighting game genre. Sinking many hours with my mates into Mortal Kombat on the SNES, Street Fighter on the SEGA Mega Drive and Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64, it started a huge appreciation for the genre, and with that naturally comes an affinity for brawlers. With the uptake of touch screen gaming, it is clear that it has been an incredibly difficult process for both of these genres to make the switch. Touch controls just don’t offer the finesse and complexity that a great fighting game on a console does. Rage Warriors is a game that suffers due to the limitations of the medium.

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Review: Divekick (Vita)

I get that Divekick is meant to be more parody than in-depth game, but I also didn't find myself laughing.

With that said, the premise is an interesting exercise in minimalism. Just how far down can you reduce the fighting game, in terms of both buttons and complexity, while maintaining a game that is indeed a fighting game? Divekick makes a compelling case that two buttons are enough to create a game in the genre, and yet also manages to demonstrate just why the modern fighting game needs that complexity.

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