Limited Run Games has been re-releasing a number of classic titles lately, including Tomba! and its sequel, and many of these are great. But then you have other titles that just make you scratch your head and wonder who asked for a re-release, like with the case of Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. Fighting Force falls somewhere in the middle of this as some do remember the game fondly and it has a fascinating backstory, but the games themselves are a bit questionable.
Fighting Force emerged from a classic series, in a roundabout way. The series began as a pitch for a fourth entry in the famous Streets of Rage series from SEGA. Fighting Force began life as a SEGA Saturn game and would have been the first fully 3-D entry in the series. Most of the characters even feel like analogues to those in the original Streets of Rage trilogy and it becomes clear once you are aware of this.
The thing is though, it is for the best that the deal between SEGA and developer Core Design fell through as these games are just not that great. Some might say that this is because it was an early 3D beat ’em up, but that is not the case. Fighting Force 1 was bad even for the time, and despite the massive hype around it, the game just fell flat and was considered bad even at the time.
Fighting Force is just a mediocre game with awkward controls and a lackluster combat system. The characters move slowly and stiffly with it ultimately feeling like you are fighting with the game rather than the enemies in the game. There are weapons to find, guns to use and so on, but even picking them up and using them is just not handled well. If this had been Streets of Rage 4, it would have been the doom of that series.
In contrast, Sega’s own 3D beat em up, Dynamite Dekka, (released as Die Hard Arcade in the west) was a rather decent 3D beat em up even if it still has a clunkiness to it. It felt smoother and played far better even with the limitations of the time holding it back, and its sequel Dynamite Dekka 2 ( Dynamite Cop in the west) was a fantastic next gen follow up that should have had further sequels. Those games felt like a better follow up to Streets of Rage than anything Fighting Force was.
Fighting Force 2 shifted genres entirely and was more of a third person shooter inspired by Metal Gear and only keeps the character Hawk Mansion. To say this was an odd choice would be an understatement, as whatever charm there was in the first game is gone and replaced with even worse melee combat, terrible weapon combat and storytelling that makes no sense. The awkward tank controls and horrible camera clash with the level design that makes everything a slog to get through.
It is possible Core Design realized that Fighting Force had not caught on, but this attempt to shift genre was ill advised and only hastened the downfall of the franchise. I refer again to SEGA improving on Dynamite Dekka / Doe Hard Arcade with its sequel, and while it is debatable if Core Design could have improved Fighting Force with a sequel that built on the original, what they ended up doing just ensured that Fighting Force had no future, although there were plans for a third game for a time.
Limited Run games often add a lot to the collections they release, with a lot of effort put into preservation and offering additional content including reference material. Fighting Force Collection is not an example of Limited Run Games doing this, as it is rather bare bones with little effort on presentation or extras, with the complex history of the games not being touched upon. This is not even getting to the fact that the emulation is rather terrible here, and considering how bad the games are to begin with, what we have just feels so low effort that playing it makes you wish you had spent your money elsewhere.
Fighting Force Collection brings back two games that served as failed 3D experiments and aged horribly and put them in a package that just reeks of low effort. Limited Run Games has done much better work with other games, and what we have here is best avoided. You may find some curiosity in its origins as an attempt at Streets of Rage 4, but there is no other value to be had here.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided