"Tekken-killer? Yeah right..."

Anyone who was really into fighting games back in the late nineties probably remembers hearing about a game Konami was developing for their new "Cobra" arcade hardware that was supposedly going to blow Virtua Fighter 3 and Tekken 3 out of the water. But, you'd probably have heard of it before now if it had really been that great, right? Read on...

Story:1/10

Completely inconsequential. Eight of the world's best fighters have been gathered together to see who's the best. Riveting.

Gameplay:3/10

I would probably score this even lower if I didn't have a soft spot for pretty much every fighting game ever created. It makes Dead or Alive look like Virtua Fighter 4. It's that simple. There's even a dumbed down "Auto Mode" that only uses the joystick and one button. Each character has a very limited number of moves and little to no real strategy is needed to win. One semi-unique feature is that your characters have something similar to the Destroy move in Guilty Gear that lets them unleash an extra-devastating one hit KO when their Martial Symbol Gauge is full. You can't jump, either. This really didn't bother me that much, as the game moves slower than most fighters. The freedom of movement your allowed (sans jumping) is greater than most fighting games, almost Tobal like in some ways. Still, the stupefying simplicity kills any love a player might have for this game quite nicely.

Graphics: 7/10

It was kind of impressive back in '98, but it didn't look all that much more impressive than VF3 or Tekken 3 after all that hype, and it looked downright silly next to Soul Calibur when that was released a few months later. The backgrounds are constantly shifting between day and night and various weather patterns in an effort to bludgeon the graphical prowess of the Cobra hardware into your skull. It looks cool, but after a while it loses it's novelty. The characters are pretty much your regular fighting game stereotypes, aside from this guy named Tsubaki who fights with a skull that looks like the Misfits logo on the back of his vest. I think he's supposed to be this game's equivalent of Judd Nelson in the Breakfast Club. The rest of the cast is full of standards like a fighting monk, a drunken Kung-Fu master ala Shun Di, a few chicks, a guy who fights like a dumbed-down Baek from Tekken and a few other boring mooks.

Sound: 5/10

Typical Asian-themed fighting game music.

Replay Value:1/10

Chances are if you live near an arcade that has this game, they probably also have something better for you to play.

Overall:3/10

Like I said earlier, I have a soft spot for fighting games. However, if you don't, then you will have no tolerance for this crap. I'm pretty sure it was only a limited release due its lameness and is kind of rare. Konami had planned to rock Namco and Sega's socks off, but they ended up floundering due to their focus on graphics over gameplay.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/07