"Another good idea gone wrong"

War Gods is a fighting game that was rather big for all of two weeks before people got the hint that it didn't have anything new to offer, and was rather difficult to play. Throwing you into the mix with several different characters that all didn't have much personality, a story line that was your generic fight for supremacy, and a control set that the National Think Tank would have a problem figuring out, War Gods went from hero to zero in short order.

With problems plaguing it from the start, the biggest complaint that I had with the game, was the fact that with some of the more intricate moves, you had to use the new 3D button. This turns out to be a heavy duty pain in the ass if you're trying to connect a heavy combination, only to have it stop short cause you can't reach quick enough for the damned button! Other various problems included blocky character designs and a jerky camera movement, and from time to time, unresponsive control.

True to its claim, it did have some pretty impressive new features, but at what cost to gamers willing to shell out their cash to play? Was the addition of a new button, and a supposedly ground breaking fighting system worth sacrificing the basic controls that all other fighting games had? The answer is hell no! All of the things wrong with this game outshine what was really a cool idea, and turned it into a dust collecting cabinet located somewhere between the pop machine and the garbage can.

-Game Play 5/10-

While the game is 3 Dimensional, most of your flashier moves and cool combinations as well as your fatalities had to be done with the 3D button. Unfortunately, the control interface was too slow to actually make good use of this option, and actually hindered the game play by giving the computer controlled opponents an advantage. If your hands weren't fast enough, your character was a sitting duck.

When you add this into the fact that the CPU is ten times faster, and gerenally uses the cheapest moves in a specific characters arsenal to decimate you right off the bat, you'll find that the fun factor is dropped dramatically. The basic premise is to beat the hell out of your opponent and then finish them off with a wicked finishing move that was damn near impossible to pull off.

With each passing round, the battles become more and more monotonous and more or less you're forced to spend most of your time blocking the computer attacks instead of dealing out punishment. When you boil it down, the use of the 3D button is useless, because again, your flashier, stronger moves all needed to be done with that damned button within the control command.

-Visual/Audio 5/10-

The characters fight on a 3D background, but come up short in terms of originallity and design. With blocky movements, and polygons clearly showing in every movement, you're looking at a clunky fight fest. Add onto that the fact that the battle grounds are so damned dark, and shadows surround everything, eye squinting becomes a necessity if the arcade is brightly lit.

The audio isn't much better. With a warbling sound of the announcers voice, and the music that doesn't fit the mood, you're more or less listening to a confined mess. Sound effects also seemed to miss cue on a regular basis, and even the voice overs, as few as their were, didn't match the body they were coming from. Again, disappointing to say the least!

-Control 3/10-

With a set-up like this, it would take someone a good month to learn just one character and to be able to use them effectively. The 3D button is set above the attack buttons, so when a combination is taking place, you have to slide a hand up away from the punch and kick buttons to hit the 3D button to complete a hard hitting combo. After a few minutes, your hands are so mixed up, you're more likely to slap yourself in the face than actually get a special move to come off!

-Quarter Crunching 7/10-

Moderately high, when you have your ass handed to you because you can't get the controls down right. By a quick calculation, unless you're a War God champ, you'll probably drop a good three bucks into the machine just getting to the final boss which is about 7 fights into the game. Surprisingly enough, it only takes one quarter to continue instead of the two you need to start the game out.

-Replayability 3/10-

No way, no how. Even if this were the only working machine in the arcade, I would personally stay away from it. After having a few run ins with this quarter crunching nightmare, I can't see a reason to go back to playing it all over again. Players may find that once the control is mastered, that it may be a fun game and the fatalities are worth going back for. From what I've seen you get better from Mortal Kombat!

-Overall 5/10-

While a 5 is average score, the shining point of this game is the fact that it offers in 3 Diemnsional fighting with a new innovative button that could have been worth something if it were placed differently. Even with all of this aside, some people might like the diversity and the extreme learning curve that goes along with this game. Everyone else? Look for a different fighter...this one lacks the testicular fortitude to be a contender.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/01, Updated 09/03/01