"Never heard of IGS before but I hope they become big becuase they deserve it!"

Martial Masters is one of the best 2D Fighting games out there and in my opinion could hold it's own against the likes of Street Fighter and KOF. For starters Martial Masters Is a 2D fighting game made by IGS ( International Games System Co. )who create Arcade and PC games and is located in Taiwan. Well on to the review.

Gameplay:9/10
The gameplay is the same as any other 2D fighter with Hyper Combos, special moves, and basic jabs and kicks. Because of the way IGS did this, anyone who has played any Capcom or SNK game should get the hang of it very easily. The difficulty of the game depends on the player because the player decides if he/she wants to play hard or normal mode. The game itself is fun to play especially when you rank in the high number combos but as I said before it's your average fighting system. Hyper combos are done very nicely though.

Story:4/10
Well here is where almost all fighting games fall. The story is, to say the least, not the best. Although the story isn't original and doesn't grab your atention, the other aspects of the game make up for it.

Sound: 7/10
The voices are good and the music in most levels is good but it really isn't anything that will pump you up or get you excited. You common Fighting music if you will. I'm not saying that it's bad, it's just that I would've enjoyed something with more beat thrown in it.

Graphics: 10/10
Possibly some of the nicest I have seen in a while. Character movements and clothing movements are very well done and you can tell that IGS really put some time into drawing every detail on the characters persona. If you need an example check out Drunken Master, he is by far the best looking drunken character I've seen in a Fighting game ( this includes KOF, VF4, and DOA3 )and his movements look extremely life-like and smooth, something I have never seen, let alone in a 2D game.

Replayability: --
Seeing as this is a fighting game only in arcades there really isn't replayability to it ( because lack of Bonus modes and such ), but if I had to rate it I would give it a 8/10 because learning how to master each character should take alot of time and could be enjoyable if you really want to know the game inside and out.

Buy or Rent: Play
Once again this is only available in Arcades so There is no rent. If you only want to spend some loose change on a solid 2D fighter I would say go ahead and play it, who knows you may enjoy it more than me. If you have the funds, Love 2D fighters, and have the necessary parts to run the cartridge, I would say buy it because I think it would be a great investment and a nice addition to any Arcade.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/02, Updated 07/30/02