Galaxy Fight

"The Dee-lish 2D fighter is sullied by PSX loading times"

Galaxy Fight blasts off with one of those hyperventilating guitar solos that only exist in videogames, played over a montage of cool-looking comic book characters slashing the screen apart with their weapons. Then the logo slams in and this dude yells out 'GALAXY FIGHT!!!' It's a killer opening and for some reason it also makes me feel like I'm at a car trashing rally (GALAXY FIGHT! - FIGHT! - FIGHT!)

It reeks of arcadey excitement and so it should - this is a Sunsoft scrapper from Neo-Geo and coin-op land. Indeed, I originally fell in love with Galaxy Fight in Neo-Geo form, which is why when I saw this version being cleared out of a video store PSX rental section years later, I pounced! At last I could have this totally charming game at home. Sadly, not everything worked out to plan, but not in the ways you might expect...

Galaxy Fight is 2D scrapping in outer space with a cast of 8 aliens, superhero types and monsters kicking each other across 8 homeworlds. This fighting was always fun for me but never spectacular, though with some very cool and atypical features like endlessly scrolling playfields and the Neo-Geo zooming in and out effects. I consider myself to be a poor player of 2D fighters anyway. So I was never in love with Galaxy Fight because I thought it played magnificently - I was in love with it because of its atmosphere, the look and feel of it. I loved the cool, cute and bizarre characters, the very unique visual style (half anime, half comic book hero), the strong sense I got of visiting each character's home planet and the really boldly styled music.

To enjoy all of those things, I didn't even care if I won or lost much in playing the game. So long as I could play it, and that it kept moving. So it was a real disappointment for me that the PSX version was able to completely mess up my appreciation of Galaxy Fight with just one bad element: Terrible loading times.

This was an early generation PSX port (1996). It looks great, just like the Neo-Geo! It sounds fabulous. In fact I'd venture that the whole thing is an immaculate port of the Neo-Geo original, except that you must now suffer a wait of 20 seconds between every fight, and hitting buttons can't skip the intros and out-tros from rounds etc. That's doubly frustrating because it's tough and if you're like me you'll get drubbed a lot. It won't even let you hit the button to continue with the same fighter if you lose. It forces you back to the character select screen between a couple of big loads.

All the waiting and being locked in frustrating pauses adds up. It drains my motivation to practise (which I sorely need), to try characters other than my favourite (Roomi), or to play the game very much at all really.

So I can't talk too much about the fighting, because I don't do too much of it at home. Controls are also a bit painful on the PSX. Even the supposedly helpful system to apply pairs of combo and special attacks across pairs of shoulder buttons is too awkward. But I will point out those wondrous qualities of Galaxy Fight which drew me to it originally, and which are still here in perfect condition - I just can't access them readily enough for my taste. Also, if you are a 2D fighting veteran (or better yet, a Sunsoft veteran) you may win all the time, never notice the loading problems and be completely happy with PSX Galaxy Fight! The game is undoubtedly one of the more curious and original 2D fighters out there, which I'd think is reason enough for completists to check it out. And it's from the same 'crazy' family as Sunsoft's Waku Waku 7. But be warned... Loading Times Here BAD.

YAY! elements:

For starters, character variety in Galaxy Fight is awesome. You've got some huge, some small, some fast, some sluggish, some with weapons and some without - though they all play 'hand-to-hand' style in any case.

Alvan's a tiny little psychic kid who keeps opponents at bay with thunder and lightning missile attacks. Gunter on the other hand is a huge green lizard giant who specialises in seizing enemies and trying to gouge out bits of the floor with them.

Juri is the catwoman-suited flame-haired space bandit with a vanity that both amuses and gets on your nerves. I can't understand her Japanese taunts but I bet they're saying, 'Hahaha, I am so beautiful, hahaha, you are ugly, hahaha.' She's good to play with her razor-like combos, but for someone so hung up on herself she doesn't do much for me.

Kazuma (YEEEARGH!!!) is the gruff-voiced ninja (who looks like Shredder of 'Ninja Turtles' fame) with game-ending sword combos straight out of World Heroes II. When the CPU controls him he will cut you apart with teeth-gnashing frequency. Ditto Rolf, the arrogant jetpack 'hero' of the space set who has far too many attacks involving flamethrowers for my taste.

Musafar is one of those reeeeally weird fighting characters - a robot seemingly bolted together from titanium garbage cans. He plods about making astonishing Robocop whirs and whines on the soundtrack but if he grabs onto you, you will get messed up.

Penultimately, G.Done is an extremely funny gangsta type. He stands around in a pink jacket flipping a coin with his back to you. He's also the king of weird throws.

I left my favourite for last, not just because she's my favourite, but because she is so weird she demands more attention. I speak of course of Roomi. She's a bouncy alien gal with a purple bodysuit and huge white pneumatic gloves, boots and boobs. She also has rabbit ears and a voluminous mane of hair down to her ankles. I use pneumatic very advisedly, because those parts of her simply look like they were inflated with a bicycle pump and would burst if a pin was applied. She even inflates her own chubby white glove before decking someone with it as a special move. She inspires the kind of feelings women must get when they see chubby-cheeked babies. Add in her squealy Japanese voice and she's cute as hell. Yep, she has bouncing boobs too, and they seem really inspired for a change because her whole outlook is just so... FREAKY!!!

Each character has his or her own home planet and these are wonderful creations, not to mention that the pre-battle scenes zooming in on these planets whilst spitting out data about your destination are really exciting. There are planetoid surfaces, space stations with jeering crowds, a rain-filled industrial zone, a dark alien ninja temple... Roomi's technicolour homeworld has a bunch of equally inflated cute little people and animals cheering in the background. Environmental effects such as rain, strobing shadows and glassy water add to the atmosphere throughout.

These worlds scroll endlessly in both directions while you're fighting, leading to some very interesting strategies. There are no 'special' bars, fatalities or other combat flourishes here - you've got your set of moves and a life bar and that's it, though there are a lot of cool 'Neo-Geo' elements. You can kick an opponent back 2 whole screen lengths and watch as the game zooms out impressively to an ultra-wide view. It's highly mobile stuff and you'll frequently have to sprint after that alien you just bounced along the street. Computer AI is pretty harsh but you can adjust the difficulty settings, match length etc. to suit your taste. Still, you'll have a nightmare experience trying to beat the major boss Felden in any mode. Minor boss battles with a punching bag that's come to life ('Bonus Kun') and a shape-shifting cute-but-angry bunny called Yacopu are a lot more fun. Also fun are the cute sayings and quotes appropriate to every pairing of characters which are delivered when you win or lose a round. ('Hahaha! You are ugly.' - just kidding.)

And the music - YUM! They made some really out-there decisions with this one. Some levels go for broody ambience, others go with melodic attacks like the Bach-inspired storms on Alvan's world. On Musafar's world you can feel and hear the mechanistic industrial pounding in the soundtrack. Sometimes you can even hear weird crowd chatterings or space static on the levels which feature onlookers. Basically they went with a very wide variety to cater for each homeworld, and they succeeded with bells on.

So I love Galaxy Fight itself. It's fun, definitely unique and just feels great. On the Neo-Geo or as a coin-op, I'd give it a 7 or 8. But on the slow-loading PSX version (most fighting games now load in an instant), in spite of everything else being flawlessly translated, I can only stretch to the halfway mark. Nevertheless, if you're deeply curious, patient or a 2D fighting master, it might still be worth checking out here. Otherwise - no, dig up the coin-op or a Neo-Geo.

-- Galaxy Fight -- 5/10 --

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/01, Updated 05/02/01