Pocket Fighter

"Super Deformed SF & DS characters make for a cool game!"

I remember when I first rented this game & played it at my grandparents house with my numerous cousins. I was surprized with the ingenuity & style of this game. It was SF game none the less, it was presented in such a pretty cool way, that this is a game that fans of Capcom or 2-D fighters should check out.

GAMEPLAY-9
The buttons have been simplifed. One button is for Punch, one for Kick, & one is for Special. The Special button is a the button you use to do your super moves, plus this button will also perform a move that will knock an opponent senseless & cause them to loose a gem or two. Now the gems are what powers your special moves. You have three special moves that can be powered up & each one is color coded to indicate which gem you need to power it up. For instance, the Hadoken is color-coded red, which means you need red gems to power it up. You start each match with all your attacks at Level 1 & you can store up to 3 levels for each.(With Lv 3 being the strongest of course.) Also there a new feature called Flash Combos. These are really werid because during these combos, every fighter expect for Ryu will change costumes or forms & do something that's cute and/or funny.

GRAPHICS-9
All of them were beautiful & well detailed. They also feature every Street Fighter & Darkstalker character in various stages.

SOUND-10
For this kind of game, the music is just right. It's catchy & upbeat. As for the characters, the tradional "Hadoken","Shoryuken", & every other sounds the fighters makes are all clear enough to hear.

CHARACTERS-10
The selection here was good. For the world of Street Fighter, there Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Chun-Li, & Zangief. While Dan & Akuma are not-so-hidden characters. From the world of Darkstalkers there's Morrigan, Felicia, & Hsien-Ko. And from some game in Japan is Tessa, a witch. As mentioned above, they all (expect for Ryu) change into different forms for their flash combos. Chun-Li turns into a cheerleader, Hsien-Ko turns into a chef, Morrigan turns into a nurse & maid, & Felicia turns into many various Capcom stars. (I just can't resist saying this but, HOW CUUUUUTE!!!). But here's my only gripe, why doesn't Ryu change forms, is he really THAT boring? Even the Shotokhan with the "evil intent" Akuma shows that he has a lighter side by turning into a swimmer & stuff.

1-PLAYER MODE-6
This is where the game falls short, sadly. There's your usual Arcade, Survival, & Training Modes. Also there's a Custom Mode but I'm not getting into this because you can't control your fighter in it. I just found myself playing for the endings for each character, & some of them were pretty good. I just busted out laughing at Ken's ending, I also laughed at Chun-Li's ignorance in her ending, & Felicia's & Morrigan's were worth a chuckle as well. But for the most part, really dissapointing 1-player mode.

OVERALL-8
I'll say this, this game is not for everyone. You have to have a good sense of humor & not look at this as a serious game. This game was meant for shear fun, & if you like fun, give this game at least a rental like I did, but be sure to have a few friends around where you do.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 03/20/03