Galaxy Fight

"Almost perfect conversion of the tough Neo Geo space brawler"

While it may have fallen into the cracks of gaming memory among so many 2D fighters that were made in the 1990's, Galaxy Fight at least made an attempt to be a refreshing and fun fighting game.

Starting out as of the few Neo Geo games designed by Sunsoft, it was later ported to the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and the Neo Geo CD as many arcade games later do. The Sega Saturn port is quite good for a 2D fighter that doesn't make use of the RAM expansion pak, and what's even better is that it's almost identical to the Neo Geo version, and sadly as with many 2D Saturn fighters it was only available in Japan.

Story - 6/10
I'm not too clear on the story to this game since the games manual is in Japanese..... but the premise is much to that of many fighters. You pick a fighter who has his/her own reason for wanting to win the tournament, then travel across various planets in a distant galaxy and beat up your opponents to meet the big tough-guy Felden in the final showdown.

Graphics/Presentation - 8/10
As with many arcade games, Galaxy Fight has an opening attract demo to get your attention and play the game. Starting off with an unfathomably fast and hardcore guitar riff, we see a short animated fight demo between the Spaceman Rolf and Kazuma the Ninja. An A+ in my books for being short, sweet, and cool. Perfectly preserved from the Neo Geo cart.

If you were expecting a bland fighting game with the overused karate guys and typical street settings, you most certainly won't find that in this game. Galaxy Fight contains a diverse selection of characters and fight scenes taking place in varied settings. The character design is a nice hand-draw anime style that looks good for a 95' gen Neo Geo game, and they have a decent amount of animation, but somehow I get the feeling that a few frames have been cut in the Saturn translation.

As for the scenery, you'll see a nice variety spread across each planet, from the lush green forest of Lutecia, the to the damaged wasteland of planet Rozalis. Unlike other fighters, the scenery in Galaxy Fight spans endlessly across, so there are no walls. Several layers of scrolling are implemented which is a nice touch, as is the panning and zooming of the playfield, Art of Fighting style.

Gameplay - 7/10
Gameplay is fast and fluid; as in most other fighting games, you must beat each opponent in 2 out of 3 rounds within the allotted time. Several punch and kick buttons are at your disposal along with a taunt button, and you'll have to master the moves and fighting styles of each fighter to be able to advance well into the tournament.

Given that Galaxy Fight has a never-ending landscape, you can't corner your opponents, so you must be prepared for a run-up confrontation after knocking your enemy several feet away. This can at times make the gameplay seem to feel like jousting fights, but it's something you don't see in many other fighting games.

During the game you will have a chance to fight Bonus Kun, a bouncing punching bag that seeming imitates Ryu from Street Fighter, and a small rabbit that will morph into the appearance of your player.

The original Neo Geo version was a rather tough game, even on the lowest difficulty setting, and it's still the same in the Saturn port. The computer controlled enemies will hammer you into submission unless you are really skilled at this game - most notably the punk babe Juri who will slaughter you with barrages of kick combos that will have you gritting your teeth at the cheapness. G.Done is also high on the cheapness level, and he will often try to trick you into getting caught in a throw. The boss character Felden takes the cake though - his resemblance to Street Fighter's Gill is an indication of how nightmarishly tough the fight is. I won't even describe the level of power Rowe has, it's even tougher than that of Felden.

Multiplayer - 6/10
You have the option to play in a 2 player VS match that's slightly more satisfying than the single player experience, that is unless you have a friend who's skill and tactics match those of the computer controlled characters.

Control - 8/10
The controls have been faithfully adapted from the Neo Geo version and are just as responsive. As they say, the Saturn pad is surprising good for fighting games.

Soundtrack/Audio - 7/10
The game's musical score is an extremely diverse selection, with tribal, techno, oriental and j-pop all blended together in a weird and wonderful way. Most of the music is of good quality, and the intro tune is mind blowing guitar blazing stuff. The music is remixed with real sound composition in the Saturn and PlayStation ports.

The sound effects and voices are decent, but some sound 'slightly' scratchy if you have an ear for detail. We can put that down to the tiny 512k of sound ram on the Saturn. The game's announcer has a very excited, cybernetic sounding voice that is quite entertaining.

Replayability - 6/10
There's nothing much besides the single player fighting, but due to the difficulty of the game, you'll either give up in frustration or keep playing through as each character to see the endings.

Final Score - 7/10
While the game is definitely not perfect, it's an ok fighter that deserves to be in your collection. The Saturn port is a great translation that almost feels like the Neo Geo game despite the load times that pop up between fights.

It's a fighting game that looks nice, plays a bit rough, and is a cheap purchase on eBay.

-Steven

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/05