Fighting Force is a 1997 3D beat 'em up developed by Eidos. It was released for PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo 64. Knights of the round arcade. The game was originally devised by Core Design as Streets of Rage 4 to be published by Sega exclusively for the Sega Saturn. Fighting Force is a 3D fighting 'beat-em-up' in which the player can choose to control one of the four available characters. Each of the characters has his or her.

If you were (or still are) a fan of Streets of Rage or Final Fight from the olden days of gaming, then Fighting Force 64 from Core and Eidos is right up your butt-kicking alley. Some of you might remember a PlayStation version which came out not too long ago. Well, the N64 is pretty much a twin except on cart instead of CD.

The main difference between this N64 version and its PlayStation cousin are graphics. Using the N64's built-in effects, the Fighting Force team is giving nearly everything in the game. Also, explosions and other such effects will be anti-aliased.

On top of the graphics, the gameplay is being tweaked. Fighting Force 64 uses the Al from the Japanese PlayStation release due to its later release. Since the Fighting Force team had more time to work on the gameplay in the Japanese version, they are basically happier with it. There are less savepoints in the N64 version as well. What all of this contributes to is a far more challenging game. The PlayStation version suffered from being far too easy.

For those of you not familiar with Fighting Force, the game is basically a one- or two-player beat-'em-up like Final Fight except in 3D. Marc Silvestri of Top Cow Productions (co-producer of the comics The Darkness and Witchblade, among others) was approached to design the game's characters and give them personalities. With his years in the comic book industry, working for Marvel comics, starting Image comics and now working with Top Cow, Silvestri has the experience to design some kick-ass characters.

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Fighting Force 64's story line sounds a lot like a comic book: A madman with a lot of money and power by the name of Dr. Zeng predicts the end of the world, while his followers wait for his prediction to come true. It doesn't, so Dr. Z decides to make it happen himself with a little help from some biochemicals. A couple of for-hire do-gooders hear about it, employ two of their friends and the world-saving adventure starts.

Each of the game's four main characters (two bulky males and two voluptuous females) has his/her own unique punches, kicks, slides and rolls along with special moves. You can also pick up objects and weapons to use against Dr. Z's goons. Enemies are standard stock but are generally pretty smart, often blocking and moving out of the way when you attack. The game's 22 levels take you to city streets, subways, up into buildings, onto aircraft and eventually to Dr. Z's secret hideout where the final confrontation takes place.