Lowest Common Denominator: THE GAME
Developed by Kung Fu Factory.
Published by MicroProse/Majesco.
Released mid/late October 2013.
Formats: Xbox 360 (Live Arcade download), PS3 (PS Store download)
Version played: PS3
You know...I can usually come up with an at least somewhat clever introductory paragraph for these write-ups, but this time? This time, I don't know what to say. This is Girl Fight. It's a game where girls fight.
...that's basically it.
Split-sided lycra pants are the future of military apparel.
Girl Fight comes at you in the form of a 1-gigabyte-or-so download costing $9.99 US or your local equivalent. For that money, you get 8 playable fighters, 8 stages, 3 AI difficulty settings and the usual bag of modes present in fighting games - Arcade ladder, offline versus, online versus, survival and training. That's the full game as it stands; there are no microtransactions locking stuff away here, which I think we can all agree is a good thing.
Jump in headfirst and you'll find something very similar to Dead or Alive, and I don't just mean because of boobs. The default button layout isn't quite the same but the basic commands of Punch, Kick, Guard and Throw are present and correct. Beyond that, holding up or down causes your character to quickly side-walk in a very DOA-ish fashion, and landing a strong strike will leave the opponent in a vulnerable 'stagger' state where they can't attack or block, and thus can only retaliate with a Counter, which are performed in DOA fashion (hold Guard + back or down on the stick as a move connects). As I said in the DOA5 review post, this setup isn't exactly my preference - I was and remain a Tekken man - but truth be told, Girl Fight actually handles itself better than its inspiration. The key here is spammability, so to speak; DOA5 was a massive pain because bottled combos could be performed easily, and linked together too quickly, so if you're on the defensive your only options were a Counter (down to pure luck in most cases) or just sit tight and hope your opponent screws up. Girl Fight has the same kind of bottled combos but they're more steadily paced, and the frame gap between one ending and you getting to start another one is long enough for enemy retaliation, which keeps things fair for the defender and forces the attacker to think about what they're doing.
Wrench (here in the foreground) is probably my favourite character.
She's a scientist. Really.
The main thing that separates Girl Fight from its competition is the Psi-Amp system. This is the closest thing the game has to super-moves, but they're a bit more interesting than just ridiculous cutscenes masquerading as combos. Landing hits or guarding against them fills up a 3-stage power bar to be used as fuel for one of 2 special techniques that you equip before the fight starts. Only 2 of these are direct attacks, Mind Blast (a rapid shockwave best used to interrupt a combo when you're getting a kicking) and Seismic Fist (punch the ground like Iron Man to do a solid lump of damage); the rest are buffs that last longer the more energy you've built up. So if you're expecting an aggressive opponent, try Steel Skin, which gives you a Silver Surfer look and reduces enemy strikes to half damage. Alternatively, if you're forced to fight back after falling behind, Life Leech restores a proportionate sliver of your own health whenever you damage the other fighter. Obvious these ideas might be on paper, but they're still pretty outside the box for fighting games (which seem to actively reject this kind of customization for fear of upsetting some arbitrary balance) and I like having nice, simple things to tinker with according to my personal 'style' of play.
Visually, I wasn't really sure what to expect from the game; most of the trailers and pre-release stuff was blurry as all hell, and I knew it wasn't exactly coming from a huge studio (Kung Fu Factory, whose last release was non-UFC-affiliated octagonathon Supremacy MMA) nor benefitting from AAA production values. In the end, Girl Fight actually looks pretty sweet in motion. The character models aren't quite at the level of the heavy hitters in this genre, but they're well-detailed and largely free of sharp edges, and thanks to smart colour choices and the same pencil-outline look found in Tekken Revolution they all stand out clearly from the backdrops so they're easy to keep track of. The animations are by and large great; I'm not such a martial arts buff that I can specifically identify moves (unless they're wrestling holds, those I know) but the attacks look believable and connect with pleasing 'oomph', and there's some good variety in KO reactions as well. The stages are varied but split neatly into 2 camps - Apocalyptic and Cyberspace. The former are all worn-down places where there seems to always be a war happening in the background (think the Urban Warzone stage from Tekken 6) and have a surprising amount of depth to them and many independently animated components; the latter take their cues from Tron Legacy, with minimalist, clean lines and lots of neon trim. That said, the stages don't factor into the gameplay; the fighters are always limited to a walled-in circular field that doesn't seem to change size between locations, and there are no wall or floor breaks to be found. Still, the visual distinctions are nice.
Mako from Pacific Rim in her Summer collection?
Back to those characters. Fighting games tend to pick their roster from a selection of visual shorthand stereotypes, and Girl Fight isn't exactly out to rock the boat, so most of the 8 girls can be summarized neatly by their outfit: badass commando (Warchild), ninja (Viper), assassin (Ghost), ludicrously skimpy samurai (Shogun), biker chick who is also a scientist (Wrench) and robot girl (Chrome, who may or may not actually be the Google browser of the same name given sentience). The remaining 2 ladies, Daisy and Chaos, are a bit harder to nail down. At first sight, with her booty shorts and spurred cowboy boots giving a Tina Armstrong vibe, I figured Daisy was the token pro wrestler, and hey, she has a powerbomb and giant swing in her move list. But her backstory actually presents her as a cold-hearted businesswoman who's made a fortune off stealing other peoples' ideas, which is awesome but not exactly what one thinks of when one sees cowboy boots. Maybe a 3-piece suit and 4-inch heels would've worked better for her. And Chaos...I haven't checked her story files yet, and looking at her, I don't have a clue what she's meant to be, other than 'Japanese'. She's just weird. Anyways, each girl has a few different colour schemes to be unlocked using credits won through fights (which can also be spent on upgrading Psi-Amps or slightly pervy art) albeit no bonus outfits, and the designs - while all looking like the product of a teenage boy's imagination - are by and large well-crafted and translated from 2D drawings to 3D models, although poor Daisy and Ghost look like they should ask for a refund from the plastic surgeon. Oh yes, and there is jiggle physics at work, because when isn't there nowadays?
The major downside for me with Girl Fight is the story, or at least the presentation of it. The actual narrative meat, if you can find it, is pretty interesting; the first 7 ladies have been captured by a sinister group only called The Foundation, who have locked their minds inside a virtual reality construct and forced them to fight one another, as their mental struggles will expand and develop the latent psionic powers they all secretly possess, things The Foundation would much like to duplicate. Chrome, the robot girl, is the embodiment of the A.I. running the virtual world, but it has quietly rebelled against its masters and is now trying to help the prisoners escape their brain-jail, although to do so successfully the ladies will still have to fight until they're strong enough to 'ascend' past the programming, so to speak. That's cool, and a nice break from the usual 'evil billionaire invites people to tournament because raisins' schtick every other fighting game uses until their continuity grows enough to allow for something better. Sadly, it's not focused on nearly enough for my liking. Arcade mode offers nothing in the way of intro or epilogues for the girls, with the only concession to storytelling being snippets of Siri-like dialogue (presumably from Chrome) that tie in with your current character's origins. If you want details on said origins, you'll need to fork out some of your battle cash to unlock the biographical text files in the extras menu, and in fairness they're well worth the read, but again - why is this info only present here? Another issue is the voice work, or rather, the lack thereof; with the exception of Chrome's emotionless quotes (which are also used during fights, like a fem-Stephen Hawking version of the Mortal Kombat "FLAWLESS VICTORY" guy) the ladies only vocalise the expected martial arts 'Hyah!' noises. It's perhaps an easily overlooked touch, but a few quips attached to the intro and win poses can go a long way to making fighters seem personable and 'real', and if there's one single thing I could add to the game, that would be it.
Surprisingly, you don't see this angle much during gameplay.
The Verdict: Exactly how desirable you'll find Girl Fight is down to how much you're willing to shell out for a fighting game. Sure, there are cheaper options out there - 'free' options - but those have their own issues; Tekken Revolution limits how much play time you get per day if you're not willing to throw money at it, and DOA5 Ultimate is only free in the most bare-bones manner imaginable (and the amount of microtransactions Tecmo are trying to wheedle out of players is bloody insulting). Girl Fight, by comparison, isn't quite free, but for one low lump sum you get a more-or-less complete game to play as much as you like. Will you like the game underneath it? I'd say yes, though unless an expansion in future adds a little more character to these characters, you probably won't love it. It's a 7.8 out of 10 sort of title - for those on a budget, or just in need of a solid 2nd option as a break from their preferred fighter.
When you have laid waste to your enemies and built your house strong,
only then can you wear the bare thighs and blue hair of True Ultimate Samurai.
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