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Proof that beat 'em up games should not be in 3D

I love beat 'em up games; they're fun and mindless. TMNT 4 and Streets of Rage 2 are my favorites. However, I've played a lot of beat 'em ups, some of which are not that great. Fighting Force is a new kind of terrible as the game is in 3D. The game itself feels like this is what Streets of Rage would be like in 3D. FF proves that beat 'em up games don't work in 3D (not that it's impossible, but it would be difficult to make it work). 

Fighting Force was released for the Playstation in 1997; it was developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. There are four characters to choose from: Hawk (he's the most balanced fighter), Mace (she's slightly faster than Hawk), Smasher (he's the strongest and the slowest), and Alana (she's the fastest). Each character has his/her own style of fighting and special moves. The combat is simple: you can punch, kick, and throw. Oh, and you can jump, but I found jumping to be completely useless. You can also unleash a special attack that will damage all enemies surrounding you. 

The story for the game is extremely simple: the bad guy is taking over the city; stop him. That's it. With that, you choose your character and start the game. The loading times are a pain. The disc has to load three times before you even start the first level! I also need to mention that the game is 2 player co-op; too bad it's no fun to play. 

So now we get into the actual gameplay. One of the problems right off the bat is the camera; sometimes it will sit in front of your character instead of behind and you won't see enemies approaching. Sometimes you'll try to punch an enemy and will miss completely because it's difficult to gauge distance in 3D. Some enemies have guns, crow bars, or baseball bats. Just like in Streets of Rage, when you hit them, they'll drop the weapon and you can pick it up and use it, but you can only use it a few times before it's no good (they don't make crow bars like they used to). The enemies can also block your attacks; when this happens, the best thing to do is grab them and throw them. 

The stages are broken down into sections. You start in the streets and make your way towards a building. The thugs are generic guys wearing black suits and ties. After you defeat them all, your score will be given on screen; you get bonus points for smashing stuff, which did not really appeal to me. The next section has you in an elevator, fighting tons of bad guys as you go up. After that, you fight in some kind of hallway. I wish the game had levels where you progress to a boss instead of breaking it up into little sections, but I guess they wanted to try something different. 

The bad guys are all the same. As you progress through the game, you'll fight different bad guys, but they all do the same thing; there's no special strategy to take them down, just beat them up. They all sound the same too. Even when you knock down girl punks, they make the same grunting sound as the guys! It does not take long for the game to become repetitious and boring. There's one part where you're on a big elevator, and you fight groups of bad guys, group after group, and it is such a pain! It goes on and on, fighting the exact same bad guys. The game is also slow and clunky; I cite TMNT 4 as a masterful beat 'em up because the game was smooth and fluid in its combat. Not here. And should you get surrounded by enemies, get ready to be frustrated because you can't hit more than one bad guy at a time. When I was fighting a group, I would have to run around and roll into them in order to knock down several at once, but this tactic took a long time to finish them all off. 

The bosses are just as generic as the bad guys: no style, no personality, no fun. I was expecting the bosses to have huge powerful attacks; instead they just walked up to your character and punched you. Really? The boss of the game was a joke; I didn't even realize he was the boss of the game until after I beat him and the credits started rolling. He had to be the most pathetic final boss I've ever played. 

One of the terrible bosses

One plus I can give this game is that it has alternate routes. After you beat the boss at the subway station, you can take one train to an air force base or the other train to a naval base. This gives the game more replayability, but who would want to go through and play this repetitive mess again? The last level was kind of cool as you're in a creepy lab, but it didn't fix the game for me. The music was generic and added nothing to the game. When I beat the game, I was glad it was over. It was that bad. 

What makes a good beat 'em up game? The most important thing is combat: smooth combat, something which this game lacked. Good characters are important. A variety of bad guys which change throughout the game. Bosses that are fun, not stupid and boring. And the final boss should be awesome. I can't blame 3D for all of these problems for FF, but I felt the combat was greatly hindered due to 3D. This is why beat 'em up games should not be in 3D. 

Some of the best beat 'em up games ever!

What do you think? Why are beat 'em up games so difficult to pull off in 3D? I cite the TMNT games of the 2000s; the 3D console ones were awful, but I played the first GBA game and thought it to be pretty good. Double Dragon Neon is a great game; I can't imagine how terrible it would be in 3D. Feel free to give your thoughts and insights on this subject, especially if you love beat 'em ups like I do. 

Final Verdict--2 Stars: Not Worth It

Fighting Force is a terrible game. It's repetitive, frustrating, and boring. In short, it's not fun. Now if there's one thing a game should be, it's fun. I don't like playing video games that aren't fun; they're missing the point. They made a sequel to FF and it was even worse than the first one (I refuse to play it). You can keep this game, just give me my Turtles and Streets of Rage. 

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.