At first glance, the combat system seems to be reminiscent of Tekken's, but it differs in that the overall pacing is much slower and less arcade-like, requiring a more methodical, strategic approach. Button Mashing won't get you nearly as far here as it will in many comparable fighters. The game sports a large, colorful variety of characters with several unique methods of attack seldom seen in standard fighting games at the time (including MMA-style ground n' pound techniques, directional chain grapples like those found in straight pro-wrestling games, and the ability to keep fighting while prone), along with highly detailed graphics and character models that are some of the better ones seen on the original PlayStation hardware.
The game is worth tracking down for serious fighting game fans.
This Game Provides Examples Of:
- A Winner Is You: Prepare for massive disappointment if you attempt to play this game for its story. There's no cutscenes, no rival battles, no story progression of any sort, and when you clear arcade mode with one character in hopes of obtaining their ending? All you get credits over a montage of everybody getting their asses kicked. Thank You For Playing!
- A.I. Breaker: The computer is programmed to always attack as it's rising from a knockdown, which is remarkably easy to exploit since "always" directly translates to "predictable."
- All There in the Manual: Sort of like the original Dead or Alive, there is a plot, but nothing in the game really hints at it.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Arthur.
- But Not Too Foreign: A few characters not hailing from Japan are still half-Japanese.
- Expy: Practically every character has a hidden complementary fighter to unlock who uses a similar style.
- Genki Girl: Saya.
- Gonk: Zhou, who's quite possibly the least intimidating Dragon in fighting game history.
- Groin Attack: Several characters use them, but Cindy is the most noteworty for her really, really getting into the act of destroying her opponent's crotch.
- Joke Character: Jelly and Billy, a pair of well-dressed fellows who happen to have the heads of a parrot and penguin, respectively.
- Ninja: Hyoma and his sister Kazane, who styles herself as a miko, but is actually a kunoichi.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Douglas is a dead ringer for actor and martial artist Steven Seagal, right down to the loudly-patterned suits.
- Shotoclone: Yugo. He looks like what would happen if Ryu and Kazuya Mishima somehow had a kid.
- Spinning Pile Driver: David has one sorta. He can smack someone over the head to turn them around and give them 4 flipping German Supplexes in a row. He finally uses all that momentum to leap up into a flying piledriver (though there's no spinning in the air). This brutal attack will wipe out almost all of an opponent's health and in the demo theatre, poor Ann is the victim of this special combo.
- Stout Strength: Zhou is a squat, chunky guy with poor range and speed but can hit pretty hard.
- Wrestler in All of Us: David and Mark, which makes sense in that they actually are pro-wrestlers. Ann and Arthur mostly use Greco-Roman style, but they also both incorporate some pro-wrestling moves into their repertoire.
