Hey, Matt! I'm way late to the party here, but I was part of the production staff with Bill Rehbock and Jay Patton, and I'm partly behind some of the mechanics decisions as well as getting voice samples done for the characters. HMU if you ever want to know more of the story, which consumed a good chunk of the 4 months I worked at Atari Corp. before the axe dropped near the end of 1995.
Interesting thing of note for Biovision: while the company is long gone, the file format they invented to share motion capture data -- BVH, or BioVision Hierarchy -- is still in use today for sharing animations.
I am assuming there's no "ring outs" because the void outside the ring is probably just flat ground like the rest of the arena and they couldn't figure out a way to make it not ground without causing the Jaguar to burst into flames.
Honestly its amazing how despite how much the marketing campaign built up how powerful the Jaguar was it was woefully under-powered in almost every aspect.
@@tinkerer3399 Electrocution is way cooler than just "ah oh no I fell off the ring!" Even if one could argue that its maybe a tad too dark having the fighter just convulsing there while the winner is just posing, just make it where they get zapped and then blasted back onto the ring with a normal knockout animation and its still better than just falling.
The idea of collecting opponent’s moves as you play in order to become more powerful is such a cool idea. It makes the tournament have a roguelike style progression to it.
Back then I was so obsessed with fighting games going 3D I would have found SOME excuse to like it. Thank goodness Tekken 2 blew my mind and gave me standards
It was amazing how good Tekken 2 came out considering the first game was very average. But then they set the bar with the sequel. Edit: or was that Tekken 3? I can't remember now...
Not even close to the same, but your statement reminds me of how I defended Jedi Power Battles to the death. Going back and playing it as an adult made my mind palace crumble to the ground
It is amazing how good Tekken 2 is. 2, 3, and tag is like the greatest streak of fighting games for one series. Then uh…it’s been more misses than hits.
I like how Matt tells the Christian Svenson story here and in the Sonic Frontiers LP he mentions the same story and saying that the Fight for Life video should be up by now for context, but that video came before this one in the schedule.
That opening cinematic was hilarious. What, with the rapidly changing camera views timed to the music while absolutely nothing was happening with the 2 fighters on-screen, and whatnot.
Seeing Matt play this on the Atari 50 collection makes me hope that we can someday get a video of him playing some of the other Jaguar games on the collection-and maybe some of its Atari Lynx games, as well-on his Flophouse Plays channel!
I remember hearing about this game on Larry Brundy's Channel. According to him the maker of the game got screwed so tried to screw Atari by only giving them an unfinished game, but they released it anyway.
Fun fact: If I remember correctly, every single character aside from one gets the exact same ending where the Gatekeeper sends you to hell anyway. The only character with a DIFFERENT ending where you actually get resurrected? Pog. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT'S POG.
So Pog is the main character? Interesting; I'd expect Kimura (the ninja) to be the one getting the unique ending, since he's at the forefront of the title screen and the select screen.
i played this on real hardware at a game room in another state on a flashcart earlier this year totally blind, and i laughed my fucking ass off at it. i couldn't stop playing it was so janky
Just had a weird moment when you mentioned FX Fighter and I suddenly realized I played this back when I was a 10 year old kid. Interesting how a simple mention can make you remember things after 25 years...
Yeah, same. A fun fact about FX Fighter is that here in Germany, a magazine accidentally put *the full version* on its cover disc instead of the demo, lol. That's the reason why it was my 2nd-most played PC-exclusive fighter back in the day (#1 being the legitimately good OMF 2097, of course.) It was actually my very first introduction to 3D fighters, since all my friends and I only got 3D capable consoles later, and because arcades were basically illegal here (well, restricted to ages 18 and up). I really hope Matt covers that game, eventually.
@@gouravchakraborty9801 Nah, it was actually made by Argonaut software, the French company who developed both the original Star Fox and the Super FX chip (and also Stunt Race FX). FX fighter was supposed to be the 3rd official "FX"-title for the SNES, but delays and technical issues lead to them switching to the PC as a lead platform - and as unimpressive as the game is today, it was definitely *way* beyond the SNES's capabilities (the graphics were actually kinda decent for its time, tho the gameplay was... not.) The company actually has a really interesting history - their original claim to fame was developing Starglider for the Atari ST in 1986, which had genuinely impressive and smooth 3D graphics for its time (especially when compared to Elite, which came out 2 years earlier and was pretty much the gold standard for 3D graphics back then). Unfortunately, after their Super FX era, they pretty much only released stinkers - except for Croc (an ok 3D platformer for the PS1), and the first two PS1 Harry Potter games; which I've never played, but are apparently surprisingly good. But they had been acquired by EA by at this time, and after developing a few more flops, were shut down. A tale as old as time, sigh.
I’ve always been curious what would’ve happened if anyone, including Atari themselves, actually figured out how to use Tom & Jerry to their fullest extent, but it sounds like Bertrand was unconvinced.
I always thought the issue was design as much as anything, even if there was power, Atari didn't have the resources to polish anything, no major studio was still doing 1-person dev teams at the time except Atari. Some of the issues like the general slowness, were design choice by Bertrand, not Jaguar limitations.
I cant wait for you to get a guest on TKO now that's part of the Fight For Life community, so they can be all "We call him "Boxer" so nobody gets confused between Mr. G and Mr. J...".
How to win every VS AI round in Fight for Life: -Jump backwards towards the edge -Let the AI crawl their way towards you -Start doing jump kicks in place -This will make the AI circle dodge... eventually hitting the electrified fence Works on *every* opponent. Even Junior
Gootecks being replaced by Kenny is probably the most underrated joke I've ever heard. Good job on the video, by the way! Very informative yet entertaining!
Remember PSP Minis? Such a weird little collection of smaller scale games made to tie in with the PSP Go's launch. It had one of the worst fighters I've ever played, Funky Punch
I'm not sure how the algorithm works here but I was just shown the entirety of the film Pupper Master instead of an ad, I'm not mad about it. Love all the content man, thanks for being amazing 👏
Nice shout-out to Battle Arena Toshinden. I brought the PS1 to my college dorm when it was brand new and we hooked it up to the big-screen in the common area and played the everloving shit out of that game until the wee hours of the morning. Ellis supremacy
The fact that the lifebar only drops down when you get hurt. That broke me. You can't do that in a fighting game. I didn't think it was possible to screw that up. But it doesn't matter, cuz the damage is pitiful. That actually makes it sadder. But I guess it could be worse.
I still think Heavy Nova is a real contender for the worst fighter. The game has a power meter that literally shuts off your robot’s controls when it empties, leaving you to wait until the AI finishes beating you down before you can try again. Also action-platforming segments with the limited fighting game controls filled with tiny enemies flying around, because of course that’s the kind of thing people like to see in their fighting games.
Back in the day me and my brother really got into Heavy Nova. It's a hard game to like but once you grasp the weird mechanics it begins to become playable in 2 player. Don't bother playing as the pink blobot though called Trol. It is shit...
First fighting game I played where I wondered if I just sucked or if the game was that bad. It's a shame because it looked good for a pre-SF2 game and the soundtrack was alright. Should've known better than to expect anything good from Micronet.
I tried Heavy Nova for the Genesis and while overall it's a game where there isn't a lot of depth in terms of abilities, I found it rich in that regard compared to the rubbish in Rise Of The Robots. (Even the robot's thrusters have unlimited energy and become comfortable to control compared to other games with mechanics like Ranger X and ESWAT, this is a personal complaint) The Side-scroll sections are frustrating but it is something that can be tolerated, in combat it has the problems of another similar game, Cyborg Justice, where the animations predominate over the dynamism of the game. But now add what I said about thrusters and things will get better. Even so, the game is below any "fighting game" of the time. (Too bad, I think the rest of the problems already know everything)
I'm just in shock that I never knew, until this video, that Atari continued making systems in the 90's. Never knew they went 3D. Guess I was too sucked in to N64 and PS1. Growing up, I never saw any marketing for Atari, other than T-shirts that I just thought people were wearing for nostalgia.
I'm still going to ask Matt to do Xmen on the Hyperscan. That's gotta be the overall worst, since it requires you to scan physical cards to do damn near anything
Wouldn't it dethrone criticom and all the other current grandmasters of trash due to the load times alone? Especially considering for a console game in 2006 and not on something where everything loaded slow like the Commodore.
Okay this video made me aware of the Atari Collection and now I'm hyped to get me some of that. Love compilations that show the history of a company and doesn't try to hide the absolute trash that came down the line.
I wonder if you'll ever do a video like this on Street Fighter 1. I don't look back very fondly on the days when I was still young and arrogant, with my bright red hair and...uhm, Redder slippers.
Remembering what else was out in arcades in 1987, SF was fine. Is it good by modern standards, mechanics-wise? No. Compared to other games from back then, however... well, there was a reason I pumped a lot of quarters in the SF cab by my house, as 12 year old me liked it.
Do you have a source for that? Or is it just rumors? Here is an interview with the head developer from 2019, and his version is, "we had to cut things and rush the game, if we didn't, it wouldn't have been released at all." www.arcadeattack.co.uk/francois-bertrand/
@@tinkerer3399 You are correct that they are not direct sources. They are where the idea that the developer was not paid for the final product has been propagated, Bundy Jr. in my opinion being the more visible of the two.
One game id love for you to cover is battle of the eras. Its like a partially finished fighting game made by teenagers and everything about it seems amazing.
I know you did a gameplay vid of Tao Feng a while back, but I’d love to see a more in depth showing here. I’m just curious to see how bad you felt it really was. And of course there has to be a Simpsons wrestling episode
I never saw this one in the magazines back then. Surprised that despite how it looks, it's at least vaguely competent considering the circumstances. BTW when will Expect no Mercy have its turn here? That one is one of the worst, I will die on that hill!
I knew you'd review this as soon as you've mentioned it in the ROTR video, and I'm glad you did so since I've barely know this game. As for next game, I'd suggest Olofight for Amiga (which's rather similar to ROTR but with RPG elements), CatFight or even an Android game called Schoolgirl Fighting, which has a sequel.
its not bad, but with the passing of the green ranger, you should check out the Power Rangers fighting game for the Sega Game Gear. it has a story mode and all fighters have a down, forward, A / down, forward B / down, forward, A+B special attack and its pretty fun. you can also play 2 player with link cables but I havent tested it on an Emulator. wanted some people to try it out because i had a lot of fun with it when i was little and want to see if it holds up now.
14:52 Looks like a Terminator 2 reference to Sarah Connor in the manual. Not sure if they belong in this series but I would like to see you have a crack at the Touhou fighting games, they are unique among fighting games to say the least.
Thank god someone else noticed that. We're just skipping past brazenly ripped Linda Hamilton? In several senses of the word "ripped?" If it wasn't just made-up by the GameFAQs author, that is the most shameless T2 reference in any video game... which is saying something.
I couldn't click fast enough on this one. I am not a huge fighting game fan, but I really liked this game when I came across it. I liked the deliberate speed that made it feel like I had a shot, and I liked the additional moves you could get so it felt like I grew with the game play instead of needing to be perfect in my first match. It's a terrible game against a real world opponent, but it's a good game for us that suck at fighting games. I also adore the high score menu in it when the game doesn't give out points. It's such a weird game, I sort of love it.
Oh no. No no no. This game is irredeemable. It's not even the kind of bad that's fun to mock. It's stiff, laborious, and completely lacking in charisma or creativity. It feels like an alpha build of a game, a template onto which a game can be set... except they never got to that point. I just bought Atari 50, and Fight for Life was even worse than I expected. It makes Fighting Eyes for the Playstation look like Bloody Roar 2.
Ngl, I rented this game and had a fun time with it. I managed to get a friend into the character maker and had a lot of fun. Honestly, I'd like to see a remake of this game how it should be.
My favorite part of this series is the story synopsis. I swear you could take them completely out of context, then play a drinking game called "Bad fighting game, or Twisted Metal".
In terms of fighting games, there is an XMen game for the Hyperscan. Good luck getting it, however. Hyperscan consoles are pretty rare (only 10,000 units sold), and so is the game (Xmen is the bundled-in game for the Hyperscan). The game uses digitalized 2D sprites, although the game itself looks more like a 3DO game than anything else. By the way, to play the game, you need to scan lootbox cards, which 56 are released out of 102, so only HALF of the game ever got released. The bare minimum price to get the full experience back when the Hyperscan was a thing was $159.99! The randomness of booster packs likely would've costed you more. If you somehow get the game to work, the load screens are INSANE! Over 2 minutes of loading just for the intro logos! Good gravy! There is also Interstellar Wrestling League, but the game is significantly better than XMen, so I'll let that game slide.
A game I had as a kid on the Ps1 called Killing Zone. Back then I thought it was a good game but there are 2 very overpowered characters because they can teleport or are just extremely oppressive vs the rest of the cast. Either way, I liked it, the music was weird but good but looking back on it it was eh... I wouldn't say it's horrible, it's creative I suppose.
I searched your channel after commenting on it and found it. Glad you liked the giant Skull move too 💀 it was pretty awesome. Growing up on Killer Instinct I immediately picked him before playing as Batch. As an adult I know it says "beat you ahp!" But as a kid I thought it was foreign or something. Reeshu Wrath is what I thought it said 🤣
Wait didn't he play that when he cameod in a Stop Skeletons video.... actually wait no I conveniently forgot too.. guess another video will have to be made 🤷
UV I remember, not because of anything in the game itself, but because Tips & Tricks magazine ran a short blurb on how to do a secret Fatality in that game. Well, it wasn't a *Fatality*
It bears mentioning that, as the story goes, the developer of fight for life held the final version of the game hostage for more money. Atari being cheeky said no and released the demo instead. At least their quality control was consistent!
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences website does name Christian Svensson as a graduate of Bucknell University in his bio, which is also listed in the footer of that FAQ, so it does indeed appear to have been written by THAT Christian Svensson.
A 3D fighting game with square arenas, ring outs (...kind of), blood and a group of dead people fighting for the prize of being resurrected? This is basically the illegitimate child of Virtua Fighter 1 and Eternal Champions. Though to be fair, the idea of a demon hosting this sadistic tournament does make more sense than a benevolent entity like the Eternal Champion (plus, it's a nice touch that all the FFL fighters "coincidentally" died on the same day).
Also, after reading the bios for the characters, I think the developers may have confused the two female fighters with each other: Jenny, the one described as a "tomboy martial artist", is dressed like a 1990s fitness instructor, while Kara, the one described as a "housewife and fitness junkie" has more tomboy-ish clothes and seems to be wearing fighting gloves (I guess they could be oven mitts, but they don't look like mitts). Likewise, the cover art seems to be showing two of the other fighters, Ian and Pog - except that the in-game versions of Ian and Pog look VERY different from their cover art depictions...
So, for some reason this reminded me of Fighter's Destiny on the N64. That game isn't great, but is also ain't bad enough to contend for the crown of "The Worst". Which now has me wanting a review series that asks (and answers) the question: Is It A Diamond In The Rough Or A Polished Turd?
I didn't play the games until my early 20s (a good 10ish years after they were released lol) and genuinely think it's learning curve would (and has) turn a lot of people off who just wanted to dive in. It reviewed modestly among critics, the Japanese edition and sequel both improved its mechanics. It's just really different type of fighting game with its rules even though it has many things a traditional 3d fighter has. It's considered poverty enough that it isn't kusoge lol
I probably should have added that I really did enjoy Fighter's Destiny. Not sure why I skipped the sequel, because I liked how FD uses a "point system" similar to some real world martial arts, even though it still has your typical fighting game wackiness. As an example, I'd call it a diamond in the rough; I'd love to see a modern version with modern graphics, control, and polish. Let me know if such a thing exists. ;)
@@KamisamanoOtaku Yeah FD (and Buriki-One too now that I think about it) came about when Japan was undergoing a new age of MMA with Pancrase, the first iteration of Pride FC, and RINGS to name a few reaching the mainstream because of cross-promoting with Puroresu. I'd call it a diamond in the rough as well. I guess it can be seen as one of the precursors to other MMA games that came after.
I think it would be better for a fighting game that has a long story mode, that way there's plenty of time to continue experimenting different combinations or whatever instead of just one run through the arcade mode and then just full reset next time.
The guy on the left of the thumbnail looks like some Alternate Dimension bootleg of Guile...but not the actual Guile we see today, I mean the Jean Claude Van Damme Guile with a Beer Belly.
Ok I just started watching and I'm gonna get back to watching this in a minute, but can we take a sec to notice the catastrophic dumpy on these character models?
When I played Fight For Life for the first time it played closer to Tekken to me being that it played slower than Virtua Fighter even though Tekken was way better than Fight For Life. Virtua Fighter played faster, had more moves and I liked the ability to when you knocked a player down to go in the air and come down an attack. VF was just a deeper game compared to Tekken and Fight For Life. In 1995 my family had a Playstation 1 and a 32x. We had Tekken 1 for the Ps1 and VF for the 32X and I enjoyed Virtua Fighter more. I got into Virtua Fighter in the Arcades like the Japanese did back in the day.
Completely off topic but after you've completed the Worst Fighting Game series, would you consider doing a Most Broken Fighting Game Character tier list? Would love to know if there is a character or boss out there more OP than the Supreme Lord of Bullshit himself Ivan Ooze...
Most broken fighting boss? Now that would be a much tougher to decide match-up that's for sure, especially since that kind of thing wraps around both good and bad fighting games.
We all joke about the Atari Jaguar, but there really was a LOT of potential under it's medical device-looking hood. It had 2 main things going against it: First is that the architecture was EXTREMELY complex. It wasn't at all trivial to program the Jaguar to use both of it's 32-bit processors in tandem (or even just one, as I'll discuss in a minute). The second was that Atari outsourced the creation of an SKD for the Jaguar, which if executed well, could have elevated a lot of the development hardships. Unfortunately, the work returned by the contracted company was so bad that Atari had to create their own SDK from scratch in a SINGLE WEEKEND! Most developers who made Jaguar games didn't even bother with either of the main 32-bit processors due to the complexity. They actually used the 16-bit processor that was included by Atari primarily to handle controller input! So that's why so many Jaguar games look like they could have been pulled off on the SNES... because they could have.
I'm now questioning if it's called Virtua Fighter (twice in video) or Virtual Fighter. Ive heard it mentioned and assume it's a typo but never played it. Though it seems possible people saying virtua could sound like they're saying Virtual. Anyways love the content just had to point it out. Also reverse the playlist cause the series had continuity.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
You know it's a good Worst Fighting Game episode when the first half of it is a What Happened? instead.
that's Atari management for you.
@@Goddot Atari moment💀
@@Goddotcommon Atari L
Hey, Matt! I'm way late to the party here, but I was part of the production staff with Bill Rehbock and Jay Patton, and I'm partly behind some of the mechanics decisions as well as getting voice samples done for the characters. HMU if you ever want to know more of the story, which consumed a good chunk of the 4 months I worked at Atari Corp. before the axe dropped near the end of 1995.
Holy cow I’d LOVE to hear more of that story!
Nice! Here's hoping on an update. 🤞
Nice! Here's hoping on an update. 🤞
Interesting thing of note for Biovision: while the company is long gone, the file format they invented to share motion capture data -- BVH, or BioVision Hierarchy -- is still in use today for sharing animations.
I am assuming there's no "ring outs" because the void outside the ring is probably just flat ground like the rest of the arena and they couldn't figure out a way to make it not ground without causing the Jaguar to burst into flames.
He covers that in the video. No ring outs. Instead, the person pushed to the edge is electrocuted.
Honestly its amazing how despite how much the marketing campaign built up how powerful the Jaguar was it was woefully under-powered in almost every aspect.
@@tinkerer3399 Electrocution is way cooler than just "ah oh no I fell off the ring!" Even if one could argue that its maybe a tad too dark having the fighter just convulsing there while the winner is just posing, just make it where they get zapped and then blasted back onto the ring with a normal knockout animation and its still better than just falling.
@@plasmaoctopus1728 The rumor I heard is Atari got the unfinished version of the game because they refused to pay the devs who worked on it.
The idea of collecting opponent’s moves as you play in order to become more powerful is such a cool idea. It makes the tournament have a roguelike style progression to it.
Back then I was so obsessed with fighting games going 3D I would have found SOME excuse to like it. Thank goodness Tekken 2 blew my mind and gave me standards
It was amazing how good Tekken 2 came out considering the first game was very average. But then they set the bar with the sequel.
Edit: or was that Tekken 3? I can't remember now...
Not even close to the same, but your statement reminds me of how I defended Jedi Power Battles to the death.
Going back and playing it as an adult made my mind palace crumble to the ground
We played WarGods on N64. We weren't proud of it but we played it, gosh darn it.
@@rna151 there's a blast from the past. Think I had it on PC. It was... Yeah it was something.
It is amazing how good Tekken 2 is. 2, 3, and tag is like the greatest streak of fighting games for one series. Then uh…it’s been more misses than hits.
I like how Matt tells the Christian Svenson story here and in the Sonic Frontiers LP he mentions the same story and saying that the Fight for Life video should be up by now for context, but that video came before this one in the schedule.
Yeah, I thought for sure Sonic would be a bit later, lol. It was only by like a day or something. :p
@@MattMcMuscles Shadow War of Succession is the worst
That opening cinematic was hilarious. What, with the rapidly changing camera views timed to the music while absolutely nothing was happening with the 2 fighters on-screen, and whatnot.
I love how the intro is just two character looking at each other, but with a kick ass music.
Seeing Matt play this on the Atari 50 collection makes me hope that we can someday get a video of him playing some of the other Jaguar games on the collection-and maybe some of its Atari Lynx games, as well-on his Flophouse Plays channel!
A Jaguar mini would be nice, maybe even with homebrew support and sd slots
I wanted to believe that Cheech Marin and Duke Nukem were fighting in the thumbnail
My favorite part is the boxer who looks like he shoved both his arms into Pringles cans.
Peak character design
Mmmmmmmmmm...........Pringles
That's to achieve maximum chip damage
I remember hearing about this game on Larry Brundy's Channel. According to him the maker of the game got screwed so tried to screw Atari by only giving them an unfinished game, but they released it anyway.
Fun fact: If I remember correctly, every single character aside from one gets the exact same ending where the Gatekeeper sends you to hell anyway. The only character with a DIFFERENT ending where you actually get resurrected? Pog. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT'S POG.
So Pog is the main character? Interesting; I'd expect Kimura (the ninja) to be the one getting the unique ending, since he's at the forefront of the title screen and the select screen.
8:52 This is unironically one of the greatest intro movies I've ever seen.
It does show that Bertrand did work in framing and camera work for Virtua Fighters.
i played this on real hardware at a game room in another state on a flashcart earlier this year totally blind, and i laughed my fucking ass off at it. i couldn't stop playing it was so janky
Out of curiosity, do flashcarts peform the same as the real deal, ir there are some differences like in emulation?
@@XxRipperRooXx same as cart version of game, not emu, it plays rom
Just had a weird moment when you mentioned FX Fighter and I suddenly realized I played this back when I was a 10 year old kid. Interesting how a simple mention can make you remember things after 25 years...
And sometimes you get nostalgic for things you don't even like...
speaking of, i LOVED stunt race FX even though it was jank as hell.
Yup, you just made me remember that game too.
Still better than FFL.
Yeah, same. A fun fact about FX Fighter is that here in Germany, a magazine accidentally put *the full version* on its cover disc instead of the demo, lol. That's the reason why it was my 2nd-most played PC-exclusive fighter back in the day (#1 being the legitimately good OMF 2097, of course.) It was actually my very first introduction to 3D fighters, since all my friends and I only got 3D capable consoles later, and because arcades were basically illegal here (well, restricted to ages 18 and up). I really hope Matt covers that game, eventually.
@@gouravchakraborty9801 Nah, it was actually made by Argonaut software, the French company who developed both the original Star Fox and the Super FX chip (and also Stunt Race FX). FX fighter was supposed to be the 3rd official "FX"-title for the SNES, but delays and technical issues lead to them switching to the PC as a lead platform - and as unimpressive as the game is today, it was definitely *way* beyond the SNES's capabilities (the graphics were actually kinda decent for its time, tho the gameplay was... not.)
The company actually has a really interesting history - their original claim to fame was developing Starglider for the Atari ST in 1986, which had genuinely impressive and smooth 3D graphics for its time (especially when compared to Elite, which came out 2 years earlier and was pretty much the gold standard for 3D graphics back then).
Unfortunately, after their Super FX era, they pretty much only released stinkers - except for Croc (an ok 3D platformer for the PS1), and the first two PS1 Harry Potter games; which I've never played, but are apparently surprisingly good. But they had been acquired by EA by at this time, and after developing a few more flops, were shut down. A tale as old as time, sigh.
I’ve always been curious what would’ve happened if anyone, including Atari themselves, actually figured out how to use Tom & Jerry to their fullest extent, but it sounds like Bertrand was unconvinced.
I’ll take a look, if it’s really good looking, then that’s probably the exception that proves the rule.
I always thought the issue was design as much as anything, even if there was power, Atari didn't have the resources to polish anything, no major studio was still doing 1-person dev teams at the time except Atari. Some of the issues like the general slowness, were design choice by Bertrand, not Jaguar limitations.
For some reason the selection screen remind me "I must scream but i have no mouth" art from the PC game
The announcer sounds like Ole Anderson speaking as the Shockmaster.
I cant wait for you to get a guest on TKO now that's part of the Fight For Life community, so they can be all "We call him "Boxer" so nobody gets confused between Mr. G and Mr. J...".
How to win every VS AI round in Fight for Life:
-Jump backwards towards the edge
-Let the AI crawl their way towards you
-Start doing jump kicks in place
-This will make the AI circle dodge... eventually hitting the electrified fence
Works on *every* opponent. Even Junior
Gootecks being replaced by Kenny is probably the most underrated joke I've ever heard. Good job on the video, by the way! Very informative yet entertaining!
Remember PSP Minis? Such a weird little collection of smaller scale games made to tie in with the PSP Go's launch. It had one of the worst fighters I've ever played, Funky Punch
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! **guitar riff**
I'm not sure how the algorithm works here but I was just shown the entirety of the film Pupper Master instead of an ad, I'm not mad about it. Love all the content man, thanks for being amazing 👏
Nice shout-out to Battle Arena Toshinden. I brought the PS1 to my college dorm when it was brand new and we hooked it up to the big-screen in the common area and played the everloving shit out of that game until the wee hours of the morning. Ellis supremacy
The fact that the lifebar only drops down when you get hurt. That broke me. You can't do that in a fighting game. I didn't think it was possible to screw that up. But it doesn't matter, cuz the damage is pitiful. That actually makes it sadder. But I guess it could be worse.
I'm not even a fan of fighting games, but I love these videos! Keep it up Matt!
I still think Heavy Nova is a real contender for the worst fighter. The game has a power meter that literally shuts off your robot’s controls when it empties, leaving you to wait until the AI finishes beating you down before you can try again. Also action-platforming segments with the limited fighting game controls filled with tiny enemies flying around, because of course that’s the kind of thing people like to see in their fighting games.
Back in the day me and my brother really got into Heavy Nova. It's a hard game to like but once you grasp the weird mechanics it begins to become playable in 2 player. Don't bother playing as the pink blobot though called Trol. It is shit...
DEAR GOD I saw a friend of my play that game and it looked AWFUL. The sound, the looks, the mechanics...I just...can't help but wonder what happened.
First fighting game I played where I wondered if I just sucked or if the game was that bad. It's a shame because it looked good for a pre-SF2 game and the soundtrack was alright. Should've known better than to expect anything good from Micronet.
I tried Heavy Nova for the Genesis and while overall it's a game where there isn't a lot of depth in terms of abilities, I found it rich in that regard compared to the rubbish in Rise Of The Robots.
(Even the robot's thrusters have unlimited energy and become comfortable to control compared to other games with mechanics like Ranger X and ESWAT, this is a personal complaint)
The Side-scroll sections are frustrating but it is something that can be tolerated, in combat it has the problems of another similar game, Cyborg Justice, where the animations predominate over the dynamism of the game. But now add what I said about thrusters and things will get better.
Even so, the game is below any "fighting game" of the time.
(Too bad, I think the rest of the problems already know everything)
I'm just in shock that I never knew, until this video, that Atari continued making systems in the 90's. Never knew they went 3D. Guess I was too sucked in to N64 and PS1. Growing up, I never saw any marketing for Atari, other than T-shirts that I just thought people were wearing for nostalgia.
I'm still going to ask Matt to do Xmen on the Hyperscan. That's gotta be the overall worst, since it requires you to scan physical cards to do damn near anything
I loved AVGN's review on that "Console". Especially the wrestling game. "I like pie! I like to have pie every day!"
Wouldn't it dethrone criticom and all the other current grandmasters of trash due to the load times alone? Especially considering for a console game in 2006 and not on something where everything loaded slow like the Commodore.
8:50 I feel like that intro video is supposed to have them fighting while the camera does its thing around them.
i'm glad that despite your gripes with FX Fighter you still included music from it. the one saving grace of that title
Okay this video made me aware of the Atari Collection and now I'm hyped to get me some of that. Love compilations that show the history of a company and doesn't try to hide the absolute trash that came down the line.
I wonder if you'll ever do a video like this on Street Fighter 1. I don't look back very fondly on the days when I was still young and arrogant, with my bright red hair and...uhm, Redder slippers.
@@mr.awesome6011 Eh, they just didn't want it to collect dust.
Remembering what else was out in arcades in 1987, SF was fine. Is it good by modern standards, mechanics-wise? No. Compared to other games from back then, however... well, there was a reason I pumped a lot of quarters in the SF cab by my house, as 12 year old me liked it.
Good news!
Didn't the head developer not get paid for this and sent ATARI a beta in protest? And they called his bluff by releasing it anyway?
That is the story that I also heard.
Do you have a source for that? Or is it just rumors? Here is an interview with the head developer from 2019, and his version is, "we had to cut things and rush the game, if we didn't, it wouldn't have been released at all." www.arcadeattack.co.uk/francois-bertrand/
@@MattMcMuscles
I read it on forum boards in the early 2000s. If he came out and said it wasn't true, then I don't have any reason to not believe him.
@@MattMcMuscles Larry Bundy Jr and Hardcore Gaming 101 both mention it.
@@tinkerer3399 You are correct that they are not direct sources. They are where the idea that the developer was not paid for the final product has been propagated, Bundy Jr. in my opinion being the more visible of the two.
The Gatekeeper, huh? Are we sure there isn't also a Keymaster in the game?
One game id love for you to cover is battle of the eras. Its like a partially finished fighting game made by teenagers and everything about it seems amazing.
11:14 There's the problem, the game is missing the Key Master to unlock the full potential.
I know you did a gameplay vid of Tao Feng a while back, but I’d love to see a more in depth showing here. I’m just curious to see how bad you felt it really was.
And of course there has to be a Simpsons wrestling episode
Even as a teenager back in the 90s, every time I saw a Jaguar commercial, I could tell it was all hype and marketing, and no substance.
Games that I'm still hoping you get into:
_Shadow: Rise of Succession_
_Dangerous Streets_
_Ravenloft: Blood and Iron_
Hey, company was going down, and they actually put out something that... Works, and isn't lazy. That's something at least
9:01 my dude's just spinning middle mouse lol
I never saw this one in the magazines back then. Surprised that despite how it looks, it's at least vaguely competent considering the circumstances.
BTW when will Expect no Mercy have its turn here? That one is one of the worst, I will die on that hill!
Fight for Life? More like fight to get away from this game!
At least tempest 2000 is finally unchained from the jag
Tempest 2000 was on PC, PS1, and Saturn I believe. I think the ps1 version was called Tempest X3
I knew you'd review this as soon as you've mentioned it in the ROTR video, and I'm glad you did so since I've barely know this game.
As for next game, I'd suggest Olofight for Amiga (which's rather similar to ROTR but with RPG elements), CatFight or even an Android game called Schoolgirl Fighting, which has a sequel.
'Fight for life' isn't a bad title for a game though. Nice and dramatic, you know?
i saw a streamer descrive this game has "we need a virtual fight by TOMORROW"
This actually looks like it would have been a solid game if it had extra time to finish
I’m so happy with the Atari collection! I wish there were a few more games, but I assume that’s all licensing issues.
its not bad, but with the passing of the green ranger, you should check out the Power Rangers fighting game for the Sega Game Gear. it has a story mode and all fighters have a down, forward, A / down, forward B / down, forward, A+B special attack and its pretty fun. you can also play 2 player with link cables but I havent tested it on an Emulator. wanted some people to try it out because i had a lot of fun with it when i was little and want to see if it holds up now.
14:52 Looks like a Terminator 2 reference to Sarah Connor in the manual.
Not sure if they belong in this series but I would like to see you have a crack at the Touhou fighting games, they are unique among fighting games to say the least.
Thank god someone else noticed that. We're just skipping past brazenly ripped Linda Hamilton? In several senses of the word "ripped?"
If it wasn't just made-up by the GameFAQs author, that is the most shameless T2 reference in any video game... which is saying something.
I couldn't click fast enough on this one. I am not a huge fighting game fan, but I really liked this game when I came across it. I liked the deliberate speed that made it feel like I had a shot, and I liked the additional moves you could get so it felt like I grew with the game play instead of needing to be perfect in my first match.
It's a terrible game against a real world opponent, but it's a good game for us that suck at fighting games.
I also adore the high score menu in it when the game doesn't give out points. It's such a weird game, I sort of love it.
Thank you for reviewing this, Matt. I know we suggested it, but I figured you would be able to give it an objective review.
Oh no. No no no. This game is irredeemable. It's not even the kind of bad that's fun to mock. It's stiff, laborious, and completely lacking in charisma or creativity. It feels like an alpha build of a game, a template onto which a game can be set... except they never got to that point. I just bought Atari 50, and Fight for Life was even worse than I expected. It makes Fighting Eyes for the Playstation look like Bloody Roar 2.
Ngl, I rented this game and had a fun time with it. I managed to get a friend into the character maker and had a lot of fun. Honestly, I'd like to see a remake of this game how it should be.
My favorite part of this series is the story synopsis. I swear you could take them completely out of context, then play a drinking game called "Bad fighting game, or Twisted Metal".
In terms of fighting games, there is an XMen game for the Hyperscan. Good luck getting it, however. Hyperscan consoles are pretty rare (only 10,000 units sold), and so is the game (Xmen is the bundled-in game for the Hyperscan). The game uses digitalized 2D sprites, although the game itself looks more like a 3DO game than anything else. By the way, to play the game, you need to scan lootbox cards, which 56 are released out of 102, so only HALF of the game ever got released. The bare minimum price to get the full experience back when the Hyperscan was a thing was $159.99! The randomness of booster packs likely would've costed you more. If you somehow get the game to work, the load screens are INSANE! Over 2 minutes of loading just for the intro logos! Good gravy!
There is also Interstellar Wrestling League, but the game is significantly better than XMen, so I'll let that game slide.
This game looks like a cutscenes of two guys fighting over a party hat in Runescape
A game I had as a kid on the Ps1 called Killing Zone. Back then I thought it was a good game but there are 2 very overpowered characters because they can teleport or are just extremely oppressive vs the rest of the cast. Either way, I liked it, the music was weird but good but looking back on it it was eh... I wouldn't say it's horrible, it's creative I suppose.
Yep. I covered that last year.
I searched your channel after commenting on it and found it. Glad you liked the giant Skull move too 💀 it was pretty awesome. Growing up on Killer Instinct I immediately picked him before playing as Batch. As an adult I know it says "beat you ahp!" But as a kid I thought it was foreign or something. Reeshu Wrath is what I thought it said 🤣
I love this series. Have you ever played the Xena fighting game for the N64? I can't remember if it was bad or not.
Wait didn't he play that when he cameod in a Stop Skeletons video.... actually wait no I conveniently forgot too.. guess another video will have to be made 🤷
One of those characters has a Mario hat. I cannog unsee it. Great video, Matt :D
P.D. Dragon Ball Final Bout its a MUST
We have to do Ultra Vortek at this point and complete the Jaguar Exclusive Fighter Trilogy
UV I remember, not because of anything in the game itself, but because Tips & Tricks magazine ran a short blurb on how to do a secret Fatality in that game.
Well, it wasn't a *Fatality*
@@universalperson it might have been a "poopality". That is a secret move in Ultra Vortek.
I got two fighting games:
-Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate
-Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
It bears mentioning that, as the story goes, the developer of fight for life held the final version of the game hostage for more money. Atari being cheeky said no and released the demo instead. At least their quality control was consistent!
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences website does name Christian Svensson as a graduate of Bucknell University in his bio, which is also listed in the footer of that FAQ, so it does indeed appear to have been written by THAT Christian Svensson.
Whats your opinion of Weaponlord SNES?
What is the song that plays over the very end of the video?
Oh thank god, we've finally got the Fight For Life episode!
When are we getting the Shadow: War of Succession episode?
Have you reviewed the Sipsons Wrestling on the PS1?
Me: "I mean it's not great but some of the character models look pretty..."
Matt:"...at the same time as Virtua Fighter 3"
A 3D fighting game with square arenas, ring outs (...kind of), blood and a group of dead people fighting for the prize of being resurrected? This is basically the illegitimate child of Virtua Fighter 1 and Eternal Champions.
Though to be fair, the idea of a demon hosting this sadistic tournament does make more sense than a benevolent entity like the Eternal Champion (plus, it's a nice touch that all the FFL fighters "coincidentally" died on the same day).
Also, after reading the bios for the characters, I think the developers may have confused the two female fighters with each other: Jenny, the one described as a "tomboy martial artist", is dressed like a 1990s fitness instructor, while Kara, the one described as a "housewife and fitness junkie" has more tomboy-ish clothes and seems to be wearing fighting gloves (I guess they could be oven mitts, but they don't look like mitts).
Likewise, the cover art seems to be showing two of the other fighters, Ian and Pog - except that the in-game versions of Ian and Pog look VERY different from their cover art depictions...
I love seeing all these random fighting games i missed, easily my favorite genre of games over the years
So, for some reason this reminded me of Fighter's Destiny on the N64. That game isn't great, but is also ain't bad enough to contend for the crown of "The Worst". Which now has me wanting a review series that asks (and answers) the question:
Is It A Diamond In The Rough Or A Polished Turd?
I didn't play the games until my early 20s (a good 10ish years after they were released lol) and genuinely think it's learning curve would (and has) turn a lot of people off who just wanted to dive in. It reviewed modestly among critics, the Japanese edition and sequel both improved its mechanics. It's just really different type of fighting game with its rules even though it has many things a traditional 3d fighter has. It's considered poverty enough that it isn't kusoge lol
Fighter's Destiny was one of the more unique fighting games out there, what with the unique point system
I probably should have added that I really did enjoy Fighter's Destiny. Not sure why I skipped the sequel, because I liked how FD uses a "point system" similar to some real world martial arts, even though it still has your typical fighting game wackiness. As an example, I'd call it a diamond in the rough; I'd love to see a modern version with modern graphics, control, and polish. Let me know if such a thing exists. ;)
@@KamisamanoOtaku Yeah FD (and Buriki-One too now that I think about it) came about when Japan was undergoing a new age of MMA with Pancrase, the first iteration of Pride FC, and RINGS to name a few reaching the mainstream because of cross-promoting with Puroresu. I'd call it a diamond in the rough as well. I guess it can be seen as one of the precursors to other MMA games that came after.
Not gonna lie but taking your opponents moves is actually a really cool idea
I think it would be better for a fighting game that has a long story mode, that way there's plenty of time to continue experimenting different combinations or whatever instead of just one run through the arcade mode and then just full reset next time.
It also shares the same story with the unreleased game Thrill Kill.
The guy on the left of the thumbnail looks like some Alternate Dimension bootleg of Guile...but not the actual Guile we see today, I mean the Jean Claude Van Damme Guile with a Beer Belly.
Pog! He's back... in Pog form!
Also I got to add my voice to the throng: When's Ravenloft: Iron & Blood and Shadow: War of Succession?
Holy shit, Fight For Life has the exact same storyline as Thrill Kill!
19:40
Now we need a "who knows what could've happened" show
I look forward to these every month
Wait speaking of FX Fighter, did you do that for this series?
Not yet!
3:01 Is that Don Ramon (Seu Madruga) from Chavo?!
Didn’t that High Voltage company make those Nick jr games about Dora and Diego?
Cpt. Guile vs Cheech?
Is that cityscape background Chicago?
Raiden : "The essence of mortal kombat is not about death, but life."
Atari : "Write that down!"
Still gonna nominate the following games for this series:
Heavy Nova (Genesis)
Slaughter sport (Genesis)
Catfight (PC)
I won't give up
The getting the other fighters abilities is actually a pretty cool idea. Just wish it was in a better game. 😢
Ok I just started watching and I'm gonna get back to watching this in a minute, but can we take a sec to notice the catastrophic dumpy on these character models?
When I played Fight For Life for the first time it played closer to Tekken to me being that it played slower than Virtua Fighter even though Tekken was way better than Fight For Life. Virtua Fighter played faster, had more moves and I liked the ability to when you knocked a player down to go in the air and come down an attack. VF was just a deeper game compared to Tekken and Fight For Life. In 1995 my family had a Playstation 1 and a 32x. We had Tekken 1 for the Ps1 and VF for the 32X and I enjoyed Virtua Fighter more. I got into Virtua Fighter in the Arcades like the Japanese did back in the day.
i hate being and gen Zer.
Completely off topic but after you've completed the Worst Fighting Game series, would you consider doing a Most Broken Fighting Game Character tier list? Would love to know if there is a character or boss out there more OP than the Supreme Lord of Bullshit himself Ivan Ooze...
Most broken fighting boss? Now that would be a much tougher to decide match-up that's for sure, especially since that kind of thing wraps around both good and bad fighting games.
We all joke about the Atari Jaguar, but there really was a LOT of potential under it's medical device-looking hood. It had 2 main things going against it: First is that the architecture was EXTREMELY complex. It wasn't at all trivial to program the Jaguar to use both of it's 32-bit processors in tandem (or even just one, as I'll discuss in a minute). The second was that Atari outsourced the creation of an SKD for the Jaguar, which if executed well, could have elevated a lot of the development hardships. Unfortunately, the work returned by the contracted company was so bad that Atari had to create their own SDK from scratch in a SINGLE WEEKEND!
Most developers who made Jaguar games didn't even bother with either of the main 32-bit processors due to the complexity. They actually used the 16-bit processor that was included by Atari primarily to handle controller input! So that's why so many Jaguar games look like they could have been pulled off on the SNES... because they could have.
mic audio seemed a bit muffled/popping this time around 🤔 or maybe I'm just insane
Sorry. Tried a new mic for this video, but Ive isolated the problems and have been testing a bunch, so the next vids should sound better!
What is going on with Matt's audio in this video?
Lol at just the box art!
Cheech Marin vs Dukw Nukum?
I'm now questioning if it's called Virtua Fighter (twice in video) or Virtual Fighter. Ive heard it mentioned and assume it's a typo but never played it. Though it seems possible people saying virtua could sound like they're saying Virtual.
Anyways love the content just had to point it out. Also reverse the playlist cause the series had continuity.
Its always been called and spelt Virtua.
@MattMcMuscles wow you replied. I was so sure that it would be Virtual. Thanks for the information!