Retro Fighter

Reviewed by: DeathDude

Positive Points: Impressive graphics
Nice retro tunes
Old school beat em up action

Negative Points: Only one enemy sprite
Cheap way to win

Genre: Arcade

Size: 4.00 MB

Requirements: PII and above (Had slow down on my P2 400 system)

Questionable Content: 13+ Violence

Editor rating: 4.1

Homepage: http://www.bandedsoftware.com/hexgear/retroFighter/retroFighter.htm

Download Location: http://www.bandedsoftware.com/hexgear/retroFighter/retroFighter.htm

NB!!
The above links doesn't seem to work. It seems that banded software has cut out this game.

If your like me and remember all the many beat em up games from the late 80's and early 90's. Games like Final Fight, Double Dragon, River City Ransom and the list goes on. So now, it is 2005 and here we are with another take on this genre in Retro Fighter. Inspired by the Snes version of Double Dragon, this game is just what every other beat em up game. Kicking a** across different levels, advancing forward until you get to the end, simple premise to the game but easy to get into.

There really is not much of a story line, apparently there is one although you would ever know this blurb was taken from the homepage on the story. "An inner - city narcotics investigator by the name of Maria, the girlfriend of a renown martial arts teacher called Tommy was kidnapped by a street gang known as the Dark Syndicate, lead by a deadly and ruthless drug lord by the name of Carlos. She disappeared a couple of months after trying to infiltrate his criminal drug organization." Therefore, you go forth as Tommy to rescue your girlfriend from this drug lord across four stages of butt kicking fury.

The game itself has impressive graphics, although you only play as one character it is done in a 3-D style game play. So you can rotate your character and pick different angles to attack your enemies something that you did not see with the older beat em up titles. One of the more annoying things that were a little sad to see was that the game only has one generic enemy sprite. I mean yes with this type of game you will see the same rather hire a goon enemies coming to stop you in your mission. However, to see only one enemy sprite in the entire game that was sad to see at least put in one more different sprite to give it uniqueness. 

The game borrows from its music, some of the music from past beat em up titles such as Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. Which I thought was nifty as the music really added to the game play made it enjoyable to listen to. I would have preferred to hear original music for the game. Still nothing, wrong with paying tribute to past titles this way. 

The only other gripe I had with this game was the use of weapons, normally with most games you can use weapons only for a certain time, that's not really the main issue. The main issue is the gun weapon, which in my opinion is the cheapest weapon in the game. It never runs out of bullets and can be used to easily gun down the enemies and even the boss, and it appears in every level. Therefore, you will see it every time around, something that takes away the challenge I thought as you can just gun down enemy is quickly.
Still if your looking for something to just pick up and play if you don't have much time or you just want to vent out a little anger in this game. You can do it with Retro Fighter, check it out.