by the ESRB
Fighter Destiny 2, Nothing New
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Fighter Destiny 2 is the latest hand-to-hand combat game from SouthPeak for the N-64 platform. FD2 offers the player 5 choices for game play.
VS COM allows the player to select one of 11 international characters as his own and then proceeds to fight his way through the same 11 characters. Then he meets Fabian, he final and fiercest fighter.
VS BATTLE allows two players to go head-to-head against each other.
RECORD ATTACK requires the player to beat records in three styles of fighting. Survival requires the player to defeat as many opponents as possible.
FASTEST is a time trial for clearing for stages of fighting.
RODEO is a ridiculous round in which the player tries to avoid being thrown or knocked down by a killer cow known as Mou.
Fighter Destiny 2 is a fine game if you don't already have a fighting game, but otherwise, it's a bit of a disappointment. My first disappointment came when I saw on the box cover that it had a four player simultaneous option. I thought it would be great to have three of my friends over with all of us kicking and punching in the ring. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a misprint. The game has a maximum of two players simultaneous, which is typical for this type of game.
The next disappointment came when I realized that it was essentially just Fighter Destiny 1 with different characters. The look and feel of the game is exactly the same, which makes for easy playing, but there was really nothing new about it. Both the graphics and the movements of the characters are unchanged. There doesn't seem to be any advancement in the engine driving the game.
I also found the choice of international characters somewhat disappointing. I understand that game based around martial arts would have two characters representing Japan while most other countries just got one, but why did Great Britain get two representatives?
I like the training area on this game, the tips for improving play are clearly represented, but once again it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. Essentially, if you don't already own a hand-to-hand fighting game for your N64, feel free to buy this one. It's a nice representation of the best of what's out there for N64, but if you already own Fighter Destiny or another game of this type that you're happy with, don't waste your money, there's nothing new here. It gets 3 GiN Gems for being average.
Marie Flanigan has been a devoted gamer since she got her first Atari 2600 for Christmas long, long ago. These days, she splits her gaming time between PS3, Wii and a Mac. : marie@gameindustry.com.
Marie Flanigan, SouthPeak Interactive, N64