Fighter’s Destiny may have since been forgotten, but it had a lot of hype driving its release. This was a 3D fighting game, and the Nintendo 64 was severely lacking in this department. Fighter’s Destiny was also an original title that made use of some unique mechanics. It was panned a bit by critics, but ultimately the consensus was that it was one of the better fighting games on the platform. The developers decided to give it another go with Fighter Destiny 2. Not only was there an ‘s’ missing from the title, but it also had a different publisher this time around. This too was panned at release. Fighter Destiny 2 was mostly criticized for being only a marginal upgrade from the original. Today we’re going to talk about it. Let’s dive right in.
Fighting games aren’t well known for their overarching stories. Most of them try, but these paper thin plots are never interesting. Fighter’s Destiny, and it’s sequel, have no narrative to speak of. Weird. I can get behind it because more often than not the genre takes itself too seriously. Still, it makes these games feel like they were rushed, or that the budget was super low. Both of these assumptions are probably true. All we know is that there’s a tournament of fighters, and we’re all being dragged along for the ride. That’s good enough for me I suppose.
Unfortunately the roster of characters makes about as much sense as the plot, or lack thereof. They come from a variety of different backgrounds but there’s little rhyme or reason behind them. This time around we have twelve characters by default. Several fighters from the original return, but some of the names have been changed. This includes Ryuji (now called Saeki for who knows what reason), the Mongolian brawler Abdul, the generic but aptly named Ninja, and the questionable clown named Pierre. I’m not attached to these guys, but I would say they are among the most memorable from the last go around. I could have done without the clown guy though.
New to the mix is a Capoeira based fighter from Brazil named Adriana, Frederico (a weird mad scientist), D-dog who seems like a caricature of Dennis Rodman, and several others. Honestly the rest aren’t really worth detailing. None of them are particularly interesting. We’ve seen similar versions of just about everyone in other, much better, fighting games. Except for Pierre. Then again, that’s probably a good thing. Fighter Destiny 2 also omits several characters from the original title. Around half the playable characters return. In some cases their movesets are re-used or at least very similar to previous combatants. Ultimately the roster just feels lazy, uninspired, and really off-putting. Fighting games live and die by their roster. Fighter Destiny 2 is off to a bad start right out of the gates.
Fighter Destiny 2 is a 3D arena based fighter. Each match takes place atop a building or other style of raised ring. The game uses the A and B buttons for basic attacks. These designate either a low attack, or mid/high strike. Holding a direction on the d-pad while mashing one of these keys results in different styles of punches/kicks, and it differs between the characters. My only complaint is that the B button is used for both mid and high attacks. The direction you hold determines which it is. Also, this decides if your character kicks or punches. This takes some getting used to. To make the most of it you must memorize the specific results of input combinations. Characters are quite different from one another so were you to be compelled to deep dive on Fighter Destiny 2 it would take some work.
Characters have several special moves at their disposal and what I found interesting is most of these don’t use the typical half circle swipes on the directional pad. Instead it’s more based on repetitive button presses. Unfortunately I don’t find any of them to be that significant. These special moves are subtle, but not technical in a way like something like Virtua Fighter or Tekken. Most of the time they’re just strikes that differ from your basic punches and kicks. In some instances these are geared more toward knocking an opponent down. Typically these have more wind-up and/or recovery time and are therefore more risky to use. All-in-all the special moves are kind of bland. I found a lot of them to be largely useless and focused on only a few per each character.
Because this is a 3D fighting game, and side stepping was all the rage, you can use this overly common skill by pressing the L button. It’s quite useful here too. Because some special moves suffer a slow recovery time I found it useful to wait for these strikes and then simply move out of the way. You also have a block which is best used for the faster strikes. Functionally it’s the same as in any other fighting game. What’s interesting is the throw mechanic. By pressing both A and B at the same time you can throw your opponent when in range. That same combination of buttons can also be used to escape a throw, but you have a limited amount of time to do so. The only problem with this is that Fighter Destiny 2 is perhaps a bit too liberal with escaping.
The highlight of Fighter Destiny 2 is the point system. It doesn’t play like a traditional fighting game. The goal isn’t to drain your opponent’s life bar. Instead you want to score points, and the first to reach a specific amount wins the match. You obtain these by performing specific actions against your opponent. For example, a knockdown nets you 3 points, a ring out is worth 1, a throw scores you 2, and a counter 3. You can win a match with very few attacks if you play your cards right. This also means the life bar is pretty useless. What’s more is that it recharges as you fight. Draining an opponents health all the way renders them incapacitated for a while wherein they can only move around slowly. This leaves them open for however you want to score on them. The scoring system is still interesting and fun.
The biggest problem in Fighter Destiny 2 is that the fighting engine is too clunky. Every attack, even simple punches and kicks, take too long to perform. The animations are also very stiff. Because of these two factors the game just isn’t a lot of fun to play. Combos are the genre’s bread and butter, but they aren’t easy enough to perform here. They also don’t feel rewarding enough. Worse yet, the point mechanic actually discourages their use. You’re rewarded more for cheap shots and waiting for the right opportunity to undo all of your foe’s progress in one fell swoop. I was able to get pretty good at the game just by practicing escaping throws, and the special strikes. Other mechanics like ring outs just aren’t reliable here. I wish the developers threw in a more traditional fighting mode because the more technical aspects are underplayed.
There are however a lot of different game modes, and some of them are really unique. The arcade mode (or vs com as it’s called here) has you simply fighting your way through the roster. It’s pretty standard fare, but with a twist. As you defeat specific foes you can steal a special move from them. It’s even possible to save this data to your memory card so the game remembers which ones you have. Vs battle lets you face off against one other human player, and the victor gets to take one of these skills from them. It’s an interesting twist and I really liked it. You also have an in depth training mode that lets you practice the various methods of scoring points. It’s very well done, and helps a great deal with some of the more obtuse methods of scoring points.
Fighter’s Arena is the final option for play, and it’s the most bizarre of the bunch. It plays like a board game. You roll dice and move on a board, and each square has either a special effect or an opponent to fight. This too allows you to steal moves from your foes. When it comes down to it though this is just arcade mode with a fancy overlay to determine your next opponent. Still, the fact that there are multiple paths and special blocks (which let you face off against unique foes) keeps things interesting. This is where I spent most of my time in Fighter Destiny 2. I just wish it allowed the option for multiplayer. That seems like it should have been a no-brainer, but alas, here we are.
Fighter Destiny 2 isn’t the prettiest fighter around. The animations leave a lot to be desired, and the character designs are laughably bad in some cases. Character portraits use that pre-rendered style that was so popular at the time but they look really weird. Still, it’s an improvement on the original. The fighters are rendered with noticeably more polygons, and the game makes use of advanced lighting effects for the console. The arenas themselves have a lot going on with dynamic elements in the background, and some moving parts. I just wish they didn’t look so generic. The soundtrack is high energy rock, but it’s limited to midi compositions. They sound decent enough but there’s nothing that really stands out in my opinion. Like the rest of the game the soundtrack seems generic and uninspired.
