Fighting games and the Nintendo 64 aren’t exactly synonymous. The big hits like Tekken and Virtua Fighter were on rival consoles. The Nintendo 64 didn’t have an answer to either of them, or for even the mid tier releases. Most developers either passed on the console or pushed less than stimulating software for it in this regard. This is why Fighter’s Destiny was a pretty big deal. This brawler was exclusive, and it had a few unique features going for it. The end product was okay, but how does it hold up you may ask? Well let’s dive in and find out!
Fighter’s Destiny lacks any kind of real story. There’s a short intro, but it doesn’t spell out any kind of narrative. That’s okay because I’ve never really cared about this aspect of the genre. Let’s move on to gameplay. So, Fighter’s Destiny is a 3D fighting game. The first thing you should know is that this game lacks a sidestep feature. It might as well be two dimensional because this was a pretty big deal back in the day. You play moving only left or right. I’m sure that burned some bridges back in the day. Fortunately the game has enough going for it that you won’t miss the feature.
Let’s start with what Fighter’s Destiny does right. First of all the engine is pretty solid. It’s not sixty frames per second by any means, but it’s smooth and with pretty much no dips. That was a pretty tall order back at the time of release. The downside is that the environments are pretty limited, and the characters don’t have a lot of frames of animation. They kind of move a bit stiff. Fighter’s Destiny goes for a more realistic approach (there aren’t projectile attacks or any of that jazz) and it feels more like it could be a boxing or even wrestling game to be honest. This is because of the point system, but I’ll get to that momentarily.
Most fighting games have you and your opponent whittling down each other’s life bars for victory. That’s not the case in Fighter’s Destiny. Yes, both characters have a vitality meter but depleting this doesn’t result in automatic victory. This is the unique selling point of Fighter’s Destiny. To beat an opponent you must score seven points. These are earned in a variety of different ways. You can deplete your foe’s health and score a knockout which is worth three points. Taking them down with a throw is worth two. Knocking them out of the ring is worth one. You also have special moves that score either three or four points. This system changes up the usual tactics and makes this one stand out from the pack.
But does this system make Fighter’s Destiny any more fun? Well, yes and no. On one hand I found that the point system allows for more tactics while playing. During the fight you’ll find different gameplay situations wherein it’s advantageous to score in different ways. Unfortunately combat is a bit limited because of it. You have just punch, kick and block in your arsenal. Each character has several special moves but they’re purposely difficult to land on a foe because of the value of points. Usually these have a wind-up wherein you’re vulnerable to attacks, and range is an issue as well. I found after practice I was able to land these significantly easier when I learned how to plan for it.
Fighting games live and die by how fun their special moves are to perform, and that’s what really holds Fighter’s Destiny back. They have more emphasis here and therefore are more difficult to actually land. You can try to play this like Street Fighter II, but you’ll quickly learn that’s not going to work in your favor. Instead it’s more like Virtua Fighter, but the fighting system isn’t nearly as deep. You’re rewarded for focusing on the special moves for which there is a learning curve, but things such as knockdowns and ring outs aren’t nearly as prevalent as I would have liked.
The character roster is absolutely bonkers, but not in a good way. The developers used up all their creativity in designing the combat system, and just threw in some pretty generic guys into the mix. You have Ryuji who is your token Japanese martial artist, then there’s Abdul who is a characature of the middle east. Tomahawk is the yankee doodle representative decked out in patriotic clothing, Meiling who is the Chinese counterpart to Ryuji, and it only gets worse from there. It might have been funny enough for teenage gamers in the late 90s, but Pierre the clown is pretty cheesy nowadays. Then we have a character named Ninja, and he certainly is as inventive as his name. Fighter’s Destiny feels incredibly uninspired in terms of characters.
The character roster is, in a word, bland. So let’s move on to the graphics. Fighter’s Destiny scores high marks from me in this category. As I said earlier it’s not the smoothest game but the action rarely stutters. The characters limited frames makes things look a bit stiff, but it’s not game breaking by any means. What’s really impressive is how many different moving parts they have. A lot of the animations are re-used between them, but somehow they feel fairly unique in the way they move. Perhaps it boils down to controls in this regard. Overall the game looks pretty good. The soundtrack is pretty bad however, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a single track that’s worth actually listening to.
Fighter’s Destiny is probably the best one-on-one fighting game in the Nintendo 64’s library. That’s not saying much. If this were released on the PlayStation or even Saturn it would have immediately been lost in the shuffle. I still remember one of my childhood friends trying to sell me on it, and it just wasn’t working for me. It still doesn’t to be honest, but I can at least appreciate some of the new stuff this one brings to the table. Even today nothing quite feels like Fighter’s Destiny, for better or worse. It’s worth playing for the unique elements, but don’t go into it expecting something revolutionary. It’s decent but far from great.
