''Catfight'' (also known as ''Cat Fight'' and ''CatFight: The Ultimate Female Fighting Game'') is a fighting

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by American studio Phantom Card and published in 1996 by Atlantean Interactive for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

The plot of ''Catfight'' revolves around a dark goddess Shinma and 10 female warriors competing to challenge her and obtain the ultimate power. The game's advertisement on Atlantean Interactive's website states:

"Join eleven of the fiercest female warriors from across the
Ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group, a single oxygen atom bonded to two separate carbon atoms, each part of an organyl group (e.g., alkyl or aryl). They have the general formula , where R and R� ...
s as they battle it out for the ultimate power of the Universe! Watch the head-to-head fighting assault blaze its way to your screen -- with the hottest women in games engaging in the most violent fighting techniques imaginable! Some of the things you must endure are
disembowelment Disembowelment, disemboweling, evisceration, eviscerating or gutting is the removal of Organ (biology), organs from the gastrointestinal tract (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the Abdomen, abdominal area. Disembowelm ...
,
decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...
, and worse! It's the ultimate life versus death struggle, where you must pulverize your opponent in eight awesome arenas to survive! Here is your chance to claim your place next to the most awesome women in the galaxy!"

Development

Like the early games in the ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...

'' series, ''Catfight'' uses

digitized Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english ...

actors for creating the sprites representing the fighters. Martial arts actress Katalin Zamiar of ''

Mortal Kombat II ''Mortal Kombat II'' is a 1993 fighting game originally produced by Midway for arcades. It was ported to multiple home systems, including MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, 32X, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo Entertainment System ...

'' fame portrayed a female ninja character Chae Lee.

Reception

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

rated the game at only 8.67%, their score based on three magazine reviews ('' Computer Games Magazine'' rated the game 0/5). Ron Dulin scored it a 1.6/10 in

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

, calling it "without a doubt, the worst

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

ever released". He added: "The worst thing about ''Catfight'' (and, believe me, that's a hefty accomplishment) is that the

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

is just so damn bad. I'll sleep easier knowing there will never be a ''Catfight 2''." ''

The Daily Pennsylvanian ''The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc.'' is the independent student media organization of the University of Pennsylvania. The DP, Inc. publishes ''The Daily Pennsylvanian'' newspaper, ''34th Street'' magazine, and ''Under the Button'' satirical pu ...

'' called ''Catfight'' the "number one

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

game ever created". A reviewer for '' Next Generation'' panned the game for "the poor image quality, ... nonexistent play control, ridiculously inane special effects, and abysmal sound." He scored it one out of five stars, remarking, "Our scoring system won't let us give zeroes, so Atlantean owes us one star." In 2010, ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' ranked ''Catfight'' as the seventh worst game of all time, describing it as "so bad, being caught masturbating to it would actually be less embarrassing than being caught playing it." It was also included among the worst games of all time by

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

in 2012 and by

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...

in 2014.

References

External links

''CatFight: The Ultimate Female Fighting Game''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

''Catfight''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catfight (Video Game) 1996 video games Atlantean Interactive Games games Fantasy video games Fighting games Mortal Kombat clones Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Video games with digitized sprites Windows games Windows-only games