''Soul Fighter'' is a 3D

beat 'em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in Side-scrolling video game, scrolling, 2D c ...

video game developed by Toka and published by TLC Multimedia for the

Sega Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

in 1999.

Gameplay

The gameplay centers around martial art styles of combat and using a small selection of weapons.

Plot

An evil spell of Queen Antea has fallen on the Kingdom of Gomar. As a mysterious mist envelops the kingdom, the inhabitants turn into vicious creatures. A fearless warrior (Altus), a female spy (Sayomi), and a powerful wizard (Orion) have escaped the fate of their fellow villagers. They must now search for and capture souls in order to reverse the curse.

Development

''Soul Fighter'' was developed by the French company Toka with help from upstart company Piggyback Interactive. The 15-person team at Toka created the game using the

3dfx Interactive 3dfx Interactive, Inc. was an American computer hardware company headquartered in San Jose, California, founded in 1994, that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics, 3D graphics processing units, and later, video cards. It was a pionee ...

Glide API Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their ''Voodoo Graphics'' 3D accelerator cards. It started as a proprietary API, and was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to rendering performance, supporting geometry and ...

for

PC hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random-access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case. It includes external devices ...

in the same fashion as

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

' '' San Francisco Rush'', ''

NFL Blitz ''NFL Blitz'' is a series of American football themed video game originally released by Midway featuring National Football League (NFL) teams. It began as a 1997 arcade game '' NFL Blitz'' that was ported to home consoles and spawned a series of ...

'', and ''

NBA Showtime ''NBA Showtime'' was the pregame show aired before each ''NBA on NBC'' telecast. The program, a half-hour in length, began during the 1990–91 NBA season, and was initially hosted by Bob Costas. Costas left in the mid-1990s, and became lead ...

''. Although ''Soul Fighter'' cannot be run with Glide on the Dreamcast, the software allowed Toka to port the game from the PC to console in less than three weeks. Production on ''Soul Fighter'' was originally set to be finished in July 1999 with the game slated for release at the North American

launch Launch or launched may refer to: Involving vehicles * Launch (boat), one of several different sorts of boat ** Motor launch (naval), a small military vessel used by the Royal Navy * Air launch, the practice of dropping an aircraft, rocket, or ...

of the Dreamcast. A delay set its release back to an October ship date. After settling on a publisher in Mindscape, ''Soul Fighter'' was delayed again from an October 1999 release to the following month. Piggyback consulted with a Japanese publisher at one point to transform ''Soul Fighter'' into an arcade game; the company had also considered a version for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

. A planned port of the game for the

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

was announced but eventually cancelled.

Reception

''Soul Fighter'' received unfavorable reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

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 ...

. Blake Fischer of '' NextGen'' called it the first spinning-world simulator to run at 60fps. ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'', however, said, "Even with all of its faults, ''Soul Fighter'' might be worth a weekend rental if you enjoy a straight, no-brains brawling quest - you ''

Dynamite Cop ''Dynamite Cop'', known in Japan as , is a 1998 beat 'em up video game published by Sega and initially released in arcades on Sega Model 2 hardware. It is the sequel to the 1996 game ''Dynamite Deka'', which was released outside Japan as '' Die ...

'' fans should take note. But with better Dreamcast games in its own genre like '' Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm'' coming along, it might be better just to let the kingdom of Gomar go all to hell."

Notes

References

External links

* {{Toka (company) 1999 video games Beat 'em ups Cancelled GameCube games Dreamcast games Dreamcast-only games The Learning Company games Mindscape games Red Orb Entertainment games Single-player video games Toka (company) games Video games developed in France Video games featuring female protagonists