The PROWLER Previews:FFL
||| Jaguar Preview - Fight For Life
||| By: Mark "Stingray" Santora
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.4 AOL: MrSantora
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About a year ago, Atari made a big deal over hiring a member of Sega's
AM2 programming team. Francois Bertrand joined Atari as the head of
the AM1 (Atari Magic One) programming team. The first project for AM1
was a 3D fighter for the Jaguar, called Fight For Life.
FFL debuted at last year's E3 in a very early form. The models were
crude, the motion capture was jerky, and the textures really needed to
be redone, but it was still shaping up nicely, and the public was
looking forward to it. Move to this past fall, Atari announces that
FFL is on "Indefinite Hold." When pressed for what this means, Atari's
response is that FFL does not meet up to their new and improved gaming
standards. If the game ever did shape up to meet these criteria, then
Atari would release it.
Back in November, I started a new job with a production company in Los
Angeles. I joined them a few days after they finished shooting the
Atari Jaguar Infomercial (detailed elsewhere in this issue). In
post-production I was able to try out a few games that were still in
development, one of the most noteworthy cartridges was Fight For Life.
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//// Revision 2
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Around the time of ECTS, a couple of shots from the revamped FFL
surfaced on the Internet. They showed improved texturemapping and
sharper imagery. Many of the 'netters quickly dubbed these shots,
"Fight For Life - Extreme." The only comment from Atari was that the
game still did not meet its standards and would not be released.
Then in November, Atari laid off a considerable amount of its
in-house development staff, including most of the AM1 crew. Francois
Bertrand was no longer at Atari and rumor had it that FFL would most
likely never see the light of day. Shortly after, Atari asked Francois
back into the fold to finish the game, and from all accounts, he has
done so, so FFL's final fate lies in the hands of Atari Test and
Atari's management. The preview copy I was able to play was dated
from the end of October, so it is by far, NOT the final word on the
Polyfighter That Wouldn't Die..
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//// The Game
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The plot is pretty simple, you're dead and in Hell. Did I mention it's
hot there? The Devil and his son, Junior, have a little tournament -
they take a group of dead people and allow them to fight one another.
The winner of the tournament is given their life back, so I'd guess
that for Hell-based activities, it's fairly popular.
Each fighter starts with some very basic moves, and one or two special
moves. As you beat each opponent, you are given the ability to "steal"
two of their special moves. They then become part of your permanent
character, which is represented by a code entered on the character
selection screen.
While I never played an earlier edition of FFL, I did spend countless
hours in front of an editing system working on the AEO @ E3 video this
past summer, so I feel like I got to know it quite well. Then when I
started playing the October version of FFL, I was blown away. Before
I really get into this preview I want to stress again that this is a
-preview- copy from over two months ago.
Graphically, the new textures on the characters are very sharp. They
blend together well and share a style common to Tekken. It would
appear that the number of polygons in each character has been lowered
since its last public showing (I'm estimating), but if so, the
textures easily make up for that. A major fault I'm afraid I must find
is that the characters do not appear to be Gouraud shaded with a light
source. With this ability built into the Jaguar, its omission is quite
noticeable when compared to other games and other polygon engines.
The fighting area or "ring" is basically the same as all of the other
3D fighting games - it is comprised of pastel squares. It is something
that I hope will be elaborated on by the time the game is released.
However, one of the neat twists on the "ring out" option is that when
you hit the edge of the ring, you get electrified. It's not that gory,
but plumes of smoke emanating from each character would be a nice
touch....
The backgrounds are simple, flat looking bitmaps that wrap around the
ring. The game moves at a fairly decent clip, and I would estimate
that it averages about 24 frames per second. Even with the floating
camera, full 3D motion of the characters, and music, I have never seen
it drop below 21 fps.
As for the sound and music, it's average. There is a fully sampled
guitar riff that accompanies the title credits which is extremely
clear, but then we go back to the standard Euro-tinny in-game music.
Sound fx are also average. There are some voice samples in the game,
but they are sparse.
Now for the big one, control. Thankfully, FFL utilizes the
ProController to its limits. Although the original joypad is usable,
I suggest the ProController. The 4/6(L/R) shifts you left and right in
the 3D world. The 7,8,9(X,Y,Z) are extra punches and kicks. The joypad
works as you think it would, up is jump, down is crouch, left/right
move you left/right. In this version, the control is a bit rough. With
the continual playtesting and Atari's standards, I'm sure that this
game will easily be tweaked to perfection.
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//// Fighting Stereotypes
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I've talked about the graphics, the sound, the control, so what's
left... comparisons. If you own a PlayStation or if you've played
Toshinden, which seems to be everyone's current benchmark, then you
will find FFL extremely rough. It does not have that glossy over-
produced feel that Toshinden has. I don't think that it would be
possible to have FFL come even close to Toshinden without a complete
rewrite of the main game engine and new artwork. But what about Virtua
Fighter on the Saturn? Right now, FFL does LOOK better than VF on the
Saturn, but it does not look as good as VF Remix. Remember though
that FFL is a four megabyte cartridge on a system whose design is
almost two years older than the Saturn and PlayStation. The Jaguar
also has considerable less RAM to work with.
What do I think of Fight For Life right now? I can see why Atari did
not want to release it just yet. It really wasn't ready. Is it ready
now? I hope so. I guess we are just going to have to wait until the
next word comes down from Atari on one of its more public internal
projects.
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PROWLER The Atari Console Disk Magazine February 27, 1996
Copyright (c) 1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 01