Soul Fighter Mindscape for Dreamcast

Soul Fighter

Red Orb's Dreamcast debut is a quirky mix of simplistic hand-to-hand combat, maze crawling, and power-up eating. And you'll need the strength of a stomach full of soul food to mow down the plethora of townsfolk turned beasties in Soul Fighter. Whack a bad guy, and his soul is put into your magic bottle for safekeeping until you've freed enough souls to pop open the door to the next level. While on the surface, the game may seem to borrow heavily from the fantasy-action romp Gauntlet Legends, it actually has a lot more in common with old Sega Genesis games such as Streets of Rage. Only instead of a side-scrolling brawler, this game presents the world in stunning 3-D, with a rather fussy camera-angle system that can be detrimental to both gameplay and your full stomach. Still, since the controls are so simplified--with only three main buttons for kick, punch, and jump--it's hard to fault the game for using awkward camera movement to make things more challenging. A rather odd epicurean collection of power-ups uses pig's heads, roasted chickens, and wood-planked fish to boost your strength. Projectile weapons such as crossbows and throwing axes can be uncovered by brashly shattering treasure chests that are strewn about, or by giving some beastly bag of bones a few soul-freeing punts. Three characters to choose from make the game slightly more deep, but the lack of two- or three-player simultaneous beast-busting is a serious drawback. The level designs are very simple and uninspired, with an odd amount of backtracking required to finish each one. Soul Fighter is by no means original, but it does deliver a limbic system thrill, like a plotless, yet alluringly action-heavy, Jean-Claude Van Damme film. --Jeff Young Pros: Two buttons can unleash a varied and impressive amount of fighting Great frame rates and animation Easy to pick up, arcade-style gameplay Cons: Motion sickness- inducing camera movement Replayability reduced by lack of multiplayer mode Tediously drawn-out intro movie