Game:

Burning Rival (1993)

Duration: 6:17

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Burning Rival is a fairly mediocre fighting game released in Japan in 1993 (1992) by Sega, and was the first fighting game developed by Sega's AM2 division before Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers. While it's worth noting that Yu Suzuki didn't take part in the game's production, it doesn't necessarily justify the game's poor programming, sloppy gameplay mechanics, unappealing characters and backdrops, and overall presentation. Its one standout feature is the distinct character animations provided by Zero-One Ltd. As a whole, the game is a typical 2D fighting game competing against the ever-popular Street Fighter II by Capcom, which really popularized the genre.

"The game's plot takes place in a fictional city located in central Canada known as "Destiny City," a midsized American metropolis. Once every few years, strong fighters gather here and hold a violent, secret no-holds-barred fighting spree. This year, too, a group of extraordinary fighters gathered, sick of fighting by the rules. Some coveted the titled of "World's Strongest," while others dreamt of acquiring vast wealth. Things in Destiny City heated up before the tournament began."

The biggest thing that makes the game fail against its competitors is poor collision detection and relatively little character balance as far as special moves are concerned. For example, the "main" character, Arnold, is very overpowered with powerful stunning uppercuts and sweeping attacks and the "main" antagonist, Shingen, has a lightning fast killer two-hit sword combo that comes out of nowhere with crazy speed and reach. Outside of that, characters have moves with huge delays where a person can easily counter or throw while the opponent is in mid-frame, and some characters can negate attacks if they use certain attacks of their own (?). There is also a "Finishing Blow" segment if a character is defeated with a light attack, but I'm not sure if there is any real significance to it. Even the music isn't particularly good and the sound effects are pretty unrealistic (why's it make a sort of metallic clank when characters block attacks?).

The game seemed like a good idea probably half way through development, but it seemed almost like they got to a point where they had to abandon the game or rush it to a state of completion as to not waste the resources they pooled into it... seems like they did the latter, though the unreleased "Burning Fists: Force Striker" (also by Sega) had more potential than this and did the former. If you want to see a video of Burning Fists in action, we have it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WozCn23g-wo

Oh well... not every game can be an absolute gem, right? At least it was AM2's first fighting game effort. It's not totally abysmal... but I wouldn't play it more than once or twice. This is a video of the game in action.

"Concentrate! Focus power!"

Enjoy.