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Review: Dark Rift |
The Nintendo 64 has had a bad reputation for awful to mildly great fighters since its release date, albeit Killer Instinct Gold has been one of the greatest fighting game in the Nintendo 64 arsenal. Vic Tokai, the makers of the 32 bit Criticom game released over one and a half year ago comes to the Nintendo 64 to clean up its reputation for bad or below average fighting games. Well Vic, you were close, but not close enough.
Lets take a look at where this game shines shall we? The game has a strong repertoire of sound effects with loud “thumps” and “thungs”. Powerful hits are felt as the characters cry in agony and pain, the announcer’s voice however, leave you asking for more. The character voices as they perform certain special moves are also a big let down with some pathetic and tin canned voice overs. The music in Dark Rift will not leave any memorable tunes in your cranium as a game like Killer Instinct Gold could. You have your average techno/rock music that are nearly mirrored in other stages.
Controlling your character in Dark Rift is a another feast of its own. The special moves are easy to perform but the combo engine in this game is odd to say the least. Performing combos is a step above and beyond and it will take real die hard fighting game puritist (like all of you and ourselves are :) ) to perform them. Honestly though, it takes multiple hours of work and frustration to string together a descent amount of hits. Contrary to what other people may say, this game plays NOTHING like Killer Instinct Gold and comparing DR to such a game is one of the most absurd thing a person can do. Sure this game contains combo breakers and a couple of Killer Instinct elements but never does it feel like you are playing KI. Play control was what hurt Criticom in the first place and Vic Tokai has fallen into the same death hole.
Graphically, Dark Rift is an impressive game as far as special effects and animation is concerned. All characters move very smooth unlike Vic Tokai’s Criticom game. There is a steady 60fps count, a first for all Nintendo 64 games. This game chews Wargods and spits it out for overall 3D quality. The backgrounds and gameplay arenas are not true 3D though. Like Tekken and other fighting games found on the 32 bit machines, Dark Rift is a polygonal fighter with 2D backdrops. All backgrounds look high tech with lots and lots of detail, but we just can not get over the fact that they are 2D. Isn’t this a 64 bit machine?
Overal Dark Rift is one of the better fighters on the Nintendo 64, but never better than Killer Instinct Gold or even Mortal Kombat Trilogy when it comes down to fast and furious fun. If you are in need of a 3D fighter for the Nintendo 64 give Wargods the boot and stick to the real thing. Believe us you wont be sorry.
- HardCore
