Fighting Street

~ FIGHTING STREET ~

Hudson Soft / Capcom

CD-ROM

1989

Ah, good old Fighting Street, the first TGCD game. I didn't buy it back then. In fact, having never been too interested in it, I didn't buy it, period. But one day it showed up as a surprise freebie inside my Kabuki Den case. The PC Engine gods clearly wished to deliver misfortune upon my home that miserable day.

But first, the good stuff. Well, the voices are horrible enough to be somewhat amusing. And some of the backgrounds don't look all that bad. I like the British countryside in Eagle's stage.

But it's all awful after that. The fighters are large but look terrible...

...while the bonus rounds are jokes.

But the worst part would have to be the controls. No matter how many fighting games you've conquered and how many quarter-circle moves you've performed throughout your gaming career, you'll have a tough time getting Ryu to pull off his trademark techniques with any sort of consistency. The thing that saved me is that the special moves, in the rare instances that the game actually lets you perform and connect with them, do lots of damage. Two or three will put an opponent down for the count. So I just kept inputting the required button combinations and prayed for a couple of successful attempts before my energy was gone. No, this isn't much fun, but it's about the only way to get by in this game.

FS is easily the worst PCE fighting game. If you don't already own it, avoid it. If you receive it for free, ship it back to the sender.