If you’re a fighting game fan of a certain age, then Poly Fighter is going to hit you right in the nostalgia. At least, it did for me. I’m not a hardcore fighting fan, but I do like to dabble, and that was even more so the case back in the ’90s.
During the early days of mainstream 3D gaming, fighting games were in an interesting place and competing with 2D games that looked fantastic and retained significant complexity, thanks to being carefully tuned to the hardware of the time. 3D fighters came along and, naturally, things started to play out a little differently.
I still vividly remember discovering Virtua Fighter, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Dynasty Warriors (this was before the series turned into a hack-and-slash). I also need to shout out to FX Fighter, which I played obsessively for a year or so back in the mid-90s. It was a good time.
So, having established my credentials as someone who has played more than his fair share of old-school polygonal fighting games, I want to tell you about an Early Access game that launched yesterday.
Our Early Access Contender: Poly Fighter
As you’ll have no doubt deduced from that overly verbose introduction, Poly Fighter is a new roguelite that calls back to the classics of the 3D fighting genre.
The first thing that grabbed me was the graphics, which spoke to my soul. The clunky-but-cool visuals look great – retro but still somehow contemporary – and everything I’ve seen of the game so far is reverent to the masters in a way that pleases me.
This is a roguelike game, however, so unlike an old-school arcade mode with endless continues, that means short runs, variable builds, and getting your ass kicked a lot. You follow a campaign with your selected character, starting with Hiro, and then take on new fighters, learning their moves and sharpening your own along the way.
It’s not just all brawling either; there are challenge events throughout, such as the levels where you have to smash a certain number of barrels in a limited time, on your way through the campaign towards the boss battle at the end.
Of course, as you progress, you can change and upgrade your fighter with new special moves, and some are much sillier than others (for example, in my last run I learned how to throw a load of pineapples at my enemies). These moves are mapped to your existing controls, and it’s not long before your basic moves are infused with special powers.
Press Continue?
Poly Fighter has only just entered Early Access, and there’s work to do, especially in terms of balancing and refining everything they’ve already done based on the incoming flood of player data. That said, I can only imagine how tricky balancing must be in a game like this, and I’m also not ruling out my own skill issues as being the main blocker for progress. It has, after all, been a long time since I tried to learn a game like this.
There’s quite a lot to learn too, with 16 fighters already on the roster, and hundreds of moves, perks, and upgrades to master as you play. There are three modes at launch too, so if you prefer to tone things down and keep them light, there’s a cosy mode for retired/lapsed fighters like me (I’ve not tried it yet, but it’s next on my list).
Having said that, despite being well out of practice, I absolutely enjoyed my first rounds sparring with Poly Fighter, and I’ll definitely be back to see if HeartLoop Games can turn this contender into a true champion. I think they’ve got a fighting chance of doing it, too.
