Fight N Rage is a 2D beat ’em up set in a world where humanity is overthrown by animal mutants. We play as one of three distinct characters, all trying to stop the human genocide by taking down the mutant leader. One of the things that separate this from so many other games from the genre is the number of branching paths. Right from the get-go, you are given a choice to try and help a city that has just been bombed then invaded, or decide to hightail it right out of there to attempt to save your own skin. This aspect, alongside the three unique characters that possess their own fighting styles vastly increases the replay value.
Whatever your choices may be, you will inevitably have to take on the hoards of enemy mutants that are wreaking havoc everywhere. To do this, you can punch, grab, dodge, and put your character’s unique abilities to good use with a simple three-button control scheme. It is an easy control scheme but has quite a bit to depth to it as you learn to air juggle, throw an enemy into crowds, or keep your combos going. I found it pretty strange that the tutorial mode, which teaches one to play the game properly is locked away until you get enough gold to unlock it.
Gold is earned by merely raking in points. Every 500 points convert to 1 gold upon your death. It sounds like a tiny amount, though will see you rake up a good amount reasonably quickly. As an example, unlocking the tutorial costs 100 gold which will only take you a couple of minutes of gameplay to collect. Points are not only earned by beating up mutants, but also by other factors like finishing a stage without losing a life, the amount of time it took, and your max combo. I started talking about this scoring system so early on because every 50k will extend your overall health and net you an extra life, both being extremely handy as this game gets brutal later on.
With no online coop, you will be on your own unless you have some mates and extra controllers to go around. You start off with two lives, and it is incredibly stingy when it comes to giving out health items. Finishing a level will recover any lost health, so it is always a great relief when you manage to take down that stage’s boss with even a sliver of your life bar intact. Each of the three characters has their own quirks and specialties. Gal is focused on air and crowd control. Norris is best when it comes to fighting a few opponents at a time to deal big damage. And finally, you have the traitor mutant, Ricardo. An enormous bull with a measly three hit combo, but massive weight behind his punches.
All of the characters have much more quirks to them, like Ricardo’s inability to run or Gal’s short range. There are some weapons to mix things up like knives and boomerangs, though they are infrequent and the focus is mainly on unarmed combat. You will be faced with a wide variety of foes ranging from flies to luchador cheetahs. Like the main characters, all of them have their own fighting styles and specific dangers associated with facing them you will no doubt learn about after taking a flying knee to the face. Or being combo’d for half of your health bar. With how many enemies you will typically find yourself fighting at once, knowing what they are capable of and when to act is vital to survival.
If possible, you should try to overkill your enemies and keep your combo going even if they are already defeated. Doing so will see them satisfyingly explode into a pile of bones and net you a cool 500 points for your efforts. Should you find yourself on the receiving end of a beating and losing all your lives, the penalty is that your score will be reset and health bar returns to the standard smaller size. In return, you are given two lives and returned to the last zone you’ve entered, in which there are usually quite a few in a single level. That will change once you start reaching the end game. Once you make your way to the appropriately named Death Island, you will henceforth be expected to be able to make it through vast swathes of hostile land before being given a checkpoint.
You have an infinite amount of continues, so you can eventually brute force an area that gives you trouble with enough determination. A better idea, in my opinion, is to back out and purchase the training mode to learn some fighting mechanics you may have had no idea existed. It auto-saves before every level, meaning you’ll be able to jump back in with a fresh heap of knowledge using the same character you had. Alternatively, you could say bugger that, purchase the Easy difficulty and replay it on that if you so choose. There is even an unlockable that lets you fight alongside some CPU controlled allies making things far easier, though at the cost of a whopping 1k of gold to unlock that feature.
With how many endings, characters, and branching paths there are, money won’t really be a problem as you constantly replay it. The length of each run will depend on both the choices you make and your skills. I wouldn’t call the story behind it great by any stretch of the imagination, yet the situations you find yourself in certainly are. On any given run, you will miss out on great deals of possible scenarios like duking it out on the back of a semi-truck or kicking up a storm in a fancy club. Fight N Rage constantly tries to shake things up from the usual, lending it an unpredictable feel where you are excited to see what comes next.
The game defaults to a retro styled look with a CRT effect and scan-lines. It looks pretty authentic, but I immediately turned it off due to personal tastes. It would be quite the shame to hide the beautifully detailed backgrounds behind these effects too, as they are a real treat for the eyes. Everything from the punk looking rats to the continually changing environments looks fantastic. Equally the star of the show is the kickass soundtrack backing the entire experience and pumping you up to pummel all of your foes. It is extremely impressive that Fight N Rage was only made by one guy and a composer for the music. There was a ton of care put into every aspect of it ranging from the gameplay to its many references.
Another use for your hard earned cash is to buy one of many other enemy characters that can be used in other modes. You have a Score Attack that tasks you with raking up as many points as possible within a given time. Time Attack similarly makes you see how quickly you can reach the end of a long line of enemies. Survival is exactly what it sounds like, and finally, you have Battle Mode, in where you fight one on one against your friends or the CPU. None of the enemy characters have move-sets as in-depth as the primary three, though are a great deal of fun to mess around with. I will one day beat Ricardo with my humble, boxing fly.
On top of all that, you have a ton of cool costumes to unlock for the three original characters. You need to meet certain conditions for most, like getting an A rank in Time Attack or similar objectives, giving you plenty to work towards. Fight N Rage is just jam-packed with content, which wouldn’t mean much if it wasn’t also a fantastic game that will quickly see you burn through many hours and leave your thumb feeling like its on fire. As old school as it may look, it doesn’t restrict itself to simply emulating games of the past, it implements a ton of features and pulse-pounding madness around every corner to improve upon the genre. Needless to say, I highly recommend Fight N Rage for anyone that is up to the challenge.
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