Fighting Force

Fighting Force (known in Japan as: Metal Fist) is a 1997 3D beat 'em up developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive in the same lines of classics such as Final Fight and Streets of Rage. It was released for the PlayStation, Windows and Nintendo 64.

The game was originally devised by Core Design as Streets of Rage 4 to be published by Sega exclusively for the Sega Saturn. Sega pulled the Streets of Rage name during development after a disagreement with Core about porting it to rival formats.

Overview
Fighting Force is part of the 'beat 'em up' genre. Players control one of four characters. They move through urban and science fiction environments, battling waves of oncoming enemies with weapons ranging from fists and bottles to knives, chairs and guns. The player can make some choices as to which territory to travel through.

The four characters have various reasons for taking on Dr. Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command. The action starts with a police cordon around Zeng's office skyscraper, moving to such locales as a shopping mall, subway and Coast Guard base before finally ending at the top of Zeng's island headquarters.

Characters
The player or players can choose from a selection of four characters. The playable characters are Hawk Manson (age 26), Mace Daniels (age 21), Ben "Smasher" Jackson (age 29), and Alana McKendricks (age 17). Hawk Manson and Mace Daniels are two all-around characters. Hawk is somewhat stronger than Mace who is in turn faster than Hawk. Ben "Smasher" Jackson is a large and slow bruiser capable of lifting and throwing the engines of cars at enemies. Alana McKendricks is a fast but soft-hitting teenager with an effective jump-kick.

All four characters have a special move that can be performed with the loss of a portion of health.

Ports and Sequels
A Nintendo 64 version of the game titled Fighting Force 64 and published by Crave Entertainment was released in North America and Europe in 1999. Insignificant version differences include partially improved graphics and changes in the available number of player lives.