Girl Fight

The last time I remember even thinking of a Girl Fight was probably back in the days of high school. These fights were often ferocious with hair and harsh insults being pulled and thrown everywhere. So when I first heard of the new XBLA title my mind automatically jumped to a mix of scantily clad woman, a la foxy boxing, and the hair tugging bonanza of girls fighting in school. It’s not particularly helpful to Google the name to find information without the prefix/suffix of ‘game, by the way. I now know, though, there is a little less hair pulling and far more real fighting.

Girl Fight is brought to you by Kung Fu Factory – a rather fitting name for a seasoned developer in the realm of fighting games. With experience on some of the 3D Mortal Kombat games and more recently MMA games the guys at Kung Fu Factory have dabbled in the genre to the extent that they know a little about bashing each other’s brains in.

Girl Fight is reminiscent of the Dead or Alive franchise if it was mandatory for every fighter to have a massive pair of double DDs that don’t quite fit in to each fighter’s sibling’s top. The fighting plays out very similar to Dead or Alive – the sidestepping and parry system especially. Yet it feels like they haven’t quite mastered the ideas behind it. Even something as simple as a double input doesn’t quite see the light of day. It might be something to do with copyright or not wanting to seem like they had completely ripped off several other 3D fighters, but using the grab button and a direction seemed a little off. Most of the time I would opt for a parry instead of the block because #YOLO and it seemed like a better payoff. It feels like buttons have been thrown into the fray without sticking to convention or even best practise, and as time goes on it becomes more confusing.

You will find it hard to connect with Girl Fight; you really just don’t feel involved.

Where the fighting does innovate is in the special powers you can select for your fighters. Be it a meter drain special or a damage focused one, it’s something that has been lost in fighting since CvS2 and it is nice to see a return even if it doesn’t quite match up. After unlocking the full set of powers you also have the opportunity to choose between Max, Ex, and Normal. A series of varying strengths that are all meter dependent. Naturally those using more meter are a far stronger version of those without. At this point there is a great deal of mind games and counter picking involved as it might be beneficial to sacrifice your chose power for a meter drain power to prevent your opponent ever reaching full meter and literally knocking your block off. It’s definitely something worth checking out even if it is to go all out and pick two max powers.

Although there are varying designs to levels you struggle to feel a part of the scenery and there is very little visual impact. This issue largely develops from the circular rings you find yourself contained in, far removed from the actual scenery, and a less than satisfactory soundtrack. Couple that with the rather unenthusiastic, and dare I say ‘text to speech’ narrator. You will find it hard to connect with Girl Fight; you really just don’t feel involved.

For everything Girl Fight does right there is more than a niggle here and there. I couldn’t immerse myself in the action like I have done with so many other fighting games before. It just felt bland. An unfortunate outcome for a game that does try and do a couple of things differently. It’s by no means a bad game, it just isn’t a great game.