The Spirit Fighters 2000 [ザ・スピリットファイターズ 2000] Game Sample - PC/Doujin
Another day, another random rarity. "The Spirit Fighters 2000" is a game by the long defunct Doujin circle, IS-SOFT, and footage of it has more or less been lost for over 20 years. Originally released in, well, 2000, it is an abstract fighting game made with the "2D Fighter Maker 95" engine that is a spoof of SNK's "The King of Fighters 2000" but with FM95's general mechanics at work with Arcade-style zoom and the like. I'll start by saying it doesn't look or sound too great and as a rare commercial FM95 release, my expectations are a smidgen higher than some of the others, but there are at least a few interesting takeaways from my time with this game and a few things honestly worth salvaging. I recently picked it up at auction and, well, that was that.
The game combines three different types of character designs described as "anime" (which is actually animated or live-action), CG (polygonal) and original (anime-ish 2D characters). "Anime" characters make up half of the roster and are digitized motion-captured characters who bear a goofy resemblance to the characters that they are trying to resemble with names that gently caress copyright laws and they are the only voiced characters. "Original" characters make up the other half of the roster and are just as they sound; characters who, while being inspired by various themes, are not based directly on any existing fighting property, though there's some interesting guest characters such as Sammy's "Pachinko Sexy Reaction" Yuika Kimishima (called Yuina here). Lastly, "CG" is a special outlier character who is in the game "just because" and is fairly under-developed. The game also advertises "character balance", but I found no such thing while playing; while every character is usable, I'd be remiss in saying that a few characters have an overwhelming advantage compared to others, but I digress.
TSF2000 has a four-button primary attack scheme (two punches, two kicks) with most characters having a taunt button as well as a multi-button which serves the primary purpose of calling in strikers more easily... wha? Strikers? Yeah, this game has those too, and each character has a standard striker and "Another Striker", which is one more nod to KoF2000. While unique in the scope of FM titles, they are not integrated particularly well, but a few of them are kinda interesting at the very least in context, like, I can imagine their utility if given free reign in a different fighting game or engine. To summon the other striker, you have to hold back while pressing the multi button. With two strikers each and a main cast of thirteen fighters which is a decent sized roster for a Doujin work, almost 40 characters are introduced in some form or fashion. Most characters can link light and strong attacks in succession without too much difficulty and many characters have multiple special moves, super moves, or special actions to take advantage of.
For what it's worth, Meel and Mika are pretty cool (though Mika is one of the most broken characters) and the game couldn't be complete without them as you can never have enough over-powered magical girls or bunny girls with sentient armor. This is a video of the game in action with a basic character segment attached at the end. It can be found at:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/dxedyr...
Enjoy.
ADDITION -
Like Us On Facebook: / thegamingsanctuary
Follow Us On Twitter: / gs_vyse_and_bel
Visit Us At: http://www.gamingsanctuary.com