Review: Girl Fight

Posted by angelcruz2241991 on November 3rd, 2013 | 0 Comments | Tags: Girl Fight , Kung Fu Factory

I haven’t enjoyed fighting games until very recently. Before NeatherRealm’s reboot of Mortal Kombat, I never really enjoyed them. Mortal Kombat made me appreciate the depth of fighting games and how much content and fun they had. So when I got Girl Fight for review, I couldn’t wait to check out all it had in store for me. But did it live up
to all my expectations?

Well, kind of. Girl Fight is a 3D arena fighter, so it controls almost exactly like Virtua Fighter or Dead or Alive. If you are new to 3D fighting games, it is the same as a 2D fighting game, but with an added dimension so that you can sidestep forwards and backwards to dodge attacks or flank your opponents. Each character has a punch, kick, throw, and block. All the controls work well, and with no noticeable lag or latency.

Girl Fight’s power bar system is definitely a highlight of the game, and something that sets it apart. When beating down on your opponents, you build up Psi. The Psi you get allows you to use power-ups that you equip on your character. You start out with three, and you can unlock more by earning the game’s cash and purchasing new Psi power-ups in the store. What I like the most about this system is that power-ups are not tied to one character. If you like the Heartbreak power-up, for example, you can use that on every character you play with. All the power-ups are interesting and actually add another strategy to the game. I liked all of them, and thought it was a definite plus to the game.

To buy those power-ups, you have to visit the in-game store. In here, you can buy all sorts of things, from power-ups to skins for your characters. To earn money to buy things with (or CB) you simply complete challenges. The challenges range from winning a match with only punches, to getting a perfect on a match. These are fun to try to achieve, and add a little replay value to the game, even though there isn’t much to purchase in the store.

In Girl Fight, you have 8 different fighters to play as. As you probably picked up from the title already, they are all girls. Each character has her own combos and fighting style. You have your fast characters who do a little damage and can get around the arena quickly, and your bulky, tank characters who do lots of damage, but get around slowly. It adds good variety between fighters, but sadly there are only eight characters to play as. For a fighting game, that is a very low number of fighters. I really wish there was more content; 8 characters just isn’t enough.

Speaking of not having a lot of content, Girl Fight is extremely lacking in its other departments as well. There is an arcade mode, which also acts as the story mode. In the story, you pick one of the characters to play as, and it tells you that they are trying to escape the evil clutches of the Foundation. It really doesn’t give you much else, unless you buy some of the characters with CB in the in-game store. Even with that, the story doesn’t play a big part in the game, and is actually pretty confusing. So basically, it’s still just an arcade mode. There is a regular quick fight mode, where you can play against another local player, a computer player, or just watch two other computer players duke it out for your enjoyment. A training room is also included, where you can practice your combos against a computer player. Finally, there is an online mode. In my couple of times searching for a match I only found one player online. Upon joining the match, it was laggy to the point where it was unplayable. So basically, not counting the dead online mode, there are only 3 modes to play. This makes the game very boring because you’ll be doing the same things over and over again.

Technically, Girl Fight holds up fairly well. Everything in the game looks nice, but if you look at it a little closer you can notice the jagged outlines of the characters. The arenas are varied, and each has its own visual flair. I did notice a bit of lag when playing the game, and it the frame-rate seemed slow overall, especially for a fighting game. It bothered me a little bit, as fighting games require twitch reactions in most situations which a slow frame-rate can mess up sometimes. The sound is suitable and enjoyable in the game. During the arcade mode, there is one voice actor doing a Siri-like voice, which sounded pretty good. Dubstep blasts in the background during fights. Having that type of music in the game fits well.

All in all, Girl Fight is a decent fighting game. The controls are solid, and the gameplay is fun, but it did get boring after a while. There isn’t too much replay value. The graphics and sound are good, but I experienced some lag at times, and there aren’t a lot of characters either. In the end, Girl Fight’s negatives outweigh its positives, and with games like DOA and Virtua Fighter on the market, I would recommend those over Girl Fight.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. This review is for the Playstation 3 version of the game. For more info on our review policy click here.

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