Capcom has a long tradition of producing some of the best fighting games
available. Most everyone knows about the Street Fighter franchise, but
Capcom is also responsible for the many comic related fighting games such as
Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Capcom vs.
Marvel Super Heroes. A while back, Capcom released a puzzle game that was,
as a lot of puzzle games are, loosely based on Tetris. This game was Super
Puzzle Fighter. Super Puzzle Fighter also contained a little extra something
that hadn't been found in any other puzzle game up until it's release. That
little extra something was the inclusion of miniature versions of some of
Capcom's greatest fighting game characters, many of which came from the
various Street Fighter and Darkstalkers games, as well as a little known
Capcom game called Red Earth. As you eliminated pieces and progressed through
the game, the little characters at the bottom on the screen would fight it out.
It was the first game that had melded a fighting and puzzle game together into
one game. What does this have to do with Pocket Fighter you might ask? Well,
those little versions of Capcom fighting game characters were popular enough
that they got a game of their own, that being Pocket Fighter.
Graphically, Pocket Fighter looks a lot like many of Capcom's other 2D hand
drawn fighters. It sports sharp, colorful graphics and nicely done backgrounds.
The music and sound effects in Pocket Fighter are very cutesy, but that's
perfectly appropriate as both go well with the cutesy theme of the game. The
area where Pocket Fighter really shines though is its unique gameplay and
accompanying features.
Pocket Fighter contains so many interesting and original options that it's
hard to know where to start, but I think I'll begin with the main screen. The
first thing you'll notice upon booting up Pocket Fighter is the main title
screen, which prompts you to select either "Pocket Fighter" or "Edit Fighter".
The "Pocket Fighter" option will take you to the Battle Select screen where
you can choose Arcade Battle, Free Battle, Running Battle, Training, or Option.
Most everyone is familiar with all of those modes except for Running Battle and
Free Battle. Running Battle pits you against a continuous stream of twelve
opponents. Each match is one round, and your depleted strength is restored after
each successful victory based on the quantity of gems in your possession or how
quickly you dispatched your opponent. Also, your Mighty Combo gauge and your
accumulated items go with you into each successive round. Once your energy bar
is completely drained, the game ends. Free Battle is a two-player mode in which
player one and player two choose a character and fight it out. Each time both
players fight, they get to choose their character, and at the end of each fight
the L1 button can be held down to automatically choose the same character in the
same stage. This is referred to as "quick continue". Both players can use the
same character in Free Battle Mode, and handicaps for either player can be set.
You're also allowed to select the stage of your choice, game speed, and the rules.
It's basically a Versus Mode with some bells and whistles.
Edit Fighter, as you might've guessed, lets you pick any character in the game
and in essence edit them. You pick a character, and the computer will ask you a
series of ten questions, all of which I found trite. In any case, based upon your
answers, attributes for your character will be assessed. You can also name and
customize your character as well as use it in various battle modes.
All of the adjustable options in the Options Mode are standard fare, with a
few exceptions. The "M. Combo Gauge" option can be set from one through nine,
and is applicable in the Free Battle and Training Modes. The "Gem Gauge" allows
you to control the amount of gems that will be present during the game, and can
be set from one to three. Many of you are probably wondering exactly what role
these gems play, so I'll explain. You can get gems one of several ways during
gameplay. Either when you hit your opponent or when you hit treasure chests that
pop up on the ground. There are also many different colors of gems, and each color
correlates to a certain attack.
Pocket Fighter has some other features, such as Flash Combo's and Guard Crush,
but I don't think I need to simply regurgitate the instruction book. If you're a
fighting game fan, and you're looking for something a little bit funny, a little
bit kooky, but still solid all the way around, give Pocket Fighter a try, you'll
definitely get a lot of laughs and probably have fun in the process.
